The Union Army is closing in for the kill on multiple fronts, and everyone seems to know it. General Grant believes he'll have Richmond "in four or five days," while Sherman, now cooperating with Schofield in North Carolina, declares "the rebel game is up" after routing Confederate forces at Bentonville and chasing them toward Raleigh. The Saturday battle before Petersburg revealed just how demoralized Lee's army has become — rebel soldiers fired wildly over Union heads, laid down refusing to advance despite frantic urging from officers, and two entire brigades nearly surrendered en masse. Meanwhile, Mobile appears ready to fall, with deserters reporting only 900 exhausted old men left to defend the city. They're paying $1.50 per pound for bacon and $14 per bushel for corn meal, while 2,500 bales of cotton sit piled at the railway station, ready for hasty evacuation. In Cincinnati, the infamous Clement Vallandigham has been dragged from retirement to testify about the Chicago conspiracy — a plot to deliver the government "into the hands of its enemies."

This front page captures the Confederacy in its death throes during the final weeks of the Civil War. With Lee's army demoralized, Sherman marching through the Carolinas, and Mobile about to fall, the Confederate cause was collapsing on all fronts. The Chicago conspiracy trial revealed the extent of Copperhead opposition in the North — Democrats who actively worked to undermine the Union war effort. These aren't just military victories; they represent the end of America's bloodiest conflict and the preservation of the Union that Lincoln fought to save. Within three weeks of this paper's publication, Lee would surrender at Appomattox, and Lincoln would be assassinated at Ford's Theatre.

• Gold closed at 152½ in New York — meaning it took $1.52 in greenbacks to buy $1 worth of gold, showing massive wartime inflation
• Wisconsin legislators voted down a resolution for '$10 worth of postal stamps' — apparently even basic office supplies required legislative approval
• Kennedy, the 'rebel hotel burner' who tried to burn down New York City, confessed before execution that the plot was run by Confederate agents in Canada
• In Mobile, Confederate money was so worthless that gold traded at a $52 premium and even greenbacks commanded a $25 premium over Confederate currency
• The Wisconsin Assembly limited members to 'thirty minute speeches' — suggesting some legislators were prone to lengthy rants even during wartime

• Jacob Little, the prominent New York broker whose obituary appears here, was known as the 'Great Bear of Wall Street' and pioneered short selling — he made and lost several fortunes before dying nearly broke
• Clement Vallandigham, the 'great martyr' being dragged to testify, was so opposed to the war that Lincoln had him arrested and banished to the Confederacy in 1863 — he later snuck back through Canada
• Sherman's 'Georgia tactics' mentioned here referred to his March to the Sea, which destroyed $100 million in property and proved that the Confederacy couldn't protect its own territory
• The mention of emigrants heading west via the Missouri River captures the beginning of the great post-war western migration — over 350,000 would travel overland in the next decade
• Mobile's desperate food prices reflect the Union naval blockade's effectiveness — by 1865, it had reduced Southern trade to just 5% of pre-war levels