The country is burning, the dead and the grief, the terror and the bloodshed piling higher every day, unfathomable numbers, immeasurable sorrow. General Lee will surrender on April 9th at the Appomattox Court House. Church bells will ring and a dizzying joy will spread through the North. Winged victory will arrive.

None of this will end the war. Some things last.

“Keep yourself happy, my dear,” he says.

“Not until I see your face again.”

And then he’s gone.

Lincoln and the Final Act

This war is eating my life out; I have a strong impression that I shall not live to see the end.

—Abraham Lincoln to his friend Owen Lovejoy, 1864

But also:

I expect to go back and make my home in Springfield for the rest of my life.

—Abraham Lincoln to Mary’s cousin John Todd Stuart, 1865

Lincoln wakes from a familiar dream to an unfamiliar emotion. The dream is of being on board a ship, moving rapidly towards a distantly glimpsed shore. The emotion takes him a moment to identify. If not happiness, at least the absence of unhappiness. Five days have passed since General Lee surrendered.

He breakfasts with his oldest son and they talk about what Robert might do now his military career is ending. Perhaps the law? To speak hopefully with Robert about his future, to know that he’ll have one, is a great joy. He imagines the same conversation over breakfast tables all across the country.

—

At eleven a.m., General Grant arrives for the weekly cabinet meeting. Grant is worried about Joseph E. Johnston’s army in North Carolina. Lincoln can’t share his concerns. He tells Grant about his dream, the same dream he had before Sumter, Bull Run, Antietam, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Wilmington—almost all of the great battles. The dream portends a momentous occurrence. It portends good news. “Those were not all victories,” Grant reminds him.

The problem of what to do with the rebel leaders is discussed.

Lincoln hopes they’ll all flee the country, removing the need to do anything. He wants no more violence, no trials, no retributions to add fuel to the fires of resentment. Later in the day, he receives the news that the rabid secessionist Jacob Thompson has been spotted en route to Maine and from there to England. Edwin Stanton, the Secretary of War, is preparing to arrest him, but Lincoln says no. “When you have got an elephant by the hind leg, and he’s trying to run away, it’s best to let him run,” Lincoln says.

—

Around three p.m., he and Mary ride to the Navy Yard to tour the USS Montauk. Mary expresses surprise on finding just the two of them in the carriage, but he tells her he wanted it that way. He takes her hand, so much smaller than his own.