1.  All acts of war on the part of the troops under General Johnston’s command to cease from this date.

2.  All arms and public property to be deposited at Greensboro’, and delivered to an ordnance-officer of the United States Army.

3.  Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate; one copy to be retained by the commander of the troops, and the other to be given to an officer to be designated by General Sherman.  Each officer and man to give his individual obligation in writing not to take up arms against the Government of the United States, until properly released from this obligation.

4.  The side-arms of officers, and their private horses and baggage, to be retained by them.

5.  This being done, all the officers and men will be permitted to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by the United States authorities, so long as they observe their obligation and the laws in force where they may reside.

W. T. Sherman, Major-General,
Commanding United States Forces in North Carolina.

J. E. Johnston, General,
Commanding Confederate States Forces in North Carolina.

Approved: 

U. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General.

I returned to Raleigh the same evening, and, at my request, General Grant wrote on these terms his approval, and then I thought the matter was surely at an end.  He took the original copy, on the 27th returned to Newbern, and thence went back to Washington.

I immediately made all the orders necessary to carry into effect the terms of this convention, devolving on General Schofield the details of granting the parole and making the muster-rolls of prisoners, inventories of property, etc., of General Johnston’s army at and about Greensboro’, North Carolina, and on General Wilson the same duties in Georgia; but, thus far, I had been compelled to communicate with the latter through rebel sources, and General Wilson was necessarily confused by the conflict of orders and information.  I deemed it of the utmost importance to establish for him a more reliable base of information and supply, and accordingly resolved to go in person to Savannah for that purpose.  But, before starting, I received a New York Times, of April 24th, containing the following extraordinary communications: 

[First Bulletin]

War department Washington, April 22, 1885.

Yesterday evening a bearer of dispatches arrived from General Sherman.  An agreement for a suspension of hostilities, and a memorandum of what is called a basis for peace, had been entered into on the 18th inst. by General Sherman, with the rebel General Johnston.  Brigadier-General Breckenridge was present at the conference.

A cabinet meeting was held at eight o’clock in the evening, at which the action of General Sherman was disapproved by the President, by the Secretary of War, by General Grant, and by every member of the cabinet.  General Sherman was ordered to resume hostilities immediately, and was directed that the instructions given by the late President, in the following telegram, which was penned by Mr. Lincoln himself, at the Capitol, on the night of the 3d of March, were approved by President Andrew Johnson, and were reiterated to govern the action of military commanders.