The ar-mies of the Un-ion had put down the “Great Re-bel-lion” and peace had come. So vast a war had ne’er been known in mod-ern times, and men more brave than those who fought on both sides could not be found in an-y land.
[CHAPTER XIV.]
RETURN OF PEACE; LINCOLN SHOT; HIS BURIAL AT SPRINGFIELD.
“Pres-i-dent Lin-coln in Rich-mond,” af-ter the “Con-fed-er-a-cy” fell to pie-ces, made a scene such as was ne’er be-fore known in all his-to-ry. There was none of the pomp and show such as a great chief in oth-er lands would have had who put down a brave foe and gained a great cause.
Lin-coln was at the “head-quar-ters” of Gen. Grant at Cit-y Point on a small steam-er, “The Riv-er Queen,” when he heard of the fall of Rich-mond, and that a great fire had laid low much of that place. He went up the riv-er and land-ed at a wharf near Lib-by Pris-on. There he found a black man to act as guide and show him the way through the cit-y. Soon a great crowd drew near the Pres-i-dent. The Un-ion sol-diers greet-ed him, so did those who had once been bought and sold like beasts. Cries of thanks rent the air from the race he had made free. They felt God had sent him.
UNION TROOPS MARCHING INTO RICHMOND.
The crowd was so dense that Ad-mir-al Por-ter had to call sail-ors from his boat to march in front and be-hind the Pres-i-dent, so that a track might be cleared for him through the town. Lin-coln did not seem to think of fear, and no one raised a hand a-gainst him or spoke an un-kind word.
The Pres-i-dent went to the house then used by Gen. Weit-zel, who was in charge of the Un-ion troops there—the same house in which Jef-fer-son Dav-is had lived for months, and which he had just left in great haste.
Lib-by Pris-on was in that town, and there hordes of some of the brav-est and best of the men of the North had starved and died. Here, too, was a pris-on where black slaves were kept. It was the “Rich-mond Mart” with its cells and grates of i-ron. The end had come for the pris-on, the whip, the shac-kles, the auc-tion-block and dri-ver.