Noah Brooks:

“Outside was a vast sea of faces, illuminated by the lights that burned in the festal array of the White House, and stretching far out into the misty darkness. It was a silent, intent, and perhaps surprised, multitude.

Within stood the tall, gaunt figure of the President, deeply thoughtful, intent upon the elucidation of the generous policy which should be pursued toward the South. That this was not the sort of speech which the multitude had expected is tolerably certain.“

Abraham Lincoln:

We meet this evening, not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, and the surrender of the principal insurgent army, give hope of a righteous and speedy peace whose joyous expression can not be restrained. In the midst of this, however, He from whom all blessings flow, must not be forgotten. A call for a national thanksgiving is being prepared, and will be duly promulgated. Nor must those whose harder part gives us the cause of rejoicing, be overlooked. Their honors must not be parcelled out with others. I myself was near the front, and had the high pleasure of transmitting much of the good news to you; but no part of the honor, for plan or execution, is mine. To Gen. Grant, his skilful officers, and brave men, all belongs. The gallant Navy stood ready, but was not in reach to take active part.

By these recent successes the re-inauguration of the national authority — reconstruction — which has had a large share of thought from the first, is pressed much more closely upon our attention. It is fraught with great difficulty. Unlike a case of a war between independent nations, there is no authorized organ for us to treat with. No one man has authority to give up the rebellion for any other man. We simply must begin with, and mould from, disorganized and discordant elements. Nor is it a small additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ among ourselves as to the mode, manner, and means of reconstruction.

. . .

“The speech was enigmatic, inconclusive, and perfunctory, and did not laud the victory so much as look forward to the necessity of making a peaceful reunification of the nation. He was soon beset by critics and more ardent Radicals and Abolitionists to pursue a more punitive post-war policy.”

. . .

“Confederate President Jefferson Finis Davis arrived in Greensboro with the remnants of the government and received the first unconfirmed reports of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. Davis met Confederate General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, who had arrived the previous day. Beauregard reported that Confederate General Joseph Eggleston Johnston had been forced to evacuate Smithfield, and was retreating towards Raleigh from a Union force three or four times greater than his own. Beauregard suggested that Lee’ surrender meant that the war was surely lost but Davis insisted on continued resistance, summoning Johnston to Greensboro for a strategic conference to be held the following day.”

. . .

The war was not yet over.