%449. Sheridan's Ride.%--And now occurred a famous incident. About the middle of October Sheridan went to Washington, and while on his way back slept on the night of October 18 at Winchester. At 7 A.M. on the 19th he heard guns, but paid no attention to the sounds till 9 o'clock, when, as he rode quietly out of Winchester, he met a mile from town wagon trains and fugitives, and heard that Early had surprised his camp at daylight. Dashing up the pike with an escort of twenty men, calling to the fugitives as he passed them to turn and face the enemy, he met the army drawn up in line eleven miles from Winchester. "Far away in the rear," says an old soldier, "we heard cheer after cheer. Were reinforcements coming? Yes, Phil Sheridan was coming, and he was a host." Dashing down the line, Sheridan shouted, "What troops are these?" "The Sixth Corps," came back the response from a hundred voices. "We are all right," said Sheridan, as he swung his old hat and dashed along the line to the right. "Never mind, boys, we'll whip them yet. We shall sleep in our old quarters to-night." And they did.[1] Early was defeated. [Footnote:1] Read Sheridan's account in his _Personal Memoirs, _Vol. II., pp. 66-92. %450. Surrender of Lee.%--At the beginning of 1865 the situation of Lee was desperate, and in February, Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy, met Lincoln and Secretary Seward on a war vessel in Hampton Roads to discuss terms of peace. Lincoln demanded three things: 1. That the Confederate armies be disbanded and the men sent home. 2. That the Confederate States submit to the rule of Congress. 3. That slavery be abolished. These terms were not accepted, and the war went on. Sherman marched northward through the Carolinas and was reënforced from the coast; every seaport in the Confederacy was soon in Union hands; Sheridan finally dispersed Early's troops, and joined Grant before Petersburg; and the lines of Grant's army were drawn closer and closer around Petersburg and Richmond. Plainly the end was near. On April 2 Lee announced to Davis that both Petersburg and Richmond must be abandoned at once. The rams in the James River were immediately blown up, and on the morning of April 3 General Weitzel, hearing from a negro what was going on, entered Richmond and found that Lee was in full retreat. Grant followed, and on April 9 forced Lee to surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, seventy-five miles west of Richmond. Grant's treatment of Lee was most generous. He was not required to give up his sword, nor his officers their side arms, nor his men their horses, which they would need, Grant said, "to work their little farms." Each officer was to give his parole not to take up arms against the United States "until properly exchanged"; each regimental commander was to do the same for his men; and, "this done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to his home." Immediately after this surrender 25,000 rations were issued to Lee's men.