APRIL 1-2ND, 1865: Mrs. Lincoln had returned to Washington on the River Queen on 1 April. The President embarked in the Malvern with Admiral Porter. His "bunk was too short for his length, and he was compelled to fold his legs the first night" but Porter's carpenters remodeled the cabin on the sly, and the second morning Lincoln appeared at breakfast with the story that he had shrunk "six inches in length and about a foot sideways.
During the evening of the 2nd the tow sat on the upper deck of the ship listening to the artillery and musketry ashore as General Grant's troops, having rendered Richmond untenable with a crushing victory that day at Petersburg closed in on the Confederate capital.
Lincoln asked the Admiral: "Can't the Navy do something at this particular moment to make history?"
Porter's reply was a tribute to the officers and men throughout the Navy who all during the war made history through vital if often unheralded deeds: "The Navy is doing its best just now holding the enemy's four [three] heavy iron-clads in utter uselessness. If those vessels could reach City Point they would commit great havoc...."
Grant's position on the Petersburg-Richmond front had long depended on holding City point where water borne supplies could be brought. The federal fleet guarded and maintained this vital base.
--Old B-R'er
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