One Hour at Appamattox

The Battle of Appomattox Court House (Virginia, U.S.), fought on the morning of April 9, , . Lee received the reply within an hour and dispatched an aide, Charles Marshall, to find a suitable location for the occasion. Marshall scrutinized .
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He asked Grant to put the terms in writing so he could sign them. He had just written the sentence: Each officer and man shall be allowed to return to his home. He will not be disturbed by United States authorities as long as he honors this agreement and obeys the laws where he lives. Grant gave the paper to Lee. Lee read it slowly. When he finished, Grant asked if the Confederate General wished to propose any changes. Lee was silent for a moment. I would like to understand if these men will be allowed to keep their horses. Only the officers are permitted to take their private property.

Until now, Lee's face had shown no emotion. But for a moment, his self-control weakened.

Appomattox Courthouse

Grant could see how badly Lee wanted this. But I think that this will be the last battle of the war. I sincerely hope so. I think that the surrender of this army will be followed soon by that of all the others. I will not change the terms as they are written. But I will tell my officers to let all the men who claim to own a horse or mule take the animals home with them to work their little farms.

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Lee was pleased with this. It will be very gratifying and will do much to help our people. While waiting for the surrender papers to be copied, Grant presented Lee to the other Union officers in the room. Lee had known some of them before the war.


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After a few minutes, Lee turned to Grant. He told him that his army held about one thousand Union soldiers as war prisoners. He said that for the past few days, he had no food but cracked corn to give them. He said he had nothing to give his own men to eat. Grant called in his supply officer and ordered him to feed the Confederate Army. He told him to send to Lee's army enough food for twenty-five thousand men.

Finally, the surrender papers were ready. Grant and Lee signed them. Lee shook hands with Grant and walked out of the house. Lee got on his horse and rode slowly back to his army. As he entered Confederate lines, men began to cheer.

Surrender at Appomattox - The American Civil War

But the cheering died when the soldiers saw the pain and sorrow in Lee's face. Tears filled the old man's eyes. He could not speak. Soldiers removed their hats and watched silently as Lee rode past. A crowd of soldiers waited at Lee's headquarters. They pushed close around him trying to touch him, trying to shake his hand.

Lee began to speak. And if you make as good citizens as you have soldiers, you will do well. I shall always be proud of you. And God bless you all. From the crowd came a loud cry. I wish for your sake and mine that every damned Yankee on earth was sunk ten miles in hell! On the other side of the lines, Union soldiers began to celebrate.

Artillerymen fired their guns to salute the victory over Lee. Grant heard the artillery booming and sent orders that it should stop. General Grant left Appomattox Court House to return to his headquarters a few kilometers away.

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Suddenly, he stopped his horse. Grant, suffering from a throbbing headache, stated that "It looks as if Lee still means to fight. Sheridan deployed his three divisions of cavalry along a low ridge to the southwest of Appomattox Court House. Gordon attacked Sheridan's cavalry and quickly forced back the first line under Brevet Brig. The next line, held by Brig. Mackenzie and George Crook , slowed the Confederate advance. Lee's cavalry saw these Union forces and immediately withdrew and rode off towards Lynchburg.

James Longstreet 's corps to the northeast. Colonel Charles Venable of Lee's staff rode in at this time and asked for an assessment, and Gordon gave him a reply he knew Lee did not want to hear: Many of Lee's officers, including Longstreet, agreed that surrendering the army was the only option left. The only notable officer opposed to surrender was Longstreet's chief of artillery, Brig. Edward Porter Alexander , who predicted that if Lee surrendered then "every other [Confederate] army will follow suit". Grant received Lee's first letter on the morning of April 9 as he was traveling to meet Sheridan.

Grant recalled his migraine seemed to disappear when he read Lee's letter, [10] and he handed it to his assistant Rawlins to read aloud before composing his reply:.


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    • General, Your note of this date is but this moment, I am at this writing about four miles West of Walker's Church and will push forward to the front for the purpose of meeting you. Notice sent to me on this road where you wish the interview to take place. Grant's response was remarkable in that it let the defeated Lee choose the place of his surrender. Marshall scrutinized Appomattox Court House, a small village of roughly twenty buildings that served as a waystation for travelers on the Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road.

