General William Tecumseh Sherman has arrived at Fortress Monroe after his devastating march through the Carolinas, en route to meet with General Grant and President Lincoln at the front lines. The hero of the Army of the Tennessee left Beaufort, North Carolina on Saturday evening and appeared unexpectedly at the Virginia fortress, dismissing Richmond newspaper reports of his defeat at Averysille and Bentonville with characteristic bluntness — he 'was there and ought to have known' if any such defeats had occurred. Meanwhile, Confederate forces launched a daring pre-dawn assault on Fort Stedman near Petersburg, using fake deserters to infiltrate Union lines. General John Gordon's troops briefly captured the fort and several batteries, taking between 500-600 prisoners including a brigadier general, before being repulsed with heavy losses. The Union counterattack netted an impressive 2,800 Confederate prisoners and ten battle flags, marking what Grant called a 'thorough defeat of the enemy's plans.'

This March 31st edition captures the Civil War in its final desperate weeks. Lee's audacious Fort Stedman assault was actually his last major offensive of the war — a final gamble to break Grant's stranglehold around Petersburg and Richmond. The convergence of Sherman, Grant, Lincoln, and Sheridan represents the tightening noose around the Confederacy, with all major Union commanders coordinating what would become the final campaign. Within two weeks of this newspaper's publication, Lee would surrender at Appomattox Court House. These stories document the last gasps of Confederate resistance and the methodical Union preparations for victory that had been four years in the making.

• A Springfield physician rode six miles in severe winter weather to treat a soldier's widow with pneumonia, then presented her with his $80 bill marked 'receipted in full' in honor of her late husband's service
• Churches in Geneva, Switzerland were praying every Sunday 'for the success of the north and the good health of President Lincoln' — showing international support for the Union cause
• A 9-year-old girl in Westerly, Rhode Island was killed when her dress caught on a rotating shaft coupling and 'she was carried around, her head striking the ground violently at each revolution'
• New Hampshire traced a cattle disease outbreak back to 'Mr. Chenery's unfortunate importation from Holland, in 1859' — an early case of international disease transmission
• A Middletown farmer recommended 'eight drops of tincture of aconite dropped on a piece of bread' as a cure for garget in cows

• That $100 bounty advertised for wounded soldiers would be worth about $1,800 today — a significant sum that helped disabled veterans survive after the war
• The Wheeler & Wilson sewing machines advertised were actually the most popular brand in America, but the company would later lose out to Singer due to patent disputes
• General Gordon, who led the Fort Stedman assault, would become president of the University of Georgia after the war and later a U.S. Senator — one of many Confederate officers who rebuilt their careers in peacetime
• The Massachusetts Spy masthead claims establishment in July 1770, making it one of America's oldest newspapers — it actually helped foment the American Revolution nearly a century earlier
• Sherman's casual dismissal of defeat reports was typical of his media relations — he famously despised war correspondents and once said 'I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts.'