The main activity on President Lincoln's agenda for March 28 was a conference aboard the River Queen with General William Tecumseh Sherman and General Ulysses S. Grant, along with Admiral David Dixon Porter. The main topic of the discussion would be the end of the war—how to end the fighting as quickly as possible, and how to rebuild and restore the South when the war was over. “It was in no sense a council of war,” Colonel Horace Porter commented, “but was only an informal interchange of views between the four men who, more than any others, held the destiny of the nation in their hands.”1

The two generals and Admiral Porter were taken by what is usually described as a small tug out to the River Queen, which was lying at anchor in mid-river. They were met by President Lincoln as soon as they stepped on board, and were immediately escorted to the upper saloon, which General Sherman referred to as the after cabin. No arrangements had been made to convert the cabin into a meeting room—there was no conference table, there were no maps on the walls, and nothing special had been done to renovate the room for the occasion. Everyone sat in whatever chairs happened to be on hand. The atmosphere of the meeting would be just as relaxed and informal as the cabin's furnishings, which was exactly what Lincoln had in mind.

General Grant immediately began the proceedings by asking about Mary Lincoln—according to General Sherman, he “inquired after Mrs. Lincoln” (General Sherman's emphasis).² Grant remembered his wife's scolding of the day before and intended to make amends for “the unintended slight.” The president appreciated Grant's tactful gesture, and went to his wife's stateroom to deliver the general's greetings. He returned a few minutes later with word that Mrs. Lincoln “was not well” and did not want to leave her room. Whether Mary Lincoln's illness was physical or mental, or whether she was still just suffering from a case of acute embarrassment over her behavior involving Mrs. Ord, has never been determined.

With the pleasantries and preliminaries safely out of the way, the meeting finally began. General Grant informed the president that General Sheridan was crossing the James River from the north at that very moment, “by pontoon-bridge below City Point.”3 Actually, General Sheridan had crossed the James about thirty-six hours earlier. Grant also informed Lincoln that, in his opinion, “matters were drawing to a crisis.” His only fear continued to be that General Lee “would not wait long enough,” and might attempt an escape to North Carolina. President Lincoln shared this same fear, which he had stated several times before and would express again before the meeting ended.

General Sherman then gave the president a report on his own army's capabilities. He explained that “my army at Goldsboro was strong enough to fight [General] Lee's army and [General] Johnston's combined, provided that General Grant could come within a day or so.”⁴ He went on to state that “if Lee would only remain at Richmond another fortnight”—he meant Petersburg—he would be able to move his army into a position where Lee “would have to starve inside his own lines,” or else would be forced to “come out from his intrenchments and fight us on equal terms.” General Grant had been trying to accomplish just this for the past ten months.

President Lincoln had not said very much up to that point. Admiral Porter noted that Lincoln “was then wrought up to a high state of excitement” from listening to what Grant and Sherman had to say.⁵ “His heart was tenderness throughout,” according to Admiral Porter; the president wanted to end the war as quickly as possible, and “as long as the rebels laid down their arms, he did not care how it was done.”

The president was also not happy to hear that either Grant or Sherman would have to fight one more major battle before the war ended—“one or the other of us would have to fight one more bloody battle,” is what General Sherman said to him.6 Lincoln asked if it would be at all possible to avoid another pitched battle because, as he phrased it, “there had been blood enough shed.” Sherman explained that such an event was beyond the control of Grant and himself, but that, in his opinion, “both Jeff. Davis and General Lee would be forced to fight one more desperate and bloody battle.” Sherman guessed that the battle he was predicting would be fought “somewhere near Raleigh” between himself and Joe Johnston. General Grant added that “if Lee would only wait a few more days,” Union forces would be in position to “be on his heels” in the event of a breakout toward North Carolina.

Another continuing point of anxiety for the president was the fact that General Sherman was not with his army at Goldsboro. Putting this particular fear to rest turned out to be fairly easy. Sherman once again assured Lincoln “that General Schofield was fully competent to command in my absence.” He went on to say that he planned to start back for North Carolina that very day, and also that Admiral Porter had been kind enough to put the USS Bat at his disposal for the trip. The USS Bat was a faster boat than the Russia, which had brought him to City Point. General Sherman did not indicate whether or not this news helped to calm the president's nerves.

After all the reports to the president, and questions from the president regarding troop movements and impending battles, General Sherman had a question of his own: he wanted to know if Lincoln “was all ready for the end of the war.” Specifically, Sherman wanted to know what should be done about the thousands of Confederate soldiers, the rebels who had taken up arms against the United States Government, after the war ended. He also wanted to know how the Southern political leaders, including Jefferson Davis, should be treated. These were two pointed questions. Lincoln's answers would have a far-reaching effect on the future of the country for many years to come.

The president did not seem to be either upset or agitated by General Sherman's questions. “He said he was all ready,” according to the general. “All he wanted from his generals was to defeat the opposing armies and to get the men comprising the Confederate armies back to their homes, at work on their farms and in their shops.”7

As far as what should be done about Jefferson Davis, the president dropped a broad hint that Davis should be allowed to “escape the country,” although he did not say this in so many words. Instead, the president made his point with one of his famous humorous stories. He told everyone an anecdote about a man who had taken the pledge never to touch a drop of alcohol but was invited by a friend to have a drink. Rather than risk being thought of as unfriendly by turning down the invitation, he agreed to have a glass of lemonade. His friend agreed to pour him a glass of lemonade, but added that a shot of brandy would make it taste a lot better. The man replied that he would not object if a dram of brandy was added, provided that it was done “unbeknown” to him.

