© 2024 Texas Public Radio
Real. Reliable. Texas Public Radio.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
00000174-b11b-ddc3-a1fc-bfdbb1a20000The Schreiner University Department of History is honoring the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War with a series of short vignettes focusing on events from 1861 through 1865. The Civil War was the most destructive conflict in American history, but it was also one of our most defining moments as a people and as a nation. Let us know what you think about "This Week in the Civil War." E-mail your comments to Dr. John Huddleston at jhuddles@schreiner.edu.Airs: Weekdays at 5:19 a.m., 8:19 a.m., 4:19 p.m. on KTXI and 4:49 a.m., 9:29 p.m. on KSTX.

This Week in the Civil War - #1005

   On Thursday, January 12, 1865 in Richmond, Virginia Francis Preston Blair, Sr., a Democrat who abandoned his party and helped establish the Republican Party in the 1850s, meet with President Jefferson Davis, discussing unofficially the possibilities for peace.  With Lincoln’s apparent blessings, Blair made a series of suggestions to Davis.  From this meeting Blair procured a letter to Lincoln, expressing Davis’ willingness “to enter into conference, with a view to secure peace to the two countries.” That would be a problem; Davis did not wish to relinquish independence of the southern states and Lincoln’s perspective was “of one common country.”  Any negotiations would be doomed to failure because of these continuing, divergent views, but as a result of Blair’s efforts the abortive Hampton Roads conference would soon be held.