Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 31.djvu/59

 A Chapter of History. 51

11 Hail, Columbia," and proposed we should unite in the hope that our Columbia would soon be, once more, a happy land.

This and other kindred sentiments were duly honored in "frappe," and, after much pleasant intercourse, the party separated.

THE SURRENDER.

The succeeding hours were filled with a grave responsibility, which could not be evaded or shared. Circumstances had appointed me to watch the dying agonies of a cause that had fixed the attention of the world. To my camps, as the last refuge in the storm, came many members of the Confederate Congress. These gentlemen were urged to go, at once, to their respective homes, and by pre- cept and example teach the people to submit to the inevitable, obey the laws, and resume the peaceful occupations on which society de- pends. This advice was followed, and with excellent effect on public tranquility.

General Canby dispatched that his government disavowed the Johnston-Sherman Convention, and it would be his duty to resume hostilities. Almost at the same instant came the news of Johnston's surrender.

There was no more room for hesitancy. Folly and madness com- bined would not have justified an attempt to prolong a hopeless contest.

General Canby was informed that I desired to meet him for the purpose of negotiating a surrender of my forces, and that Commo- dore Farrand, commanding the armed vessels in the Alabama river, desired to meet Rear Admiral Thatcher for a similar purpose. Cit- ronville, some forty miles north of Mobile, was the appointed place, and there, in the early days of May, 1865, the great war virtually ended.

After this no hostile gun was fired, and the authority of the United States was supreme in the land.

Conditions of surrender were speedily determined, and of a char- acter to soothe the pride of the vanquished: Officers to retain side- arms, troops to turn in arms and equipments to their own ordnance officers, so of the quartermaster and commissary stores; the Con- federate cotton agent for Alabama and Mississippi to settle his ac- counts with the Treasury Agent of the United States; muster rolls to be prepared, etc., transportation to be provided for the men. All this under my control and supervision.

Here a curious incident may be mentioned. At an early period