    With gunshots still being heard on Gordon's front and Union skirmishers still advancing on Longstreet's front, Lee received a message from Grant. After several hours of correspondence between Grant and Lee, a cease-fire was enacted and Grant received Lee's request to discuss surrender terms. Well-dressed in his customary uniform, Lee waited for Grant to arrive. Grant, whose headache had ended when he received Lee's note, arrived at the courthouse in a mud-spattered uniform—a government-issue sack coat with trousers tucked into muddy boots, no sidearms, and with only his tarnished shoulder straps showing his rank.

    Lee brought the attention back to the issue at hand, and Grant offered the same terms he had before:. In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the 8th inst. 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 to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside.

    The terms were as generous as Lee could hope for; his men would not be imprisoned or prosecuted for treason. Officers were allowed to keep their sidearms, horses, and personal baggage. Parker , a Native American of the Seneca tribe , and completed around 4 p. Grant soon visited the Confederate army, and then he and Lee sat on the McLean home's porch and met with visitors such as Longstreet and George Pickett before the two men left for their capitals. On April 10, Lee gave his farewell address to his army.

    Chamberlain was the Union officer selected to lead the ceremony. In his memoirs entitled The Passing of the Armies , Chamberlain reflected on what he witnessed on April 12, , as the Army of Northern Virginia marched in to surrender their arms and their colors:. The momentous meaning of this occasion impressed me deeply. I resolved to mark it by some token of recognition, which could be no other than a salute of arms.

    Well aware of the responsibility assumed, and of the criticisms that would follow, as the sequel proved, nothing of that kind could move me in the least. The act could be defended, if needful, by the suggestion that such a salute was not to the cause for which the flag of the Confederacy stood, but to its going down before the flag of the Union.

    My main reason, however, was one for which I sought no authority nor asked forgiveness. Before us in proud humiliation stood the embodiment of manhood: Instructions had been given; and when the head of each division column comes opposite our group, our bugle sounds the signal and instantly our whole line from right to left, regiment by regiment in succession, gives the soldier's salutation, from the "order arms" to the old "carry"—the marching salute.

    Gordon at the head of the column, riding with heavy spirit and downcast face, catches the sound of shifting arms, looks up, and, taking the meaning, wheels superbly, making with himself and his horse one uplifted figure, with profound salutation as he drops the point of his sword to the boot toe; then facing to his own command, gives word for his successive brigades to pass us with the same position of the manual,—honor answering honor. On our part not a sound of trumpet more, nor roll of drum; not a cheer, nor word nor whisper of vain-glorying, nor motion of man standing again at the order, but an awed stillness rather, and breath-holding, as if it were the passing of the dead!

    Chamberlain's account has been questioned by historian William Marvel, who claims that "few promoted their own legends more actively and successfully than he did". Bartlett 's division and that he did not mention any "salute" in his contemporary letters, but only in his memoirs written many decades later when most other eyewitnesses had already died. At the surrender ceremonies, about 28, Confederate soldiers passed by and stacked their arms.

    This reference does not include the 7, who were captured at Sailor's Creek three days earlier, who were treated as prisoners of war. While General George Meade who wasn't present at the meeting reportedly shouted that "it's all over" upon hearing the surrender was signed, roughly , Confederates remained in the field, but were mostly starving and disillusioned. Many of these were scattered throughout the South in garrisons or guerilla bands while the rest were concentrated in three major Confederate commands. Johnston's army in North Carolina, the most threatening of the remaining Confederate armies, surrendered to Maj.

    The 98, Confederate troops that laid down their weapons the largest surrender of the war marked the virtual end of the conflict. There were several more small battles after Lee's surrender. The Battle of Palmito Ranch on May 12—13, , is commonly regarded as the final land battle of the war.

    Lee never forgot Grant's magnanimity during the surrender, and for the rest of his life would not tolerate an unkind word about Grant in his presence. Likewise, General Gordon cherished Chamberlain's simple act of saluting his surrendered army, calling Chamberlain "one of the knightliest soldiers of the Federal army. During the Civil War Centennial , the United States Post Office issued five postage stamps commemorating the th anniversaries of famous battles, as they occurred over a four-year period, beginning with the Battle of Fort Sumter Centennial issue of The Battle of Shiloh commemorative stamp was issued in , the Battle of Gettysburg in , the Battle of the Wilderness in , and the Appomattox Centennial commemorative stamp in The Civil War Trust a division of the American Battlefield Trust and its partners have acquired and preserved acres 2.