Show y d ali b f 4 k t 0 ov h P V 4 V MV I 1 Z 0 0 if 4 ly r 14 1 e 4 F A J by ELMO SCOTT WATSON was a great event sara YORKTOWN f toga was a great event and there j have been great events in our history since the war of the revolution He but the greatest was that which occurred on april 9 18 at the little village of appomattox when general lee met genera general grant and the question of the indissoluble union of these states passed into history never to be revived those were the words of a man who was not only an efe eye witness to but an active participant in ili that greatest event he was col charles marshall aide decamp de camp military secretary and assistant general on the staff of the erate commander from 1862 to 1865 and the quotation Is from his collected papers which were edited by a distinguished british soldier maj den gen sir frederick maurice and published by little brown and company under the title of an alde aide de camp of lee the quotation con finues perhaps the most impressive feature of that occasion was the tact fact that there american sol diers met together who dealt with each other as american soldiers if it the officers of general grants army had been instructed how to act if it they had bad learned their parts it if they had been taught by the greatest actors how to play them how to act at a time when one of the loftiest souls that god ever sent upon earth was humbled how to act so as to show their respect and veneration they could not have done better than they did they could not have don bet better ter because they were viere and behaved as american sol diers they loved their enemies and they did good to those who hated them such is the tribute of one who wore the gray to those who wore the blue on that historic april day 70 years ago and it Is a striking bit of evi dence of the essential spirit which will be for ever associated with the name of appomattox although three years were yet to elapse before one of the principal actors in its drama should use the exact phrasing of let us have peace I 1 yet that thought runs like a golden thread through the dark fabric of the days of useless bloodshed and blighted hopes immediately preceding the climax through the letters which passed between lee and grant as the inevitable end drew near since the story of appomattox properly begins with that correspondence it Is appropriate to take into account those foreshadowing events in telling the story of appomattox by the end of march 1865 it was apparent that the beracy was vas a lost cause indeed slowly but surely the sledgehammer sledge hammer blows of grant grants s over whelming forces had beaten down doan the resistance of lees fast du dwindling ranks of ragged men in gray the opening week of april found both grant and lee weary of war grant tortured with headaches and heart sick over the ter he had been forced to bring about lee all hope of victory gone weighed down with the responsibility that was his for finding some way to save his starving army richmond had been lost the confederate gov was in flight lees only hope was to escape from the trap that grant and sheridan and meade were closing around him and try to join forces with gen joseph johnston on april 6 ewell ewells s corps was surrounded at sailor sailors s creek and surrendered and after this disaster lee s army of northern virginia was reduced to two corps under the command of generals I 1 longstreet ong street and gordon they retreated through farnsville Farn iville closely pursued by grants men in blue un on april 7 grant sent lee his first letter ask ing the surrender of his army batill confident of the lighting fighting ability of his i 1 en and believing it possible to save the rem I 1 idt nt of his army I 1 ee wanted to continue the struggle but bis his officers prevailed upon him to open negotiations the result was a letter to grant asking the terms he would offer on condi tion of the surrender of lee lees s army to this grant replied general your note of last evening in reply to mine of same date asking the con on which I 1 will accept the surrender of the army of northern virginia Is just I 1 received in reply I 1 would say that peace being my great desire there Is but one con dialon I 1 would insist upon namely that the men and officers surrendered shall be dis qualified for taking up arms against the gov of the united states until prop erly exchanged I 1 will meet you or will des ignate officers to meet any officers you may name for the same purpose at any point agreeable to you for the purpose of arjang ing definitely the terms upon which the sur render of the army of northern virginia will be received the next letter from lee read as follows general I 1 received at a late hour your note of today in mine yesterday I 1 did not intend to propose the surrender of the army of northern virginia but to ask the terms of your proposition to be frank I 1 do not think the emergency has arisen to call for the surrender of this army but as the res to ration of peace should be the sole object of all I 1 desire to know whether your proposals would lead to that end I 1 can not therefore meet you with a view to surrender the army of northern Virgin virginia la but as far as your proposal may affect the confederate states forces under my command and tend to the restoration of peace I 1 should be pleased to meet you at ten a in tomorrow on the old stage road to richmond between the picket lines of the two armies in the meantime lee wis pushing on toward appomattox court house