This memoranda was satisfactory to all present at the conference, as a proposition to be forwarded by special messenger to the President, who called a special meeting of the Cabinet to take it into consideration. The cabinet at once rejected it. This disapproval was communicated to General Sherman by General Grant, who was ordered by the President to proceed immediately to the headquarters of General Sherman, and direct operations against the enemy. The dispatch was received by General Sherman on the morning of the 24th, and he immediately gave notice to General Johnston as follows: "You will take notice that the truce, or suspension of hostilities, agreed to between us on the 18th instant, will close in forty-eight hours after this is received at your lines." He also wrote Gen. Johnston at the same time: "I have replies from Washington to my communication of the 18th. I am instructed to limit my operations to your immediate command, and not attempt civil negotiations, I, therefore, demand the surrender of your army, on the same terms as were given to General Lee, at Appomattox Court House, Va., the 9th of April, instant, purely and simply." Within an hour after the reception of General Grant's dispatch, a courier was riding rapidly with this notice and demand upon General Johnston. Gen. Sherman also issued orders to the army to be in readiness to march at 12 m. of the 26th, on the routs previously described.

These arrangements were already made when General Grant arrived at Raleigh. He informed General Sherman that he had orders from the President to direct all military movements, but that he was so well pleased with the situation, that he concluded not to interfere, and would leave the execution of the arrangements already made, to General Sherman. And now, comrade, whoever you may be, who read these pages, what do you think? This book is not written for any political purpose, not in the least. We are writing about the times that are past and gone; about the days when we marched side by side together through the land of the cotton and the cane. When our glory and our pride was "Uncle Billy," whom we would have followed to the end, wherever that may have been, and you know it. He had been our guiding star in God's hands. Under him we had gone through campaigns only equalled, but never excelled, in the annals of war, and now, on the eve of the consummation of our labors, the "laurel wreath" was to be snatched from his brow, and instead of being permitted to execute the will of the government as determined upon by the administration, he was to see another placed in the position which by right was his. It seemed hardly fair then, and even at this late day, we cannot think it was. We are no politician, we are not learned in the mysteries, the devilments, and the general cussedness of state intrigue, but we say that W. T. Sherman was the grandest man that ever led an army of the United States, or any other country, and he showed his grandeur and his nobility by brushing to one side, as he would the passing wing of a mosquito, the hint of incapacity that was sought to be fastened on him by those grand and mighty warriors, who, in their cushion bottomed chairs at Washington, dared for one instant to insinuate, that it was they who had guided us through the brake, and through the swamps, from the hillsides of Kentucky, to the walls of Richmond, by their orders to our general and our leader. But we knew only Sherman. God bless him, wherever he may be. He is a hero and a nobleman, not by a long line of ancestral descent, perhaps, but by that God given inspiration that makes him so. We believe that our comrades of former days, feel with us an intense loyalty to William Tecumseh Sherman, a true patriot whom the tinsel, and the glare, of worldly intrigues, could not swerve from the path of duty. Excuse us, dear reader, for this little variation, this view that we may have given you to the secret chamber of our heart, we can not help it, we love the man of whom we have been writing, and the honor of having been a soldier under his command, will be one which our children's children, as they come after us, can reflect upon with pride and glory. But we have forgotten, it seems to us, who we are, we have been talking to you about an individual, the most glorious—stop—we will wait until to morrow to go on with our work, we must not forget the humble position we occupy, that of giving to you a record of our lives as an army organization.