CHAP. XXIV. FLIGHT OF THE CONFEDERATES FROM RICHMOND.

1681

at eight o'clock in the evening, Davis abandoned his capital and sought personal safety in flight. This act was a marked commentary on his assertion made in a speech a few weeks before: "If it were possible, I would be willing to sacrifice my life a thousand times before I would succumb." His wife had fled to Danville a few days before, and there awaited his coming. At nine o'clock in the evening, the Virginia legislature fled. The Confederate congress had already gone, having left an order for the cotton, tobacco, and other property in the city, to be burned. At midnight, all signs of a "government" had disappeared; and at three o'clock in the morning, incendiary fires were lighted. There was a fresh breeze from the south, and very soon a large portion of the chief business section of Richmond was enveloped in flames. Drunken incendiaries fired buildings not in the pathway of the great conflagration; and until dawn the city was a Pandemonium. Most of the Confederate troops had fled; and at an early hour in the morning, General Weitzel, in command of the forces on the north side of the James, entered Richmond with his colored regiments and put out the fires. Lieutenant Johnston Livingston De Peyster, of Weitzel's staff, ascended to the roof of the Virginia State-House and there unfurled the National Flag, where it had not been seen floating for four years.

Meanwhile, Davis and his associates fled to Danville, whither Lee hoped to follow. They had left the inhabitants of the capital defenceless and that city on fire; and they also abandoned five thousand of their sick and wounded in the hospitals, and a thousand soldiers, to become prisoners of war. They also left, as trophies for the victors, five hundred pieces of artillery, five thousand small arms, many locomotives and cars, and a large amount of other public property. They carried with them what gold they could seize in their haste; also the archives of the Confederate government, together with their great seal which had just arrived from England, but which was never stamped upon any public document. A part of the archives were captured by National troops, and the remainder were subsequently sold to our Government by the Confederate ex-minister to Mexico.

Tidings of the fall of Richmond went over the land on that memorable 3d of April, 1865, and produced great joy in every loyal bosom. Before sunset public demonstrations of delight and satisfaction were everywhere visible. At the National Capital, all the public offices were closed, and all business among those who were in sympathy with the Government was suspended. There was an immense gathering of people in Wall street, New York, on that day, to listen to the voices of patriotic orators; and from the tower of Trinity Church, which looks down upon that great mart of moneychangers, the bells chimed music in airs consonant with the public feeling.

The people lingered long; and a deep religious feeling, born of joy and gratitude, pervaded that almost innumerable throng. That feeling was remarkably manifested when thousands of voices joined in chanting the Christian Doxology to the grand air of Old Hundred.

In Washington city, the loyal people gathered in a great throng and visited Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State. They called for a speech, when he appeared and said: “I am now about writing my foreign despatches. What shall I tell the Emperor of China? I shall thank him, in your name, for never having permitted a piratical flag to enter a harbor of the empire. What shall I say to the Sultan of Turkey? I shall thank him for always having surrendered rebel insurgents who have taken refuge in his kingdom. What shall I say to the Emperor of the French? I shall say to him that he can go to Richmond to-morrow and get his tobacco, so long held under blockade there, provided the rebels have not used it up. To Lord John Russell, I will say, the British merchants will find the cotton exported from our ports, under treaty with the United States, cheaper than cotton obtained by running the blockade. As for Earl Russell himself, I need not tell him that this is a war for freedom and national independence, and the rights of human nature, and not a war for empire; and if Great Britain should only be just to the United States, Canada will remain undisturbed by us, so long as she prefers the authority of the noble Queen to voluntary incorporation in the United States. What shall I tell the King of Prussia? I will tell him that the Germans have been faithful to the standard of the Union, as his excellent minister, Baron Gerolt, has been constant in his friendship to the United States during his long residence in this country. To the Emperor of Austria, I shall say that he has proved himself a very wise man, for he told us at the beginning, that he had no sympathy with the rebels anywhere." In these few words, Secretary Seward revealed the fact that while Great Britain and France-Christian nations-were assisting the enemies of our Republic to destroy it, Pagan China and Mohammedan Turkey, animated by principles of right and justice, were its abiding friends.

Lee, after he had advised the evacuation of Richmond, perceiving that he could no longer hold Petersburg, abandoned it. He stole away so silently on the evening of the 2d, that the suspicions of the Union pickets were not awakened; and when, at dawn, it was discovered that the intrenchments of the Confederates in front of Petersburg had been abandoned, Lee's army were miles away to the westward, seeking to join the columns at Richmond, in a flight for safety. Lee concentrated his broken army at Amelia Court-House, where they might reach the Danville Railway. He had ordered stores to be sent from Danville to that point for the use of his

J

CHAP. XXIV.

HOPE AND DESPAIR OF LEE.

