do nothing more unless heavily supported by CHAP. IX. Longstreet. Lee and his army were prisoners of war before he and Grant met at Appomattox. Long; "Memoirs of R. E. Lee," p. 421. The meeting took place at the house of Wilmer McLean, in the edge of the village. Lee met Grant at the threshold, and ushered him into a small and barely furnished parlor, where were soon assembled the leading officers of the National army. General Lee was accompanied only by his secretary, Colonel Charles Marshall. A short conversation led up to a request from Lee for the terms on which the surrender of his army would be received. Grant briefly stated the terms which would be accorded. acceded to them, and Grant wrote the following Apl. 9, 1865. letter: Lee In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the 8th inst., I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on the following terms, to wit: Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate; one copy to be given to an officer designated by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as you may designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged; and each company or regimental commander sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, artillery, and public property to be parked and stacked, and turned over to the officer appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed Facsimile to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their parole "Memoirs." and the laws in force where they may reside. General Grant says in his "Memoirs" that up to the moment when he put pen to paper he had not thought of a word that he should write. The terms he had verbally proposed, and which Lee had of original MS. Grant, Vol. II., p. 496. CHAP. IX. accepted, were soon put in writing, and there he Apl. 9, 1865. might have stopped. But as he wrote, a feeling of sympathy for his gallant antagonist gradually came over him, and he added the extremely liberal terms with which his letter closed. The sight of Lee's sword, an especially fine one, suggested the paragraph allowing officers to retain their side-arms; and he ended with a phrase which he had evidently not thought of, and for which he had no authority, which practically pardoned and amnestied every man in Lee's army a thing he had refused to consider the day before, and which had been expressly forbidden him in President Lincoln's order of the 3d of March.1 Yet so great was the joy over the crowning victory, so deep was the gratitude of the Government and the people to Grant and his heroic army, that his terms were accepted as he wrote them, and his exercise of the Executive prerogative of pardon entirely overlooked. It must be noticed here, however, as a few days later it led the greatest of Grant's generals into a serious error. Lee must have read the memorandum of terms with as much surprise as gratification. He said the permission for officers to retain their side-arms. would have a happy effect. He then suggested and gained another important concession that those of the cavalry and artillery who owned their own horses should be allowed to take them home to put in their crops. Lee wrote a brief reply accepting the 1 The President, in his Amnesty Proclamation of December 8, 1863, expressly excepted officers above the rank of colonel, all who left seats in Congress to aid the rebellion, and all who resigned commissions in the army or navy of the United States and afterwards participated in the rebellion. The terms granted to General Lee's army at Appomattox practically extended amnesty to many persons in these classes. Grant, "Personal Vol. II., p. 495. terms. He then remarked that his army was in a CHAP. IX. starving condition, and asked Grant to provide them with subsistence and forage, to which he at Apl. 9, 1865. once assented, and asked for how many men the rations would be wanted. Lee answered, "About twenty-five thousand," and orders were at once Memoirs." given to issue them. The number surrendered turned out to be even larger than this. The paroles signed amounted to 28,231. If we add to this the captures at Five Forks, Petersburg, and Sailor's Creek, the thousands who deserted the failing cause at every by-road leading to their homes, and filled every wood and thicket between Richmond and Lynchburg, we can see how considerable an army Lee commanded when Grant "started out gunning." Yet every Confederate writer, speaker, and singer who refers to the surrender says, and will say forever, that Lee surrendered only seven thousand muskets. With these brief and simple formalities one of the most momentous transactions of modern times was concluded. The news soon transpired, and the Union gunners prepared to fire a National salute; but Grant would not permit it. He forbade any rejoicing over a fallen enemy, who he hoped would hereafter be an enemy no longer. The next day he rode to the Confederate lines to make a visit of farewell to General Lee. Sitting on horseback be- Ibid., p. 497. tween the lines, the two heroes of the war held a friendly conversation. Lee considered the war at an end, slavery dead, the National authority restored; Johnston must now surrender- the sooner the better. Grant urged him to make a public appeal to hasten the return of peace; but Lee, true to CHAP. IX. his ideas of subordination to a government which had ceased to exist, said he could not do this without consulting the Confederate President. They parted with courteous good wishes, and Grant, without pausing to look at the city he had taken or Apl. 10, 1865. the enormous system of works which had so long held him at bay, intent only upon reaping the peaceful results of his colossal victory, and putting an end to the waste and the burden of war, hurried away to Washington to do what he could for this practical and beneficent purpose. He had done an inestimable service to the Republic: he had won immortal honor for himself; but neither then nor at any subsequent period of his life was there any sign in his words or his bearing of the least touch of vainglory. The day after Appomattox he was as simple, modest, and unassuming a citizen as he was the day before Sumter. CHAPTER X THE FALL OF THE REBEL CAPITAL SINCE the visit of Blair and the return of the rebel commissioners from the Hampton Roads Conference, no event of special significance had excited the authorities or people of Richmond. February and March passed away in the routine of war and politics, which at the end of four years had become familiar and dull. To shrewd observers in that city things were going from bad to worse. Stephens, the Confederate Vice-President, had abandoned the capital and the cause and retired to Georgia to await the end. Judge John A. Campbell, though performing the duties of Assistant Secretary of War, made, among his intimate friends, no concealment of his opinion that the last days of the Confederacy had come. The members of the rebel Congress, adjourning after their long and fruitless winter session, gave many indications that they never expected to reassemble. A large part of their winter's work had been to demonstrate without direct accusation that it was the Confederate maladministration which was wrecking the Southern cause. On his part Jefferson Davis prolonged their session a week to send them his last message a dry lecture to prove that the blame rested en CHAP. X. 1865. Jones, p. 450. |