Lincoln Letters

April 21st [1865]. Well I believe the war is over—our suffering may not have yet begun, however. A command under General Wilson has in two weeks or less time marched through Alabama taking everything in its course—reaching Ga, has taken Columbus and is now on its way to Macon. It is said that Lincoln is in Richmond making peace speeches, and last night a telegram says that 200 guns were fired in Jacksonville a day or two since ____ the Federals there learning that Genl Lee and his army in Va. had surrendered to Genl Grant—all officers paroled and allowed to keep their side arms. This is not improbable since Lee’s hasty retreat from Richmond most probably prevented his bringing off supplies of provisions and ammunition for an army, and he must be surrounded by the commands of Grant and Sherman, but there are some people silly enough to think we are going to whip the Yankees yet. The rejoicing at the North over our failing strength is said to exceed all bounds. [3] Lincoln’s place in history will exceed that of Washington, while that of the South

Footnotes

[3] General James Harrison Wilson led a Union cavalry corps on a campaign deep into Alabama and Georgia in the spring of 1865, capturing a number of cities, including Columbus and Macon as well as Jefferson Davis, who surrendered to a contingent of Wilson’s troopers on May 10, 1865, at Irwinville, Georgia. Lincoln visited Richmond on April 5, 1865, after its fall to the Union two days earlier. The interruption of communications during the last weeks of the war meant that news of military and political events reached Tallahassee several days or even weeks after they occurred.