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Why were William Tecumseh Sherman's first surrender terms for Joseph E. Johnston rejected?
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William Tecumseh Sherman
General William T. Sherman in uniform and wearing a mourning ribbon for President Lincoln, photograph by Brady's National Photographic Portrait Galleries, 1865.
William Tecumseh Sherman’s initial surrender terms for Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston were rejected because they were deemed too generous by the United States Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton.1
Following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, the political climate in Washington had shifted, and the government was unwilling to accept the broad, lenient conditions Sherman had proposed. Consequently, these terms were deemed unacceptable, forcing Sherman to negotiate new, stricter terms that Johnston ultimately signed on April 26, 1865.1