Popular Votes: 2,213,665 1,805,237
Percentage of total vote: 55% 45%
Percentage of soldiers’ vote: 78% 22%
Lincoln’s strong support from Union soldiers turned out to be a key to his victory. Winning seventy-eight percent of this vote is amazing when you think that soldiers were basically voting on whether or not to continue the war. They wanted peace more than anyone—but they also wanted to finish the job they had begun. As one Union soldier put it: “I had rather stay out here a lifetime, much as I dislike it, than consent to a division of our country.”
When the election results reached Grant’s army at Petersburg, the men broke out in loud cheers. Lee’s men heard the noise and called across the open space between enemy trenches:
Southern Soldier: Say, Yank!
Northern Soldier: Hello, Johnny!
Southern Soldier: Don’t fire, Yank.
Northern Soldier: All right, Johnny.
Southern Soldier: What are y’all cheering for?
Northern Soldier: Big victory on our side.
Southern Soldier: What is it, Yank?
Northern Soldier: Old Abe has cleaned all your fellers out up North.
Lincoln’s election was a crushing disappointment to the South. But Jefferson Davis was still committed to victory. “We will be free,” he vowed. “We will govern ourselves … if we have to see every Southern plantation sacked, and every Southern city in flames.”
Speaking of plantations and cities in flames …
Why the South Hates Sherman
A few weeks after the election, Dolly Lunt looked out the window of her plantation home in Georgia and saw a large group of Union soldiers marching toward her yard. As soon as they got there, the soldiers started stealing everything in sight.
“Like demons they rush in!” she wrote to a friend, “Breaking locks and whatever is in their way. The thousand pounds of meat in my smoke-house is gone in a twinkling, my flour, my meat, my lard, butter, eggs, pickles of various kinds … wine, jars, and jugs are all gone. My eighteen fat turkeys, my hens, chickens, and fowls, my young pigs, are shot down in my yard and hunted as if they were rebels themselves.”
She ran outside and found a Union officer and begged him for help.
He shrugged and said, “I cannot help you, madam, it is orders.”
Lunt watched helplessly as the soldiers rode off with her horses, mules, and sheep. And of course, slaves living on the plantation took the opportunity to escape.
This was all part of Sherman’s plan to end the war. After capturing Atlanta (and burning much of it to the ground) Sherman divided his army in two. He sent half of it, under General George Thomas, to chase after the Confederate army that had been defeated at Atlanta. Sherman personally led the other half on a march through Georgia, destroying farms, burning buildings, ripping up railroads. Sherman wanted to make it painfully clear to white Southern families that the Confederate army was no longer strong enough to protect them. He wanted to convince Southerners that it was foolish to continue supporting this war. “I can make the march,” he told Grant, “and make Georgia howl!”
Sherman knew this was a cruel way to fight, but he saw it as the best way to end the war:
“War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.”
William T. Sherman
With this idea in mind, Sherman led his army of 60,000 on a 285-mile march from Atlanta all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. For Union soldiers, this was like a vacation. With plenty to eat and no fighting to do, the men sang as they marched. One favorite song began: “We will hang Jeff Davis on a sour apple tree.”
The people in Sherman’s path, meanwhile, shook with rage. Eliza Andrews was shocked to see the blackened remains of buildings, and farm animals killed and left on the ground to rot. “The stench in some places was unbearable,” she said. “I almost felt as if I should like to hang a Yankee myself.”
Sherman’s army reached the sea in late December. He sent a quick telegram to President Lincoln, saying: “I beg to present you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah.”
Then he marched his army into South Carolina, the state where the Civil War began. “We will let her know that it isn’t so sweet to secede as she thought it would be,” said one Union soldier. And Sherman’s soldiers continued slicing a wide wound through the South.
Now you know why, to this day, one of the most, hated men in the southern United States is William Tecumseh Sherman.
Lincoln Looks Ahead
The war was not over yet. But in Washington, D.C., Abraham Lincoln and members of Congress were already making plans for Reconstruction—the long process of putting the country back together again. In January 1865, for example, Congress approved the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment forever banned slavery everywhere in the United States.
“I have felt, ever since the vote, as if I were in a new country,” said George Julian, a member of Congress from Indiana.
At his inauguration ceremony in March, Lincoln also looked to the future. As he often did so well, he put very big ideas into just a few words:
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Frederick Douglass was impressed by Lincoln’s words. Douglass, who had grown up in slavery, had seen amazing changes in his life. And now he did something that would have been unthinkable just a few years before. There would be a party that night at the White House to celebrate Lincoln’s inauguration. No African American had ever been invited to the president’s home. Douglass decided to go.
Things did not go smoothly.
“On reaching the door,” Douglass later said, “two policemen stationed there took me rudely by the arm and ordered me to stand back, for their directions were to admit no persons of my color.”
Douglass knew this order did not come from Lincoln. “I shall not go out of this building till I see President Lincoln,” he told the guards.
The argument continued until someone finally recognized Douglass and told the police to let him in. Douglass saw Lincoln standing inside, towering over a crowd of supporters.
