Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/277

Rh treat resulted in the reduction of his army by the 9th of April to about 10,000 men, with which small force he essayed to cut through toward Lynchburg, and that last recourse becoming futile, this remnant of a great army was surrendered by the noble chieftain whom all nations admire and revere. The terms of the surrender were highly honorable to General Grant, the victorious Federal general, and greatly promoted the rapid cessation of the long, bloody, costly struggle. The armies parted in mutual respect, and notwithstanding there were other forces in the field, the conviction was settled in the public mind that the Confederate movement had been effectually checked. Over twenty small engagements occurred after the battle of Appomattox in various parts of the Confederacy, but none was important. General Johnston surrendered his forces, April 26th, to General Sherman in North Carolina, and Gen. Kirby Smith surrendered the Trans-Mississippi department on the 26th of May. President Lincoln was murdered by an assassin on the 14th of April—an untimely death, deplored, not only South and North, but throughout the civilized world. President Davis, well worthy of the high honors which are paid to his memory, in attempting to reach the West beyond the Mississippi, was captured and imprisoned, but afterward released. Trial on the indictment against him could not result in conviction. The presidency of the United States passed, under the provisions of the Constitution, to Andrew Johnson. The Confederate States government ceased to exist. Serious errors were committed by Washington politicians, in reconstruction policies that fostered feeling which could have been easily allayed by wiser action, and notwithstanding Southern protestations and proof of fidelity to the faithful recognition of the real results of the war, it required the struggle with Spain, after the passing of a generation, to bring to the States of the Confederacy a just recognition of their true attitude toward the Union.