While copies of this paper were being made for signature, the officers of our staffs commingled in the yard at Bennett’s house, and were all presented to Generals Johnston and Breckenridge.  All without exception were rejoiced that the war was over, and that 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, who admitted that the act was calculated to stain his cause with a dark hue; and he contended that the loss was most serious to the South, who had begun to realize that Mr. Lincoln was the best friend they had.