t in
a very few days we could turn our faces toward home. I remember
telling Breckenridge that he had better get away, as the feeling of
our people was utterly hostile to the political element of the
South, and to him especially, because he was the Vice-President of
the United States, who had as such announced Mr. Lincoln, of
Illinois, duly and properly elected the President of the United
States, and yet that he had afterward openly rebelled and taken up
arms against the Government. He answered me that he surely would
give us no more trouble, and intimated that he would speedily leave
the country forever. I may have also advised him that Mr. Davis
too should get abroad as soon as possible.

The papers were duly signed; we parted about dark, and my party
returned to Raleigh. Early the next morning, April 19th, I
dispatched by telegraph to Morehead City to prepare a fleet-steamer
to carry a messenger to Washington, and sent Major Henry Hitchcock
down by rail, bearing the following letters, and agreement with
General Johnston, with instructions to be very careful to let
nothing escape him to the greedy newspaper correspondents, but to
submit his papers to General Halleck, General Grant, or the
Secretary of War, and to bring me back with all expedition their
orders and instructions.

On their face they recited that I had no authority to make final
terms involving civil or political questions, but that I submitted
them to the proper quarter in Washington for their action; and the
letters fully explained that the military situation was such that
the delay was an advantage to us. I cared little whether they were
approved, modified, or disapproved in toto; only I wanted
instructions. Many of my general officers, among whom, I am almost
positive, were Generals Logan and Blair, urged me to accept the
"terms," without reference at all to Washington, but I preferred
the latter course:

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, IN THE FIELD,
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA, April 18, 1886.

General H. W. HALLECK, Chief of Staff, Washington, D. C.

GENERAL: I received your dispatch describing the man Clark,
detailed to assassinate me. He had better be in a hurry, or he
will be too late.

The news of Mr. Lincoln's death produced a most intense effect on
our troops. At first I feared it would lead to excesses; but now
it has softened down, and can easily be guided. None evinced more
feeling than General Johnston,