Union Major-General William Tecumseh Sherman’s armies entered and occupied Raleigh. Raleigh was the ninth of eleven state capitals to be occupied by Union forces. Only the state capitals at Tallahassee in Florida and Austin in Texas remained in Confederate hands.

Confederate Brigadier-General Henry Harrison Walker formally announced the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia to President Jefferson Finis Davis. At 10 am, Confederate President Davis reconvened the military conference adjourned the day before in Greensboro. The remaining Cabinet members met first, and all the members present, except for Davis and Secretary of State Judah Philip Benjamin, clung to the belief that further resistance was feasible. When General Joseph Eggleston Johnston and General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard joined the meeting, the President invited their views on how to continue the war. Johnston gave an unflinching statement of the impossibility of continued resistance because of desertions from his dwindling army, the lack of resources, the hopeless military situation, and the exhaustion of the people. Beauregard concurred with his views. Davis was finally forced to concede permission for Johnston to meet with Union Major-General William Tecumseh Sherman to discuss the terms of surrender. Davis dictated a letter for Johnston to send to Sherman, requesting an armistice.

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