President Lincoln received a visit from Senator Charles Sumner, who brought an unusual piece of correspondence. The senator showed Lincoln a letter from the Duchess of Argyll, which was dated March 2, 1865. Elizabeth Georgiana Campbell Granville, Duchess of Argyll, was a prominent and outspoken opponent of slavery in Britain, and was also a friend of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Because the president was featured so prominently in the duchess's letter, Senator Sumner thought Lincoln would be interested in reading it.

Because she was a dedicated abolitionist, the duchess's primary concern was with the slaves in the South, along with what would become of them. “I do not know what your opinion is as to giving the Franchise to the negroes in the Slave States,” she wrote. “One wd. be inclined to think that that [sic] that there ought to be some realization first of their new condition.”1 In other words, before any freed slaves were given the right to vote, they should first be given at least some fundamentals of education.

“We feel great confidence in the President,” she went on to say, referring to her friends in England. The duchess also commented that “the speech at the Gettysburg Cemetery will live.”²

It was certainly a flattering letter, as well as highly unusual, at least from Lincoln's point of view. Members of the British upper class were not always as complimentary toward President Lincoln and rarely admitted to having “great confidence” in him. Most British aristocrats found themselves in agreement with Lieutenant Colonel Garnet Wolseley, a future field marshal and viscount, who referred to Abraham Lincoln's presidency as “the dictatorship of an insignificant lawyer.”3

Lincoln was also happy to hear that his Gettysburg Address “must live.” Not everyone had been so generous in their opinion of the speech. Immediately after delivering “the speech at the Gettysburg Cemetery,” Lincoln himself told his friend and bodyguard Ward Lamon, “Lamon, that speech won't scour,” using a phrase from his prairie years.⁴ Failing to scour meant that the heavy soil had built up on the blade of a plow, making it unable to turn the earth. He had changed his mind during the past fourteen months, and was glad that there was somebody who agreed with him.

General Grant sent a long letter to General William Tecumseh Sherman on March 22. The Richmond newspapers made mention of the fact that General Sherman had arrived in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and Grant sent his letter to Sherman at Goldsboro. Much of its contents concerned the movements of General Philip Sheridan's cavalry, along with Grant's instructions that Sheridan should continue to destroy the rail lines around Petersburg and then advance along the Danville road “as near to the Appomattox as he can get.”⁵ But Grant's main worry was still Robert E. Lee. “It is most difficult to understand what the rebels intend to do; so far but few troops have been detached from Lee's army,” he wrote to General Sherman. “If Lee detaches, I will attack; if he comes out of his lines, I will endeavor to repulse him, and follow it up to the best advantage.” General Grant did not mention anything about President Lincoln's impending visit.

At Petersburg, Colonel Elisha Hunt Rhodes had celebrated his twenty-third birthday the day before. “Twenty-three years and have been in service nearly four years,” he reflected. “God has been very good to me, and I am grateful for his protecting care.”⁶ Colonel Rhodes's diary entry for March 22 was more straightforward: “All quiet and nothing to do but drill and watch the enemy, but business will soon be brisk enough to suit us all. This siege must end soon.”