Lincoln was trying to make the point that he would not object if Jefferson Davis left the country, as long as it was done “unbeknown” to him—he would discreetly look the other way if the president of the Confederacy should happen to escape to Canada or Cuba or some other foreign country.

At this late stage of the war, President Lincoln had three goals: to bring about the surrender of Robert E. Lee's and Joseph E. Johnston's armies, to allow the former Confederate soldiers go home and start new lives, and to bring the seceded states back into the Union. When the Confederate armies were no longer a threat, the Confederate government would cease to exist. Whatever Jefferson David did, or wherever he went, was beside the point, at least as far as Lincoln was concerned.8

Admiral Porter was impressed by the fact that President Lincoln wanted to end the war as soon as possible, and that he would be willing to accept peace on almost any terms. According to Admiral Porter, Lincoln insisted upon only two conditions from the former Confederate states: they would be required to rejoin the Union, and they must agree to abolish slavery. He was not adamant about anything else. “Let them all go, officers and all,” Lincoln said. “I want submission, and no more bloodshed…. I want no one punished; treat them liberally all round. We want those people to return to their allegiance to the Union and submit to the laws.”⁹

After about an hour and a half of talk and deliberation—Admiral Porter noted that the “interview between the two generals and the President lasted about an hour and a half”—the meeting finally wound down.¹⁰ All four men stood up, with the tall and angular Lincoln towering over the others, and shook hands as they prepared to leave. No formal minutes of the meeting were taken. Admiral Porter said that he “jotted down what I remembered of the conversation…when anything interesting occurred.”

Before everyone went their separate ways, the president took General Sherman aside to have a private word. “Sherman, do you know why I took a shine to Grant and you?”¹¹

The general was slightly taken aback by the question. “I don't know, Mr. Lincoln,” he replied. “You have been extremely kind to me, Mr. Lincoln, far more than my deserts.”

“Well,” the president said, “you have never found fault with me.”

Lincoln was almost certainly thinking of General George B. McClellan when he said this, the same George B. McClellan that Lincoln had removed from command after the Battle of Antietam/Sharpsburg in September 1862, when he would not pursue the retreating Army of Northern Virginia, and also the same George B. McClellan who had been Lincoln's opponent in the 1864 presidential election. McClellan despised Lincoln and never missed an opportunity to criticize him or ridicule him—among other things, he called Lincoln as a baboon and a gorilla. It must have been a great relief to discover that neither Grant nor Sherman were anything like George B. McClellan, and he wanted to take a minute to let Sherman know how much he appreciated his loyalty.

For his own part, General Sherman had a few complimentary things to say about the president, as well. The Abraham Lincoln that Sherman met at City Point was not the same Abraham Lincoln he had known a few years earlier. The war had changed Lincoln, just as it had changed the country itself. The Abraham Lincoln of 1865 was no longer the ruthless and sometimes arbitrary politician of earlier in the war, who had suspended habeas corpus and had about 13,000 people put in jail without a trial. General Sherman was well aware of the change that had taken place. “We parted on the gangway of the River Queen, about noon of March 28th, and I never saw him again,” Sherman would remember. “Of all the men I ever met, he seemed to possess more of the elements of greatness, combined with goodness, than any other.”12

The ninety-minute conference between the four men was to have had far-reaching effects on the future of the reunited country—“They were hammering out a national fate,” according to one of Lincoln's biographers.¹³ No one could have known that in two and a half weeks an event would take place that would also change the nation's fate, and would undo everything that had been approved and agreed upon during the course of the meeting.

Later that afternoon, General Sherman left City Point for his own headquarters aboard the USS Bat. After the Bat had cast off and was underway, Commander Barnes thanked the general for making the journey on his ship instead of the Russia, which had brought him to City Point. He explained that Admiral Porter had given him the job of escorting and attending the River Queen; this assignment also gave Commander Barnes the “special duty” of looking after Mrs. Lincoln as long as she was at City Point and until she returned to Washington.

Because of Mary Lincoln's attitude toward him after the incident involving Mrs. Ord and the president, Commander Barnes was not happy about being made her special caretaker. The assignment made Barnes's position “very unpleasant,” according to General Sherman.14 But the change of duty had absolved the commander from having to look after Mrs. Lincoln; “he felt much relieved when he was sent with me to North Carolina,” General Sherman observed. Commander Barnes was apparently not aware that the job of taking General Sherman back to North Carolina had also come from Admiral Porter.

President Lincoln would be staying behind at City Point, aboard the River Queen, with his wife. He could see that the war's final campaign would be starting very soon. General Sherman had already departed to join his army, and General Grant would be off for Petersburg the next day. It did not take very much in the way of foresight to realize that the battle between Grant and General Lee, the “one more bloody battle” that Lincoln was dreading and anticipating, was imminent. The president decided not to return to Washington until the fighting along the Petersburg line had ended, which, for all intents and purposes, would also mean the end of the war.

Colonel Elisha Hunt Rhodes, writing in his diary in the Petersburg trenches, was having the same thoughts as President Lincoln. “We are still under orders to be ready to move, and no doubt a few days more will settle the fate of Petersburg.”¹⁵ Colonel Rhodes also shared the president's view on the outcome of the impending battle: “I shall be glad to welcome the dawn of peace, for I am tired of bloodshed.”