The Rebel Cause now began to look pretty desperate, even to Rebel eyes.

[Hundreds of Rebels were now deserting from Lee's Armies about
Richmond, every night, owing partly to despondency. "These
desertions," wrote Lee, on the 24th February, "have a very bad
effect upon the troops who remain, and give rise to painful
apprehensions." Another cause was the lack of food and clothing.
Says Badeau (Military History of Ulysses S. Grant, vol. iii., p.
399): "On the 8th of January, Lee wrote to the Rebel Government
that the entire Right Wing of his Army had been in line for three
days and nights, in the most inclement weather of the season.
'Under these circumstances,' he said, 'heightened by assaults and
fire of the Enemy, some of the men had been without meat for three
days, and all were suffering from reduced rations and scant
clothing. Colonel Cole, chief commissary, reports that he has not
a pound of meat at his disposal. If some change is not made, and
the commissary department reorganized, I apprehend dire results.
The physical strength of the men, if their courage survives, must
fail under this treatment. Our Cavalry has to be dispersed for
want of forage. Fitz Lee's and Lomax's Divisions are scattered
because supplies cannot be transported where their services are
required. I had to bring Fitz Lee's Division sixty miles Sunday
night, to get them in position. Taking these facts in connection
with the paucity of our numbers, you must not be surprised if
calamity befalls us.'" Badeau's (Grant, vol. iii., p. 401,)]

Toward the end of February, the Rebel General Longstreet having
requested an interview with General Ord "to arrange for the exchange of
citizen prisoners, and prisoners of war, improperly captured," General
Grant authorized General Ord to hold such interview t and "to arrange