Much of the time during the President’s visit to the army he had his quarters on the steamer “River Queen,” lying in the James river at City Point.  It was the same vessel on which he had received the Southern peace commissioners a month before, and the one on which he had made the journey from Washington.  On the 27th of March a memorable interview occurred in the cabin of this vessel, between President Lincoln, Generals Grant and Sherman, and Admiral Porter.  General Sherman thus describes the interview:  “I left Goldsboro on the 25th of March and reached City Point on the afternoon of the 27th.  I found General Grant and staff occupying a neat set of log huts, on a bluff overlooking the James river.  The General’s family was with him.  We had quite a long and friendly talk, when Grant remarked that the President was near by in a steamer lying at the dock, and he proposed that we should call at once.  We did so, and found Mr. Lincoln on board the ‘River Queen.’  We had met in the early part of the war; he recognized me, and received me with a warmth of manner and expression that was most grateful.  We sat some time in the after-cabin, and Mr. Lincoln made many inquiries about the events which attended the march from Savannah to Goldsboro, and seemed to enjoy the humorous stories about ‘our bummers,’ of which he had heard much.  When in lively conversation his face brightened wonderfully, but if the conversation flagged it assumed a sad and sorrowful expression.  General Grant and I explained to him that my next move from Goldsboro would bring my army, increased to 80,000 men by Schofield’s and Terry’s reinforcements, in close communication with Grant’s army then investing Lee and Richmond; and that unless Lee could effect his escape and make junction with Johnston in North Carolina, he would soon be shut up in Richmond with no possibility of supplies, and would have to surrender.  Mr. Lincoln was extremely interested in this view of the case, and we explained that Lee’s only chance was to escape, join Johnston, and, being then between me in North Carolina and Grant in Virginia, he could choose which to fight.  Mr. Lincoln seemed impressed with this; but General Grant explained that at the very moment of our conversation General Sheridan was pressing his cavalry across James River from the north to the south, that with this cavalry he would so extend his left below Petersburg as to meet the South Shore Road, and that if Lee should ‘let go’ his fortified lines he (Grant) would follow him so close that he could not possibly fall on me alone in North Carolina.  I in like manner expressed the fullest confidence that my army in North Carolina was willing to cope with Lee and Johnston combined, till Grant could come up.  But we both agreed that one more bloody battle was likely to occur before the close of the war.  Mr. Lincoln repeatedly inquired as to General Schofield’s ability to maintain his position in my absence, and seemed anxious that I should return to North Carolina.  More than once