On April 11, 1865, at 1 o’clock in the morning, General Joseph E. Johnston learned from an unofficial yet reliable dispatch that General Robert E. Lee surrendered the remnants of his army near Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Prior to this, the last shred of hope for an independent and the victorious Confederate States of America rested on Johnston uniting his army with Lee’s somewhere near the North Carolina-Virginia border. Lee’s surrender dashed these hopes.
However, even after official confirmation from Confederate Secretary of War John C. Breckenridge on April 12, President Jefferson Davis remained unconvinced that Lee’s surrender was the fatal blow to the Confederacy and the war effort. Rather, Davis spouted these grand illusions of a raising a large, well-armed, well-fed field army comprised of recalled deserters and those who avoided conscription to continue the fight for Confederate independence. On April 13 during a military meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina, Johnston tried to dissuade Davis from his plan for renewed combat by arguing that the Union forces outnumbered the Confederates by eighteen to one, the Confederacy lacked the money, credit, and factories to purchase or produce more arms, and fighting would only further devastate the South without significantly harming the enemy. With the surrender at Appomattox, Johnston shifted his objective to procuring the best possible terms for surrender as he argued: “it would be the greatest of human crimes to continue the war.” Luckily for Johnston, Davis agreed to open communications with General William T. Sherman; however, Davis still believed that victory was achievable despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Johnston received Sherman’s reply on Easter Sunday morning and rode out to Greensboro to notify Davis; however, Davis had left without notifying Johnston—the two men never enjoyed a cordial relationship. An annoyed Johnston decided to engage in negotiations with Sherman without Davis’s authorization and suggested meeting on April 17, which Sherman agreed to.
