HAMPTON ROADS CONFERENCE

HAMPTON ROADS CONFERENCE. In February 1865, Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens, representing the Richmond government, met with President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward on the River Queen in Hampton Roads, Virginia, to discuss terms of peace. Lincoln offered peace on the basis of (1) reunion, (2) emancipation, and (3) the disbanding of Confederate troops, with a personal promise of sympathetic treatment. The Confederate representatives were not empowered to accept any terms except independence, and the conference adjourned without further agreement. In April, Richmond fell to the Union army, and, by May, the final Confederate armies in the field had surrendered.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Thomas, Emory M. The Confederate Nation: 1861–1865. New York: Harper and Row, 1979.

James ElliottWalmsley/a. g.

See alsoCivil War ; Confederate States of America ; Emancipation Proclamation ; Peace Movement of 1864 ; Unconditional Surrender .

Hampton Roads Peace Conference (February 1865) Abortive peace conference during the American Civil War. Abraham Lincoln and Confederate vice president Alexander H. Stephens met in Hampton Roads, Virginia. The talks failed with the Confederate states declining to rejoin the Union.