Last Meeting

After Union forces secured Petersburg on April 3, 1865, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant established his headquarters here at the Thomas Wallace House. He sent word to President Abraham Lincoln at City Point that Petersburg had fallen and invited Lincoln to meet him here. Lincoln and his son Tad rode the U.S. Military Railroad to Hancock Station, where his son Capt. Robert T. Lincoln, a member of Grant's staff, met him and escorted him through Union and Confederate lines. After pausing at Confederate Fort Mahone, they arrived here about 11 A.M. to find Grant seated on the front porch. Lincoln dismounted and walked rapidly through the gate, "his face beaming with delight," to shake Grant's hand and offer congratulations.

Lincoln and Grant smoked cigars on the porch, discussed the events of the past week, and hoped to hear soon of the capture of Richmond. Lincoln reiterated his intention to pursue a lenient policy toward the South and outlined his plans for reconstruction. Thomas Wallace, the home's owner and an old Whig acquaintance of Lincoln, invited Lincoln and Grant inside. When they declined because of the cigar smoke, Wallace brought Lincoln a high-backed wooden chair, and the president sat on it at the edge of the porch with his long legs dangling. After an hour and a half, with no word of Richmond's fate, Lincoln and the rest of his party remounted and toured Petersburg. They picked up as souvenirs some bundles of tobacco they found scattered about the streets before returning to City Point, where Lincoln learned that Richmond had been surrendered.

(sidebar)
In March 1865, Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant invited President Abraham Lincoln to visit him at City Point for a respite from the capital as the 9 1/2-month-tong siege of Petersburg neared its end. Lincoln joined him on March 24. They held meetings, reviewed the army, and toured for fortifications. On April 3, the day the Federals occupied Richmond and Petersburg, Lincoln and Grant held their last meeting in Petersburg. Lincoln visited Richmond the next day. He returned to Washington on April 9 as Grant accepted the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee's army at Appomattox Court House.

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