where gordon attempt ing to open the way for retreat had broken through the cavalry forces barring his road only to find himself confronted by a force of try so far superior to his wearied and starving comm command and that an attack would have been suicide so he sent word to lee that it was impossible to advance farther and upon receiving this news the commander in chief accompanied by colonel marshall his aide de camp started down the lynchburg road the nest next morning confident that grant would meet him even though though hp he had not yet received a reply from the union commander halted by a skirmish of union troops marshall went forward under a white flag and was met by lieutenant colonel whittler whittier who gave him grant s reply to lee s letter of the previous day it read general your note of yesterday received I 1 have no authority to treat on the subject of peace the meeting for ten a in today would lead to no good I 1 will state however general that I 1 am equally anxious for peace with yourself and the whole north enter bains the same feeling the terms upon which pence peace can be had 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 serf seri bously hoping that all our difficulties may be settled without the loss of another life I 1 subscribe myself etc lee then directed marshall to write to the union commander asking for an interview and to deliver it to whittler whittier which was done sitting on his horse and hastily tearing a leaf from his notebook grant dashed off a note telling the southern commander that he would push for ward to the front tor for the purpose of meeting you when colonel babcocki of grant grants s staff arrived to deliver this note lee fatigued from being in the saddle all night long was lying on some blankets that had been spread by members of his staff for him under an apple tree at the foot of a hill on the other side of which stood appomattox court house then occurred the incident which thrust fame fatme upon an obscure citizen of virginia named wll mer mclean and made his house one of the most famous in american history it Is an incident which also illustrates the strange workings of fate pate as shown by this passage from Mar marshall s book we started off general lee colonel babcock colonel babcocki Bab cocks orderly one of our orderlies and myself we struck up the hill towards appomattox there was a man named mclean who used to live on the first battle field of manassas bull run at a house about a mile from manassas junction he ile didn dian t like the war and having seen the first battle of manassas he thought he would get away where there wouldn t be any more fighting figh tin so he moved down to appomattox court house general lee t told old me to go forward and find a house where ne be could meet general grant and of all people whom should I 1 meet but mclean I 1 rode up to him and said can you show me a house where general lee and general grant can meet to gether he took me into a house that was all d lapi dated and that had no furniture in it I 1 told him it wouldn t do then he said maybe my house will do I 1 he lived in a very comfort able house and I 1 told him I 1 thought that would suit I 1 had taken the orderly along with me and I 1 sent him back to bring general lee and babcock who were coming on behind I 1 went into the house and sat down and after a while gen eral lee and babcock came in so wilmer mclean the man who t like the war was an unexpected witness to two of its high spots virtually its beginning and its ending to this virginian was given the un sought privilege of seeing the cause of the con gain its first height in the victory at bull run and recede to its lowest loviest ebb at appomattox from which no tide ever rose again half an hour later the men in mclean s parlor heard footsteps at the front door and in walked grant with him came his alter ego bearded gen john A rawlins his aide de decamp camp dusky col A C barker the iroquois indian fight ing phil sheridan the stocky little irish caa airy leader and generals horace porter and 10 R C ord after a brief talk over the terms of the sur render colonel parler parker grants alde ae camp brought a little table from the come corner of the room and on it the union commander wrote out the terms of surrender the confederate officers were to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the united states and to sign a like parole for their commands all arms artil lery and public property were to be handed over to the union forces but the officers were to retain their side arms horses and personal bag gage the soldiers also were allowed to keep their horses because as grant said they would need them for their spring plowing after grant had written this note he handed it to lee who read it over then directed his aide colonel marshall to draft a reply in which he be accepted the terms of surrender in the meantime parker had made a copy of grants letter says marshall then general grant signed his letter and I 1 turned my letter over to general lee tind he signed it IL parker handed me general grants letter and I 1 handed him general lees lee s reply and the surrender was accomplished there was no theatrical display about it it was in itself per haps the greatest tragedy that ever occurred in the history of the world but it was the sim blest plainest and most thoroughly devoid of any 0 attempt at effe ct that you can imagine I 1 thus the civil war came to an end and appomattox became an historic name 0 by western newspaper union |