XLVI, part ii, p. 802.]

[( 2) For the military convention of April 26, 1865, signed by
Sherman and Johnston, and the supplemental terms, signed by Johnston
and Schofield, see War Records, Vol. XLVII, part iii, pp. 313, 482.]

CHAPTER XIX
The Restoration of Civil Government in the Southern States--The
Course Pursued in North Carolina--An Order from General Grant in
Regard to Cotton and Produce--Suggestions for the Reorganization
of Civil Government--A Provisional Governor for North Carolina.

Being in command in North Carolina at the close of the war, I was
connected for a short period with the very earliest consideration
of the vital question of the restoration of civil government in
the Southern States, in which I acted a more important part at a
later period. The moment the surrender of Johnston's army made it
evident that the end was near, the question arose, and was much
discussed among some of the prominent officers, as to the status
of the negroes in the South. The position was promptly taken by
me, as the responsible commander in North Carolina, that the question
at that time was solely one of fact. The President's proclamation
of emancipation was virtually a military order to the army to free
all the slaves in the insurgent States as rapidly as military
operations should bring them within its control. Whatever the
legal effect of the proclamation upon the status of slaves not
within the reach of the army when it was issued, there could be no
question of its binding obligation, as an order to the army, to be
executed and made practically effective as rapidly as it came within
the power of the army to execute it. Accordingly, the following
order was issued by me to give full practical effect to the
proclamation, and to maintain the freedom of all former slaves, so
long as the subject-matter should remain under military control.
This order, which was the first public official declaration on the
subject, was mentioned by one of the leading journals of New York
at the time as having at least the merit of "saving a world of
discussion." However this may be, little or no discussion followed,
and the freedom of all slaves in the States lately in insurrection
at once became an established fact.

"(General Orders, No. 32.)
"Hdqrs. Dept. of North Carolina, Army of the Ohio, Raleigh, N. C.,
April 27, 1865.
"To remove a doubt which seems to exist in the minds of some of
the people of North Carolina, i