During the Carolina Campaign, as Union Gen. William T. Sherman’s army advanced on Raleigh along the North Carolina Railroad from Goldsboro and Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s forces prepared to evacuate the capital and retreat west, a train left Raleigh on April 12, 1865, carrying former North Carolina governors William A. Graham and David L. Swain with a letter from Gov. Zebulon B. Vance requesting a meeting with Sherman to discuss peace terms. The train, made up of a locomotive, tender, and single coach flying a white flag of truce, was first stopped and reversed outside the city on Johnston’s orders through Gen. Wade Hampton, then passed between skirmish lines under fire before being surrounded by Federal cavalry. Union Gen. H. Judson Kilpatrick detained the commissioners for several hours and then sent them on to Sherman, whose headquarters were in present-day Clayton. Sherman accepted Vance’s letter, agreed to safeguard the state government and spare Raleigh, and wrote that he would contribute what aid he could toward ending the war. Graham and Swain returned to Raleigh the next day, and Raleigh was safe.