Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: VISIT OF THE PRESIDENT TO THE ARMY AND KICHMOND, AND HIS EETUKN. During the last week of March, 1865, President Lincoln made a visit to the Potomac Army, then before Richmond. It was on the eve of those successful movements which resulted in the fall of Richmond and the surrender of the rebel arrnj under Lee. He held an important conference with Lieutenant General Grant, and Generals Sherman and Meade and other distinguished officers, and so hopeful was the military situation that, on the 2d of April, he telegraphed to the Secretary of War that " all now looks highly favorable;" and again, on the same day, " all seems well with vs." On the evening of the 3d of April the President communicated to the War Department and the country that Petersburg and Richmond had fallen. On Monday, the 4th of April, he passed into the city of Richmond without any parade of triumph, attended only by a small guard, and received an enthusiastic welcome from the army and from a large portion of the citizens. While in Richmond he was waited upon by Judge Campbell, one of the leaders of the rebellion, and formerly a Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, who said to the President : I had an interview with Jefferson Davis, Benjamin, and Breckinridge just before they left, and said to them: " The military power of the Confederacy is broken. Its independence is hopeless. It only remains for us to make the best terms we can. The trouble is, the President of the United States cannot enter into negotiations with you; but he does recognize the States, and can confer with their regular authorities. Under the doctrine of State rights, souniversally held in the South, the troops from Virginia—the Confederate Government being a fugitive—will recognize tho right of the Virginia Legislature to c...