Lincoln's Last Days: April 2, 1865
On April 2, 1865 (150 years ago today) the Battle of Petersburg continued, with the Union confident of victory. That morning General Ulysses Grant telegraphed the President, stating "The battle now rages furiously. All now looks highly favorable." At 2 P.M. Lincoln relayed a report from Grant to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, which read: "We are now closing around the works of the line immediately enveloping Petersburg. All looks remarkably well."
Lincoln had moved from the River Queen to the USS Malvern, the flagship of Admiral David Porter's fleet. Later in the day he went ashore in barge ordered by Porter. He then rode out to entrenchments near the battleground and watched the fighting for a short while. According to Doris Kearns Goodwin in Team of Rivals:
To reach Grant, who was waiting in "a comfortable-looking brick house with a yard in front" on Market Street in Petersburg, Lincoln had to ride over the battlefields, littered with dead and dying soldiers. Years later his bodyguard could recall the right of "one man with a bullet-hole through his forehead, and another with both arms shot away." As Lincoln observed the sorrowful scene, [bodyguard William] Crook noticed that "his face settled into its old lines of sadness." By the time he reached Grant, he had recovered himself. Grant's aide Horace Porter watched as Lincoln "dismounted in the street and came in through the front gate with long and rapid strides, his face beaming with delight. He seized General Grant's hand as the general stepped forward to greet him, and stood shaking it for some time." Lincoln showed such elation that Porter doubted whether he had "ever experienced a happier moment in his life."
Lincoln and his lieutenant general conferred about an hour and a half on the piazza in front of the house while curious citizens strolled by. While no word had arrived yet from Richmond, Grant surmised that with the fall of Petersburg, Lee had no choice but to evacuate the capital and move west along the Danville Road, hoping to escape to North Carolina, in which case the Federals would attempt to "get ahead of him and cut him off." Grant had hoped to receive word of Richmond's fall while still in the President's company, but when no message arrived, he felt compelled to join his troops in the field.
Lincoln was back at City Point when news reached him that Union troops commanded by General Weitzel had now occupied Richmond. "Thank God that I have lived to see this!" he remarked to Admiral Porter. "It seems to me that I have been dreaming a horrid dream for four years and now the nightmare is gone."
Lincoln had moved from the River Queen to the USS Malvern, the flagship of Admiral David Porter's fleet. Later in the day he went ashore in barge ordered by Porter. He then rode out to entrenchments near the battleground and watched the fighting for a short while. According to Doris Kearns Goodwin in Team of Rivals:
To reach Grant, who was waiting in "a comfortable-looking brick house with a yard in front" on Market Street in Petersburg, Lincoln had to ride over the battlefields, littered with dead and dying soldiers. Years later his bodyguard could recall the right of "one man with a bullet-hole through his forehead, and another with both arms shot away." As Lincoln observed the sorrowful scene, [bodyguard William] Crook noticed that "his face settled into its old lines of sadness." By the time he reached Grant, he had recovered himself. Grant's aide Horace Porter watched as Lincoln "dismounted in the street and came in through the front gate with long and rapid strides, his face beaming with delight. He seized General Grant's hand as the general stepped forward to greet him, and stood shaking it for some time." Lincoln showed such elation that Porter doubted whether he had "ever experienced a happier moment in his life."
Lincoln and his lieutenant general conferred about an hour and a half on the piazza in front of the house while curious citizens strolled by. While no word had arrived yet from Richmond, Grant surmised that with the fall of Petersburg, Lee had no choice but to evacuate the capital and move west along the Danville Road, hoping to escape to North Carolina, in which case the Federals would attempt to "get ahead of him and cut him off." Grant had hoped to receive word of Richmond's fall while still in the President's company, but when no message arrived, he felt compelled to join his troops in the field.
Lincoln was back at City Point when news reached him that Union troops commanded by General Weitzel had now occupied Richmond. "Thank God that I have lived to see this!" he remarked to Admiral Porter. "It seems to me that I have been dreaming a horrid dream for four years and now the nightmare is gone."