Thursday, 13 April 1865
Following yesterday's speech regarding Reconstruction, President Abraham Lincoln responded to charges that he was allowing the pro-Confederate Virginia legislature to assemble by clarifying his position to Godfrey Weitzel at Richmond: "I spoke of them not as a Legislature, but as 'the gentlemen who acted as the Legislature of Virginia in support of the rebellion.' '' Lincoln decided not to allow the legislature to assemble amid criticism from many of his cabinet members.
Union Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton halted the military draft and began demobilizing the military.
Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant arrived in Washington, DC, to issue reports and complete paperwork; jubilant people thronged him until a police convoy arrived to escort him to the War Department.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis met with his cabinet and generals at Greensboro. All present except Davis and Secretary of State Judah Benjamin favored allowing General Joseph E. Johnston to ask Major General William T. Sherman--now closing in from occupied Raleigh, North Carolina--for surrender terms. Davis reluctantly wrote a letter, signed by Johnston, to Sherman seeking "...a temporary suspension of operations the object being to permit the civil authorities to enter into the needful arrangements to terminate the existing war."
Skirmishing occurs at Morrisville, North Carolina, as Joseph E. Johnston's men continue to contest the advance of William T. Sherman's troops towards the new temporary capital of the Confederacy at Greensboro, North Carolina.
After the Appomattox Court House surrender, Confederate resistance elsewhere rapidly started to give way. From the North Carolina Sounds, Commander William Henry Alexander Macomb reports: "The Rebels have evacuated Weldon, burning the bridge, destroying the ram at Edwards Ferry, and throwing the guns at Rainbow Bluff into the river. Except for torpedoes the [Roanoke] river is therefore clear for navigation. The floating battery, as I informed you in my No. 144, has got adrift from Halifax and been blown up by one of their own torpedoes."
The USS Ida, Acting Ensign Franklin Ellms in charge, strikes a torpedo on her starboard side and sinks in Mobile Bay. The Ida was the fifth vessel in less than five weeks to be sunk by a Confederate torpedo in the vicinity of Mobile, Alabama.
Union Major General Frederick Steel is assigned to the command of all the troops and posts on the east side of Mobile Bay with the exception of the troops belonging to the Sixteenth US Army Corps.
Skirmishing breaks out at Whistler or Eight Mile Creek Bridge and at Wetumpka, Alabama, with Brigadier General James H. Wilson's Union troops.
Federal troops scout about Lexington, Kentucky.
Following yesterday's speech regarding Reconstruction, President Abraham Lincoln responded to charges that he was allowing the pro-Confederate Virginia legislature to assemble by clarifying his position to Godfrey Weitzel at Richmond: "I spoke of them not as a Legislature, but as 'the gentlemen who acted as the Legislature of Virginia in support of the rebellion.' '' Lincoln decided not to allow the legislature to assemble amid criticism from many of his cabinet members.
Union Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton halted the military draft and began demobilizing the military.
Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant arrived in Washington, DC, to issue reports and complete paperwork; jubilant people thronged him until a police convoy arrived to escort him to the War Department.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis met with his cabinet and generals at Greensboro. All present except Davis and Secretary of State Judah Benjamin favored allowing General Joseph E. Johnston to ask Major General William T. Sherman--now closing in from occupied Raleigh, North Carolina--for surrender terms. Davis reluctantly wrote a letter, signed by Johnston, to Sherman seeking "...a temporary suspension of operations the object being to permit the civil authorities to enter into the needful arrangements to terminate the existing war."
Skirmishing occurs at Morrisville, North Carolina, as Joseph E. Johnston's men continue to contest the advance of William T. Sherman's troops towards the new temporary capital of the Confederacy at Greensboro, North Carolina.
After the Appomattox Court House surrender, Confederate resistance elsewhere rapidly started to give way. From the North Carolina Sounds, Commander William Henry Alexander Macomb reports: "The Rebels have evacuated Weldon, burning the bridge, destroying the ram at Edwards Ferry, and throwing the guns at Rainbow Bluff into the river. Except for torpedoes the [Roanoke] river is therefore clear for navigation. The floating battery, as I informed you in my No. 144, has got adrift from Halifax and been blown up by one of their own torpedoes."
The USS Ida, Acting Ensign Franklin Ellms in charge, strikes a torpedo on her starboard side and sinks in Mobile Bay. The Ida was the fifth vessel in less than five weeks to be sunk by a Confederate torpedo in the vicinity of Mobile, Alabama.
Union Major General Frederick Steel is assigned to the command of all the troops and posts on the east side of Mobile Bay with the exception of the troops belonging to the Sixteenth US Army Corps.
Skirmishing breaks out at Whistler or Eight Mile Creek Bridge and at Wetumpka, Alabama, with Brigadier General James H. Wilson's Union troops.
Federal troops scout about Lexington, Kentucky.
