Ending The War: What if this peace conference had happened?
In 2017, Terrianne Schulte posted a six part series about a proposed peace conference for March 1865. It was a conference where the leading officers on both sides—and their wives—would have played a significant role in brokering peace. It was Maj. General Edward O.C. Ord’s idea, proposed in the wake of the failure of the Hampton Roads peace conference on February 3, 1865. He had a plan to bring Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee together in a military convention to do what the politicians of the time were unable to do, that is, find a path to peace. His plan also had a surprising twist. He wanted to bring old friends Julia Dent Grant and Maria Louisa (“Louise”) Longstreet together for a cordial reunion that could become a model for friends and families long divided by war. It was a remarkable idea for its time.
But it didn’t happened…
We invited you to check out the series in the archives and consider how it might have positively or negatively affected the ending the Civil War.
Although Edward O.C. Ord worked hard for an early peace,. he was a tiger in battle. Ord’s aggressiveness was a major reason Grant’s Appomattox Campaign ended in Lee’s surrender. One tough cookie.
Mr Ruth in reference to the effects of a gorilla war fare by the south to which you stated would have little effect on the north . i ask you to read part one of this posting . thank you
ps I n reference to last weeks comments ..
Grant would have declined as he did so at Appomattox bowing to Lincoln’s demand that peace was only possible by the Confederate states rejoining the Union. Any peace with the Confederacy still existing was impossible, because such a peace would have rendered the Union soldiers’ casualties meaningless. The suggestion that the military was taking over the political decision on how to end the war is a direct contradiction to the Constitutional demand of civilian control over the military. U.S Const, Art. II, Sec. 2.