One witness said, "Seeing ... a body of soldiers halted in front of a fine old residence on Market street, we found its spacious piazza occupied by General Grant and staff, together with some of his corps commanders ... in front of the house, at the edge of the street, in the midst of soldiers, sat President Lincoln upon his horse..."
Grant and Lincoln moved indoors. It was during this meeting in the Wallace house that Grant advised Lincoln that he wanted to let the Army of the Potomac and James defeat Lee's force, rather than Sherman's men, hoping to avoid political stirring up of sectional feelings.
Lincoln was looking forward to the end of the war, and he discussed leniency for the South and his vision for reconstruction.
These were very important points considering the future reuniting of America. In hindsight, knowing Lincoln would be assassinated in a very few day, the importance is magnified exponentially.
I don't know why I would think a town like Petersburg would have any interest whatsoever is perpetuating memories of their long siege ending in defeat. It is so easy to forget what communities suffered. Thoughts of embarrassment on my part crowd out my appreciation of history.
Still, it is obvious that this community has a lot to offer the students of history - maybe more than any other single location in Virginia that we've been to, history that goes much farther back than the Civil War. It is also obvious that this community could greatly benefit from tourist dollars. For their own sake I would think they would want to capitalize on such things as a presidential visit. If I lived in Petersburg, I would want to take this home back to the glory of PRE-Civil War 1855 - to remember and celebrate the good times.
No comments:
Post a Comment