Sherman was no longer in danger.  He had Johnston confronting him; but with an army much inferior to his own, both in numbers and morale.  He had Lee to the north of him with a force largely superior; but I was holding Lee with a still greater force, and had he made his escape and gotten down to reinforce Johnston, Sherman, with the reinforcements he now had from Schofield and Terry, would have been able to hold the Confederates at bay for an indefinite period.  He was near the sea-shore with his back to it, and our navy occupied the harbors.  He had a railroad to both Wilmington and New Bern, and his flanks were thoroughly protected by streams, which intersect that part of the country and deepen as they approach the sea.  Then, too, Sherman knew that if Lee should escape me I would be on his heels, and he and Johnson together would be crushed in one blow if they attempted to make a stand.  With the loss of their capital, it is doubtful whether Lee’s army would have amounted to much as an army when it reached North Carolina.  Johnston’s army was demoralized by constant defeat and would hardly have made an offensive movement, even if they could have been induced to remain on duty.  The men of both Lee’s and Johnston’s armies were, like their brethren of the North, as brave as men can be; but no man is so brave that he may not meet such defeats and disasters as to discourage him and dampen his ardor for any cause, no matter how just he deems it.

CHAPTER LXIII.

ARRIVAL OF THE PEACE COMMISSIONERS—­LINCOLN AND THE PEACE COMMISSIONERS
—­AN ANECDOTE OF LINCOLN—­THE WINTER BEFORE PETERSBURG—­SHERIDAN DESTROYS
THE RAILROAD—­GORDON CARRIES THE PICKET LINE—­PARKE RECAPTURES THE LINE
—­THE LINE OF BATTLE OF WHITE OAK ROAD.

On the last of January, 1865, peace commissioners from the so-called Confederate States presented themselves on our lines around Petersburg, and were immediately conducted to my headquarters at City Point.  They proved to be Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederacy, Judge Campbell, Assistant-Secretary of War, and R. M. T. Hunt, formerly United States Senator and then a member of the Confederate Senate.

It was about dark when they reached my headquarters, and I at once conducted them to the steam Mary Martin, a Hudson River boat which was very comfortably fitted up for the use of passengers.  I at once communicated by telegraph with Washington and informed the Secretary of War and the President of the arrival of these commissioners and that their object was to negotiate terms of peace between he United States and, as they termed it, the Confederate Government.  I was instructed to retain them at City Point, until the President, or some one whom he would designate, should come to meet them.  They remained several days as guests on board the boat.  I saw them quite frequently, though I have no recollection of having had any conversation