our own people of Mississippi to the ravages of such men as now
control the invading army. They have laid your own home waste. The
people of Vicksburg are your neighbors. They know you personally. The
people of this territory have sent their sons and brothers into Virginia
by thousands. There are no soldiers left to defend them--"

The President lifted his thin hand in protest.

"I can't let the personal argument sway me, Reagan. Our own people must
endure what is best for the cause. All I wish to know is what _is_
best--your plan or General Lee's."

Lee persuaded him against his personal judgment to consent to the daring
scheme of Northern invasion.

So intent was Reagan on the plan of direct relief to Vicksburg that
after Lee had begun his preparations for the advance, Davis called a
Cabinet meeting and reconsidered the whole question. Reagan pleaded with
tears at last for what he knew his Chief felt to be best. Davis weighed
for the second time each point with care and again decided that Lee's
plan promised the greater end--peace.

The moment his final decision was made Davis at once commissioned Vice
President Alexander H. Stephens, who knew Lincoln personally, to go to
Washington to make the proposition for an armistice and begin the
negotiations for a permanent peace on the day Lee should make good his
promise.

The letter with which Stephens started to Washington asked on its face
that the President of the United States arrange for an exchange of
prisoners which would be prompt and effective and prevent all suffering
by Northern men in Southern climates and Southern men in Northern
prisons. Davis had asked again and again that all prisoners be
exchanged. The Federal War Department had obstructed this exchange until
thousands of Northern soldiers crowded the prisons of the South and it
was impossible for the Confederate authorities to properly care for
them. Medicine had been made contraband of war by the North and the
simplest remedies could not be had for the Confederate soldiers or their
prisoners. Behind this humane purpose of Stephens' mission lay the
bigger proposition, which was a verbal one, to propose peace on Lee's
victory on Northern soil.

Lee's army lay on the plains of Culpeper during the beautiful month of
May. The vast field was astir with the feverish breath of preparations
for the grand march. Trains rushed to the front loaded with munitions of
war. New batteries of artillery with the fin