opening of the Mississippi by the capture of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, the army which had accomplished that great task was drawn to the eastward, and marched to the sea through Tennessee and Georgia, gaining victories at Chicamauga, Chattanooga, Atlanta, and other points. Hood's Confederate army was practically annihilated by Thomas at Nashville, and the armies of Hardee, Bragg, and Beauregard had been gradually assembled under Joe Johnston, and formed a veteran force which was not to be lightly considered.
And now, early in 1865, while the Northern press and public clamored as loudly as ever for the capture of Richmond, that event was the very thing which General Grant did not desire. For the capture of Richmond meant the retirement of Lee's army to a junction with Johnston, and the combination of those armies under two such wily commanders would be a serious danger to the Union "Army of the Mississippi," which, having made its march to the sea, was now advancing northward, through the Carolinas, to attack Johnston. That it could defeat him single-handed there was no reasonable doubt, but with Lee's army added to Johnston's, there was great danger of a serious reverse to the Union arms. Consequently Grant's great desire was to keep Lee in Richmond until the Union army could be so disposed that escape would be impossible.
Since the early days of March, Lee had been planning to retire from Richmond and join his army with that of Johnston, and information of this design had been brought to General Grant. Lee and Johnston had made their preliminary arrangements, and the route by which the army would retreat was already laid out. The Richmond papers demanded that the city should be held at all hazards, and the Confederate government was unwilling that the fact that a retirement had been thought of should be known. The most emphatic denials were given
