PEACE TALKS

The fall of Fort Fisher made clear that the Confederacy’s days were numbered. Southerners were tired and hungry.

- Heather Cox Richardson

Their economy was ruined, and the enslaved people they relied on were leaving their farms and plantations. Southerners no longer had the will or the resources to continue to fight.

Northerners were tired of fighting, too. They began to say that the Southern states wanted to come back to the Union. But President Abraham Lincoln wouldn’t allow that to happen unless the Southerners abolished slavery. Lincoln was accused of being harsh by Northerners, who claimed that slavery was not an issue about which a lot of people cared. People on both sides pressured their leaders to make peace.

By the end of January 1865, Confederate president Jefferson Davis wanted an armistice. He believed that once Northerners stopped fighting, they would not start again. Eventually, the Union would have to recognize the Confederacy as a separate country. Davis was willing to negotiate to buy time.