Wayne County, NC - Heritage Series Reprinted with permission of the Mount Olive Tribune and cannot be reproduced without permission. Official Records Of The War "Our Heritage" By Claude Moore Last week in my article, I left General Sherman in Goldsboro. On April 10, 1865, his entire army broke camp & moved toward Smithfield, taking different roads. He reported that his army was in fine condition with a 30-day supply of food. General Sherman arrived in Smithfield on April 12 & at five in the morning, he wrote General Grant the following: "I have at this moment received your telegram announcing the surrender of Lee's army. The terms which you have given Lee are magnanimous & liberal. Should Johnston follow Lee's example I shall of course grant the same." The Union Army in Smithfield celebrated the surrender of General Lee while encamped there. General Kilpatrick had marched on to Raleigh & captured the city on April 13. There was some fighting in the city. On April 14th, General Johnston wrote General Sherman a letter to see if he was willing to make a temporary suspension of active operations. General Sherman wrote the following to General Johnston on the same day, "I am fully empowered to arrange with you any terms for the suspension of further hostilities as between the armies commanded to you & those commanded by myself & will be willing to confer with you at that end. I undertake to abide by the same terms & conditions as were made by Generals Grant & Lee at Appomattox Courthouse on the 9th. On April 18th, Generals Sherman & Johnston met near Durham Station & agreed on terms of surrender subject to the approval of President Andrew Johnson, since President Lincoln had been assassinated on April 14th. Those terms included cessation of active hostilities in the entire Confederate States since President Davis gave full sanction to the proposed agreement. The Confederate Secretary of War, The Honorable John C. Breckinridge, met with Generals Johnston & Sherman. President Johnson did not approve the terms of surrender because part of it contained civil matters. The radicals in the U.S. Congress were already urging the punishment of the South. General Grant arrived in Raleigh with messages to General Sherman from Secretary Stanton. On April 24th, General Sherman wrote General Johnston, "I am instructed to limit my operations to your immediate command & not to attempt civil negotiations. I therefore demand the surrender of your army on the same terms as were given General Lee at Appomattox on April 9th." On April 26th, Generals Sherman & Johnston met at the Bennett House at Durham Station & signed the terms of surrender. General Johnston's army was paroled at Greensboro. General Johnston's army left Raleigh on April 29th to go by the way of Richmond to Washington. Orders were given that there would be no foraging & that all food & supplies would be paid for by the division commissary. General Sherman in writing to General Rawling in Goldsboro on April 29th said, "The South is broken & ruined & appeals to our pity. To ride the people down with persecutions & military exactions would be like slashing away at the crew of a sinking ship. We must save our country from anarchy." Sherman's army reached Richmond on May 9th. General J. M. Schofield was left in command in North Carolina & on May 9th, he issued an order for the arrest of Governor Z.B. Vance. The Confederate War Department records were captured in Greesboro & turned over to the U.S. War Department. They were packed in 81 boxes & weighed ten tons. General Sherman's army arrived at Alexandria, Virginia on May 19th. They took part in a grand review of the Union army in Washington on May 24th. ============================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. The electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Guy Potts ==============================================================