1683

army; but when, on Sunday afternoon, the loaded trains reached Amelia Court-House, a despatch reached the officer in charge, directing him to continue the train on to Richmond for the transportation of the "government" and the archives. The stupid officer did not leave the supplies at Amelia, but took them on to Richmond, and they were there destroyed in the conflagration. This was a fatal mistake; and when Lee reached Amelia. Court-House, with his half-famished army, and found no supplies there, hope forsook him, for his plans were thwarted. He could not move on for want of provisions and forage; and in the meantime, Sheridan gained a position between the Confederates and Lee's avenue of escape. For several days the latter made desperate efforts to break through the National line, cavalry and infantry, that stood across his path, but failed. Finally, on the 9th of April, he made overtures for capitulation.

On the 7th, Grant had written a note to Lee, suggesting that the events of the past week should convince him of the hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia. "I feel that it is so,' Grant wrote, "and regard it as my duty to shift from myself the responsibility of any further effusion of blood by asking of you the surrender of that portion of the Confederate States army known as the Army of Northern Virginia." To this, Lee replied, that he did not believe further resistance would be vain, but reciprocating Grant's desire to avoid useless effusion of blood, he said: “Before considering your proposition, I ask the terms you will offer on condition of its surrender." After dispatching his reply to Grant, Lee resumed his march westward toward Lynchburg, under cover of the darkness. He hoped to escape to the shelter of the mountains beyond Lynchburg. So silent was his retreat, that it was not discovered until the morning of the 8th, when the National army pushed on in pursuit of the fugitives.

On receiving Lee's answer, the lieutenant-general replied: "There is but one condition I would insist upon, namely, that the men and officers. surrendered shall be disqualified for taking up arms against the Government of the United States, until properly exchanged;" and he proposed to meet Lee in person, or to delegate officers for the purpose of definitely arranging the terms of surrender.

Hoping to escape, after his uninterrupted night march, Lee sent a note. to General Grant, saying he did not propose to surrender. "To be frank," he said, "I do not think the emergency has arisen to call for the surrender of this army." He then proposed to meet Grant on the morning of the 9th to confer upon the subject of peace. The lieutenant-general replied that he had no authority to treat on the topic of peace, and that a meeting

for such a purpose would be useless. "The terms upon which peace can be had," he said, "are well understood. By the South laying down their arms, they will hasten that most desirable event, save thousands of human lives, and hundreds of millions of property not yet destroyed." In the meantime Sheridan had settled the question, and rendered further parley unnecessary. He stood across Lee's path on the morning of the 9th, near Appomattox Court-House. The latter saw that his only hope of escape was in cutting his way successfully through Sheridan's line. This he attempted at daybreak with his whole army, then numbering not more than ten thousand effective men. He failed again. Appalled, the Confederates staggered back, and displayed a white flag before the van of the troopers of General Custer. Then Lee wrote to Grant: "I received your note of this morning on the picket-line, whither I had come to meet you, and ascertain definitely what terms were embraced in your proposal of yesterday, with reference to the surrender of this army. I now ask an interview, in accordance with an offer contained in your letter of yesterday, for that purpose."

Grant sent Lee word that he assented to his request, and arrangements were made for an interview in the parlor of the neat brick dwelling of Wilmer McLean at Appomattox Court-House. There, at two o'clock on Palm-Sunday (April 9, 1865), the two commanders met, with courteous recognition. General Grant was accompanied by his chief aide-de-camp, Colonel Parker, a great-nephew of the celebrated Seneca chief, Red Jacket; General Lee, by Colonel Marshall, his adjutant-general, a great-grandson of Chief-Justice Marshall of the Supreme Court of the United States. The terms of surrender were discussed and settled. They were put in the form of a written proposition by Grant, and a written acceptance by Lee. Having been engrossed, they were signed by the generals, at half-past three o'clock, on a neat mahogany centre-table, with a marble top.

The terms prescribed by General Grant were extremely lenient and magnanimous, considering the circumstances. They required Lee and his men to give their parole of honor that they would not take up arms against their Government until regularly exchanged; gave to the officers their sidearms, baggage, and private horses; and pledged the faith of the Government that they should not be punished for their treason and rebellion so long as they should respect that parole and be obedient to the laws. Grant even went so far, in his generosity, at Lee's suggestion, that he gave instructions to the proper officers to allow such cavalrymen of the Confederate army as owned their horses to retain them, as they would, he said, need them for tilling their farms.

With the freedom of utterance which the generosity of the victor had

CHAP. XXIV.

LEE'S FAREWELL ADDRESS.

1685

given him, General Lee, on the following day, issued an extraordinary farewell Address to his Army, in which, in very guarded language, he told his soldiers, in effect, that in taking up arms against their country and trying to destroy the Republic in whose government he and they had always shared as equals, they had done a patriotic act, and for which they would take with

them the satisfaction that proceeds from conscientiousness of duty faithfully performed;" therefore, he invoked God's blessing upon their acts. He gave them to understand that they had no "country"-no government to which their allegiance was due, excepting the territory and the rulers within the bounds of the Southern Confederacy; and he spoke of his "unceasing admiration" of their "constancy and devotion to that country,' which had "endeared them to their countrymen."