This week in diplomatic and military history: March 30

Renowned narrative historian Shelby Foote once referred to the Civil War as “the crossroads of our being.” “That conflict opened us up to what we became,” he said, “good and bad things.” A consideration of the manner in which that conflict concluded, and the implications its conclusion would hold for the postbellum period, is therefore an important historical enterprise. 

 

On this date in 1865, the Confederate capital of Richmond fell to Union forces commanded by Ulysses S. Grant. The capture of Richmond had remained a Union war aim ever since General Irwin McDowell’s ill-fated attempt to dislodge a Confederate army at Bull Run in July of 1861. General George McClellan failed to capture the Confederate capital during his Peninsula campaign, which took the Army of the Potomac to within three miles of Richmond in early 1862 before General Robert E. Lee repulsed it during the Seven Days’ battles. After a prolonged siege of Confederate pickets surrounding the town of Petersburg, General Grant finally defeated Lee at the Battle of Five Forks on April 1^st 1865, prompting Lee to order the evacuation of the Confederate government then resident in Richmond.

President Lincoln, who had been visiting soldiers at City Point nearby, arrived in Richmond on April 4^th. His flagship Malvern was obstructed from entering the city proper by sunken debris. Thus Lincoln was compelled to arrive at the Richmond wharf in a barge rowed by twelve Union sailors, leading the president to remark to Admiral David D. Porter, “It is well to be humble.” The first to recognize Lincoln were black workmen, who approached the president on their knees, hailing him as the Messiah. To this outburst of emotion Lincoln responded, “That is not right. You must kneel to God only, and thank him for the liberty you will hereafter enjoy.” Lincoln’s conduct was emblematic of the theological humility to which he had had adhered since the beginning of the war, when he composed his “Meditation on the Divine Will.” 

The first stop on Lincoln’s tour of the conquered town was the headquarters of General Godfrey Weitzel, whom Grant had placed in command of Richmond. Weitzel converted the mansion Jefferson Davis had occupied during his presidency into his base of operations. In an anticlimactic gesture, Lincoln is reported to have entered Davis’ study, sat down in an armchair, and asked for a glass of water before sharing a light lunch with Weitzel’s staff. After touring the city, he returned to the deck of the Malvern, where he met Confederate official John A. Campbell the next day to discuss the terms of Virginia’s restoration to the Union. 

Bypassing the remnant of loyal Virginians that had coalesced around Francis Pierpont, Lincoln authorized Campbell to summon the disloyal Virginia legislature to Richmond so that it might remove its forces from the conflict. Campbell’s cooperation notwithstanding, the withdrawal of Virginia’s forces would not occur until Lee’s surrender on April 9^th, the day after Lincoln’s return to Washington. Nevertheless, Lincoln’s willingness to extend an olive branch to the rebellious Virginia legislature reflected his magnanimous approach to Reconstruction. His “Ten Percent Plan” stipulated that seceded states could rejoin the Union as soon as 10% of the voting population in 1860 swore an oath of fealty to the American government. Lincoln’s assassination, the ascension of Andrew Johnson to the presidency, and the triumph of Radical Republicans in 1867 would cripple this amicable policy. Reconstruction quickly assumed a military aspect and ended in 1877 with the resurgence of the Democratic Party. 

The scene in the federal capital after Richmond’s fall was one of jubilation. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton delivered a patriotic address to elated townspeople beside Secretary of State William Seward before leading those assembled in a rendition of the Star-Spangled banner. According to the Star, one hundred couriers for the Washington Herald distributed special editions that read, “EXTRA! GLORIOUS! FALL OF RICHMOND!” Seward himself hastened to deliver a series of dispatches to Lincoln in person, but a carriage accident would confine him to his bed until after Lincoln’s assassination on April 14^th. On that night, Seward also faced a would-be assassin, only to recover from the wounds he sustained from his knife.

Though the Confederate forces under Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina had not yet capitulated to General William T. Sherman, the fall of Richmond marked the end of the South’s bid for regional independence and of a war that cost the nation 2% of its population. Confederate resistance to federal authority had, in effect, ceased. The enmity generated by the conflict, however, and the enormous social changes it wrought reverberated for the next 150 years of American history. 

Photo courtesy of reddit.com

Bibliography:

Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, Simon & Schuster, 2005.

David Herbert Donald, Lincoln, Simon & Schuster, 1995.

Allen C. Guelzo, Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President, William B. Eerdmans, 1999.