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[b]US Army Headquarters
Charleston, South Carolina[/b]

Five years of bloody combat has come to an end and you are now our countrymen. In accordance with presidential wishes, all southern fighting men below the rank of Brevet Colonel are hereby granted free leave to lay down your weapons and return to your homes and farms. If you have a horse, you are allowed to keep it for the journey home. All rebel state legislatures and governor's are absolved for any crimes against the United States. Senior rebel army officers with the rank of Brevet Colonel and higher along with the rebel cabinet are ordered to surrender to US Army forces for arrest with due haste. 

-- Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant
Commanding General, US Army

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[b]A Proclamation[/b]

I hereby proclaim that the insurrection which heretofore existed in the southern states of the United States of America is at an end. And I do further proclaim that the said insurrection is at an end and that peace, order, tranquility, and civil authority now exist in and throughout the whole of the United States of America. Five long years of warfare are now over. Those that would rebel against us are now joined with us in our Union. The North may have won the war, but now it is up to all of us, both North and South, to win the peace. We have to let the healing begin so this country may be truly united again. We have survived mighty internal turmoil and can now emerge from it stronger. We must become stronger, for we now see the shape of things in the world. There are those that would have seen our Republic torn asunder and strangled to death by its own southern populace. It is our solemn duty to become stronger as a whole to fend off those who wished to see that previous mentioned fate come to pass. We must show them that instead of striking down a weak nation in turmoil, they have only awoken a sleeping giant.

-- Abraham Lincoln
United States President