Hampton Roads Conference was an attempt to end the American Civil War (1861-1865). On Feb. 3, 1865, representatives of the North and South met on the River Queen, a ship in Chesapeake Bay. The ship was anchored at Hampton Roads, near Fort Monroe (also called Fortress Monroe). President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William Henry Seward represented the North. The South was represented by the Confederacy’s vice president, Alexander H. Stephens, and by Confederate Senator Robert M. T. Hunter and Assistant Secretary of War John A. Campbell.
Both sides approached the meeting with widely differing views regarding acceptable peace terms. Lincoln refused to change any terms of the Emancipation Proclamation, or to consider any peace proposal that did not involve immediate restoration of the Union and the laying down of Confederate arms. The representatives failed to reach an agreement.
