APRIL 19-MAY 27, 1865. -Negotiations for the surrender of the Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi Department commanded by General E. Kirby Smith, C. S. Army.

REPORTS.

Numbers 1. -Major General John Pope, U. S. Army, commanding Military Division of the Missouri.

Numbers 2. -Lieutenant Colonel John T. Sprague, Eleventh U. S. Infantry, Chief of Staff.

Numbers 1. Report of Major General John Pope, U. S. Army, commanding Military Division of the Missouri. HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSOURI, Saint Louis, April 20, 1865.

Lieutenant General U. S. GRANT,

Commander-in-Chief of U. S. Forces, Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to transmit inclosed a copy of my letter to General E. Kirby Smith, offering the terms accorded by you to General R. E. Lee; also a copy of my letter of instructions to Colonel Sprague. Colonel Sprague left yesterday for mouth of Red River.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN POPE,

Major-General, Commanding.

[Inclosure Numbers 1.]

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, Mo., April 19, 1865.

Lieutenant General E. KIRBY SMITH,

Commanding Confederate Forces, Trans-Mississippi Department:

GENERAL: I have the honor to transmit inclosed for your information, by the hands of Colonel John T. Sprague, U. S. Army, the chief of my staff, certified copies* of a correspondence between Lieutenant General U. S. Grant, General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States, and General R. E. Lee, General-in-Chief of the Confederate Armies, leading to the capitulation of the latter with the Army of Northern Virginia Official communications received to-day inform me that negotiations leading to the same result are in progress between Major General William T. Sherman, commanding U. S. forces in North Carolina, and General J. E. Johnston, commanding Confederate forces in the same section of country. Authentic, though not official, information has also reached here of the surrender of Mobile, with its garrison, to Major-General Canby, U. S. Army. In view of these results, accomplished and in progress of speedy accomplishment, I am authorized by the General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States to offer to yourself and the army under your command the same terms accorded to and accepted by General R. E. Lee. It seems not improper for me to invite your attention to the fact that a large part of the great armies of the United States are now available for operations in the Trans-Mississippi Department; that they are sufficiently strong to render effective resistance impossible, and that, by prolonging a contest, now manifest hopeless for any of the purpose for which it was inaugurated, you will be made responsible for unnecessary bloodshed and for the devastation

---------------

*Not found as inclosures, but see Vol. XLVI, Part III, pp. 619, 641, 664-666.

---------------