“Here comes my friend Douglass,” Lincoln announced.
The men shook hands and had this conversation:
Lincoln: I’m glad to see you. I saw you in the crowd today, listening to my inaugural address; how did you like it?
Douglass: Mr. Lincoln, I must not detain you with my poor opinion, when there are thousands waiting to shake hands with you.
Lincoln: No, no, you must stop a little, Douglass; there is no man in the country whose opinion I value more than yours. I want to know what you think of it?
Douglass: Mr. Lincoln, that was a sacred effort.
Lincoln: I’m glad you liked it!
Lincoln and Douglass were looking forward to a better future. But the process of Reconstruction couldn’t really begin yet, for one simple reason. The South was still determined to win this war.
Empty Stomachs and Brave Hearts
That was going to be a problem.
After suffering through winter in their trenches in Petersburg, Lee’s army was growing weaker and weaker. The South was so short on metal to make weapons, soldiers were given rewards for chasing after Union bombs and bringing in pieces of them. The metal was then recycled into new weapons. But food remained the real problem. After months of hunger, soldiers simply could not continue to do their jobs. Their bodies began to break down, and they became dizzy and exhausted after just a few minutes of work.
To make things worse, many of Lee’s men were getting desperate letters from home. Families were running out of food too, and they begged their husbands and sons to come home and help. One sol
dier got a letter from his wife that began: “Edward, unless you come home we must die.”
Could you resist a letter like that? Thousands of men couldn’t, and in the early months of 1865, Lee’s army began to melt away.
On April 1, Lee decided his army was no longer strong enough to continue protecting Richmond. Lee had one last hope—march west and try to join up with what was left of Joseph Johnston’s army. Together, the armies might have enough men to continue fighting.
Lee’s men moved “with empty stomachs and brave hearts,” remembered Carlton McCarthy. Some soldiers actually slept as they walked. All that was left for food was dried-out corn meant for the horses. The men roasted the stuff and chewed it till their gums bled. They stumbled on, all the while being chased and bombed by Grant’s army.
Waking from the Nightmare
Back in Richmond, Agnes Pryor was sitting in church on April 2. She saw a messenger tiptoe up to Jefferson Davis. “A note was handed to President Davis.” she said. “He rose instantly, and walked down the aisle—his face set, so we could read nothing.”
Something was very wrong. And the news soon spread: Lee’s army was heading west. Richmond was wide open to Grant’s army.
Davis and the rest of the Confederate government packed up and rushed out of town. But first they destroyed everything they couldn’t carry—their remaining supplies of weapons and the Confederate ships in the harbor.
Before sunrise on April 3, Union soldiers near Richmond woke to the sounds of those weapons and ships blowing up. “We were startled by heavy explosions,” remembered an African American soldier named John C. Brock. “There was also a great light seen in the direction of Richmond, which led us to suppose there was something more than usual going on.”
A few hours later, Brock was among thousands of Union soldiers marching into a city out of control. “Richmond was literally a sea of flame,” one soldier said. Bombs were bursting in warehouses, sparks were shooting from ships on the river, bells were clanging, people were jumping out of burning buildings, and thieves were breaking out of jail and running around looting stores and homes. But the most amazing part of the scene was that black soldiers were among the first Union troops to march into the Confederate capital. Men and. women who had been slaves the day before lined the streets, shouting and cheering and crying. John C. Brock described the scene: “Old men and women, tottering on their canes, would make their way to a Union soldier, catch him by the hand, and exclaim, ‘Thank God, honey, that I have lived to see this day!’”
Lincoln felt the same. “Thank God I have lived to see this,” he said when he heard that Richmond had finally been captured. “It seems to me that I have been dreaming a horrid dream for four years, and now the nightmare is gone.” Then, as if to make sure the dream really was over, he said, “I want to see Richmond.”
Lincoln showed up the next day—though the ship of marines that was supposed to guard him got lost on the river. With only a few sailors for guards, he walked through the streets of Richmond. Freed African Americans cheered and sang, while white residents watched Lincoln from the windows of their homes. Lincoln continued two miles to the Confederate White House, went inside, and sat down in Jefferson Davis’s chair. Happy and exhausted, he turned to one of the sailors and said: “I wonder if I could get a glass of water?”
Meeting at Appomattox
On April 9, Lee’s small army reached the small town of Appomattox Court House. Grant soon had him surrounded. Lee had no choice now but to surrender. He put on a fancy new uniform and said: “There is nothing left for me to do but to go and see General Grant, and I would rather die a thousand deaths.”
The enemy generals agreed to meet at a nearby house. But unlike Lee, Grant didn’t think to change into a clean uniform. As he walked into the house, Grant noticed that his clothes were dusty and wrinkled. It was a little embarrassing. “In my rough traveling suit,” he said, “I must have contrasted very strangely with a man so handsomely dressed, six feet high and of faultless form.”
The whole meeting was fairly awkward. Lee and Grant began by chatting about the fine weather, and about the Mexican War, in which both men had served long ago. Grant was too polite to bring up the reason they were there, so he just kept making small talk. Lee finally had to break in.
