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== Conclusion ==

As Abraham Lincoln so eloquently stated in his Gettysburg Address, November 1863, “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom- and that the government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” <ref>Abraham Lincoln, “Gettysburg Address”, November 1863, The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division (Washington, D. C.: American Memory Project, [2000-02]), http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/alhome.html.</ref>Lincoln, Grant, and Sherman acted as the war mandated. They had all known failure in their lives, which was perhaps one reason they were empathetic to their defeated Southern counterparts. Generous, if not compassionate terms of surrender were offered to Lee and his army by Grant on April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. General Sherman was also gentle in peace when he accepted General Joseph Johnston’s surrender in Raleigh, North Carolina on April 26, 1865; 11 days after the death of Abraham Lincoln. Lee and Johnston both defied orders from Jefferson Davis to continue a guerilla war. Unlike Davis, these Southern generals were honorable soldiers who knew the cause was lost and had no intention of inflicting more casualties on an already devastated nation. They knew the horrors of war and were eager to proceed in peace. All of these men were prepared to carry out President Lincoln’s wish to “achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace.”<ref>Abraham Lincoln, “Second Inaugural Address,” March 4, 1865, National Archives, https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=38.</ref>

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