Burksville, Virginia. By the 25th of March, the railroad from Newbern
was in running order, and General Sherman, leaving General Schofield in
command of his eighty thousand troops, went to Newbern and Morehead
City, and thence by steamer to City Point, for a personal interview with
General Grant. On the same day, Lee made a desperate but useless
assault, with twenty thousand (of his seventy thousand) men upon Fort
Stedman--a portion of Grant's works in front of Petersburg. On the
27th, President Lincoln reached City Point, on the James River, in the
steamer "Ocean Queen." Sherman reached City Point the same day, and,
after meeting the General-in-Chief, Grant took him on board the "Ocean
Queen" to see the President. Together they explained to Mr. Lincoln the
Military situation, during the "hour or more" they were with him. Of
this interview with Mr. Lincoln, General Sherman afterwards wrote:
"General Grant and I explained to him that my next move from Goldsboro
would bring my Army, increased to eighty thousand men by Schofield's and
Terry's reinforcements, in close communication with General Grant's
Army, then investing Lee in Richmond, and that unless Lee could effect
his escape, and make junction with Johnston in North Carolina, he would
soon be shut up in Richmond with no possibility of supplies, and would
have to surrender. Mr. Lincoln was extremely interested in this view of
the case, and when we explained that Lee's only chance was to escape,
join Johnston, and, being then between me in North Carolina, and Grant
in Virginia, could choose which to fight. Mr. Lincoln seemed unusually
impressed with this; but General Grant explained that, at the very
moment of our conversation, General Sheridan was passing his Cavalry
across James River, from the North to the South; that he would, with
this Cavalry, so extend his left below Petersburg as to meet the South
Shore Road; and that if Lee should 'let go' his fortified lines, he
(Grant) would follow him so close that he could not possibly fall on me
alone in North Carolina. I, in like manner, expressed the fullest