Confederate President Jefferson Davis had selected Vice President Alexander Stephens, Assistant Secretary of War John A. Campbell, and Senate President Robert M.T. Hunter to meet with Federal officials and discuss ending the war. They were given a letter to present to the Federal authorities requesting a meeting to discuss “securing peace to the two countries.”
At the Petersburg trenches near the mine crater, Confederates raised a flag of truce as buglers sounded a parley. The envoys headed between the lines and reached Federal pickets from Major-General John G. Parke’s Ninth Corps. They were escorted to the nearest ranking Federal officer, who knew nothing about their visit. When the envoys asked to speak with General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant, the officer cracked that he “was on a big drunk.” (Grant was actually at Wilmington planning an invasion of North Carolina.) The next ranking officer, Major-General George G. Meade, was at Philadelphia. This left Major-General Edward O.C. Ord, commanding the Army of the James.
Ord notified the War Department that the commissioners were there “in accordance with an understanding claimed to exist with Lt. Gen. Grant…” Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton wrote that Grant had not notified the department of any arrangement to bring Confederate officials across the lines. He directed Ord to keep the envoys there and sent Major Thomas T. Eckert, head of the War Department telegraph office, to meet with them.
President Abraham Lincoln instructed Eckert to listen to what the commissioners had to say, and then present them with his letter of January 18. Eckert was to ask the commissioners if they accepted his condition of “one common country” for peace talks, and then “receive their answer in writing, waiting a reasonable time for it.” If they accepted, Ord would be directed to let the envoys pass through the Federal lines, “without further condition.”
As the commissioners waited for Eckert, they conferred and decided that if they presented Davis’s letter insisting on two separate countries, negotiations would fail. They therefore drafted a new letter to present to Grant:
“Sir: We desire to pass your lines under safe conduct and to proceed to Washington to hold a conference with President Lincoln upon the subject of the existing war, and with a view of ascertaining upon what terms it may be terminated, in pursuance of the course indicated by him in his letter to Mr. F.P. Blair of January 18, 1865, of which we presume you have a copy; and if not, we wish to see you in person, and to confer with you upon the subject.”
Grant returned to his City Point headquarters unaware of either the envoys’ visit or Eckert’s impending arrival. He read the Confederates’ letter and allowed them through the lines to meet with him at his headquarters. Grant wrote, “Your letter to me has been telegraphed to Washington for instructions. I have no doubt but that before you arrive at my Headquarters an answer will be received directing me to comply with your request.” When Grant forwarded the envoys’ letter to Washington, Lincoln replied that Eckert was on his way, and Grant was to cooperate with him.
Word quickly spread among the troops that Confederate dignitaries had come to possibly negotiate an end to the war. Men on both sides came out of their trenches and lined up to watch the envoys’ carriage pass down the Jerusalem Plank Road on its way to City Point. Ladies of Petersburg joined with the Confederates to watch the procession. Meade, recently returned from Philadelphia, wrote his wife, “Our men cheered loudly, and the soldiers on both sides cried out lustily, ‘Peace! Peace!’” An artillerist wrote:
“Cheer upon cheer was given, extending for some distance to the right and left of the lines, each side trying to cheer the loudest. ‘Peace on the brain’ appeared now to have spread like a contagion. Officers of all grades, from lieutenants to major generals, were to be seen flying in all directions to catch a glimpse of the gentlemen who were apparently to bring peace so unexpectedly.”
The carriage stopped at the Federal line, where the envoys got out and climbed into waiting ambulances to take them the rest of the way. The Confederates gave three cheers for the Federals, after which both sides gave three cheers for the Petersburg ladies. As the ambulances disappeared from view, the ladies went back to town and the soldiers returned to their positions in the trenches, hopeful that the war would end soon.
The three commissioners met with Grant and Meade on the night of the 31st, where they discussed ways to end the war. Stephens told the generals that he hoped to arrange an armistice before talking peace. Meade told him that “any proposal based on a suspension of hostilities would not be received” by Lincoln unless it would lead to reunion. Grant hoped the commissioners might be flexible on this point. As Grant recalled:
“It was about dark when they (the commissioners) reached my headquarters, and I at once conducted them to the steamer Mary Martin, a Hudson River boat which was very comfortably fitted up for the use of passengers… For my own part I never had admitted, and never was ready to admit, that they were the representatives of a government. There had been too great a waste of blood and treasure to concede anything of the kind. As long as they remained there, however, our relations were pleasant and I found them all very agreeable gentlemen… I had never met either of these gentlemen before the war, but knew them well by reputation and through their public services, and I had been a particular admirer of Mr. Stephens.”
Grant could do nothing more for the envoys until Eckert arrived. Grant assured them that if they were not given safe passage to Washington, he would see to it that they were safely returned to their own lines.
Back in Washington, Lincoln anticipated that Eckert would get a positive response and so he directed Secretary of State William H. Seward to follow Eckert down to Virginia to negotiate “on the basis of my letter to F.P. Blair, Esq., on Jan. 18, 1865.” Seward was to tell the envoys that “three things are indispensable” for peace:
- First, “the restoration of the national authority throughout all the States.”
- Second, “no receding, by the Executive of the United States on the Slavery question” as Lincoln had declared in his latest annual message to Congress “and in preceding documents.”
- Third, “no cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war, and the disbanding of all forces hostile to the government.”
Seward would then inform the men that “all propositions of theirs not inconsistent with the above, will be considered and passed upon in a spirit of sincere liberality.” Seward was not “to definitely consummate anything,” but instead report to Lincoln what the envoys “may choose to say.” Lincoln issued passes for the envoys to go through the Federal lines to Fort Monroe and meet with Seward, but only if Eckert’s interview proved favorable. Eckert would arrive on the afternoon of February 1.
Bibliography
- Catton, Bruce, Grant Takes Command. Open Road Media, Kindle Edition, 2015.
- Catton, Bruce and Long, E.B. (ed.), Never Call Retreat: Centennial History of the Civil War Book 3. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc. (Kindle Edition), 1965.
- Foote, Shelby, The Civil War, A Narrative: Red River to Appomattox. New York: Vintage Civil War Library, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group (Kindle Edition), 2011.
- Goodwin, Doris Kearns, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005.
- Grant, Ulysses S., Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant. New York: Da Capo Press, 1982 (original 1885, republication of 1952 edition).
- Harris, William C., “The Hampton Roads Peace Conference: A Final Test of Lincoln’s Presidential Leadership.” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, Vol. 21, Issue 1, 2000.
- Korn, Jerry, Pursuit to Appomattox: The Last Battles. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1983.
- Long, E.B. with Long, Barbara, The Civil War Day by Day. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1971.
- McFeely, William S., Grant. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1981.
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