“I have come to meet you,” Lee said, “about the surrender of my army.”
Then they got down to business—and quickly agreed on an official surrender.
As the news sped though Grant’s camp, soldiers erupted in cheers and started throwing hats, boots, knapsacks, and everything else into the air. One soldier remembered the scene:
“They fall on each other’s necks and laugh and cry by turns. Huge, lumbering, bearded men embrace and kiss like schoolgirls, then dance and sing and shout, stand on their heads and play leapfrog with each other.”
Stephen Minot Weld
Union gunners began firing cannons in celebration, but Grant ordered the noisy party to stop. “The war is over,” he told his army. “The rebels are our countrymen again.”
Everyone was silent at the surrender ceremony as Lee’s men marched out to stack up their guns. Tears ran down the cheeks of Southern soldiers as they laid down the bullet-torn flags they had carried into so many deadly fights. Men on both sides seemed to be in shock—they had begun to believe they would be fighting forever.
Joshua Chamberlain (who had led Union troops to victory on Little Round Top at Gettysburg) was thinking the same thing men on both sides were thinking: “It is by miracles that we have lived to see this day—any of us standing here.”
600,000 Plus One
The remaining Southern armies surrendered over the next few weeks, bringing the war to an end. More than 600,000 soldiers died in the Civil War, making it by far the deadliest conflict in American history. And when you count up the Civil War dead, you really have to include Abraham Lincoln.
On April 11, Lincoln stood on the balcony of the White House and spoke to a small crowd about his plans for Reconstruction. In the crowd was a twenty-six-year-old actor from Virginia named John Wilkes Booth. “That is the last speech he will ever make,” Booth muttered.
Plenty of Southerners hated Lincoln, but Booth took it to an extreme. A few months before, he had quit his successful acting career to focus full-time on trying to kidnap the president. His first plan was to grab Lincoln from a balcony in a theater, tie him to his chair, and lower him with ropes to the ground. But this was just too complicated. Booth decided it would be simpler to shoot Lincoln.
On April 14, newspapers announced that Abraham and Mary Lincoln, along with their guests Ulysses and Julia Grant, would be attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre that night. Booth decided this was his chance.
Lincoln was in a good mood that day. He took a carriage ride with Mary, and they looked forward to better days ahead. “We must both be more cheerful in the future,” he said. “Between the war and the loss of our darling Willie, we have been very miserable.”
Lincoln was disappointed when Grant announced that he and his wife were going to skip the play. They wanted to go visit their children in New Jersey, Grant explained, and their train was leaving in a few hours. Lincoln decided he didn’t want to go to the play either. But the papers had announced he would be there, and he didn’t want to disappoint people by not showing up.
By the time the Lincolns got to the theater, the play had already started. The actors stopped acting, though, and everyone cheered the president and his wife as they settled into their seats. Then the play continued.
John Wilkes Booth knew this theater well from his acting days. At about ten p.m. he walked up to the balcony and silently opened the door of Lincoln’s private box. A policeman was supposed to be guarding the box—but he found the play boring, so he went across the street to get a drink. Booth was able to walk right in, pull out a small pistol, and shoot Lincoln in the back of the head.
Then Booth leaped down from the balcony, breakin
g his left leg as he slammed into the stage below. The entire audience watched in shock as Booth limped out the side door. He got on his horse and rode away.
A doctor named Charles Leale rushed to Lincoln’s box and inspected Lincoln’s wound. Leale was only twenty-three, but he had experience as an army surgeon—he knew bullet wounds. “I can’t save him,” Leale said. “It is impossible for him to recover.”
Lincoln died at 7:22 the next morning.
“Now he belongs to the ages,” said the secretary of war, Edwin Stanton.
Stuck with Each Other
Abraham Lincoln had saved the Union and ended slavery—not a bad four years’ work. But now he was gone, and the United States faced a Reconstruction process full of questions and challenges. Whatever the future would bring, one thing was clear: all Americans were in it together now.
This idea was beautifully summed up by Ely Parker, a Union officer (and Seneca Indian) who worked on General Grant’s staff. Back at that meeting at Appomattox—the one where Lee surrendered his army to Grant—Grant introduced Lee to the members of his staff. As Lee shook Parker’s hand, he noticed that Parker was a Native American.
“I am glad to see one real American here,” Lee said.
Parker replied, “We are all Americans.”
What Ever Happened to … ?
Nicknamed “the Angel of the Battlefield,” Clara Barton continued nursing wounded soldiers throughout the war. Then she went on to found the American Red Cross, an organization dedicated to providing aid to victims of wars and natural disasters. And she didn’t just sit in her office. When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, the seventy-seven-year-old Barton brought medical supplies to American soldiers on the battlefield in Cuba. Two years later, when a hurricane devastated Galveston, Texas, Barton rushed to the scene to distribute food and medicine. She retired in 1904, at the age of eighty-three.
Two Miserable Presidents Page 14