OCR Text |
Show 1gENERAL LEE'S SURRENDER AT APPOMATTOX, SCENE FROM THE "BIRTH OF II A NATION," ORPHEUM, WEEK MARCH26TH. I One of the most striking scenes of ' "The Birth of a Nation" is the surrender sur-render of Lee at the historic McLean home in the vicinity of Appomattox Courthouse. Donald Crisp is cast for the role of Gen. U. S Grant, while Lee is enacted enact-ed by Howard Gave. The members of the staffs of the northern and southern commanders are shown, and the tableaux presented when the scene opens Is a reproduction of the familiar painting of this occasion. It occured April 9, 18G5. Lee had dressed for his last public occasion with grea care. Grant on (he contrary lacked his full dress and appeared in the "fatigue" and dusty jackboots of the hard campaign. It is well known that many supporters support-ers of the defeated Confederacy wish.- ed to prolong the struggle by means of a guerilla warfare similar to that used by the Boers towards the close of the Anglo-Boer war. In fact John Wilkes Booth supposed that in killing President Lincoln he would have the support of the South in a new struggle. strug-gle. But Lee was of a different temper. tem-per. He realized that tho South had been beaten In a fair strugglo on the fields of battle and that prolonging the fighting would merely add to the horrors and miseries endured by his people. Therefore, after the battle of Five Forks, he opened negotiations with Grant and on tho morning of April 9th, under the budding apple trees of an Appomattox orchard were determined the terms of peace which were formally written down, at the Wllmer-McLean house in the afternoon. When General Robert B. Leo wished wish-ed to make some marginal notes on the papers of the final surrender, he asked the bystanders for a pencil. Strange to say, not one of the numerous num-erous officers and aides-de-camp was able to offer him one. At last, an officer of Lee's staff extracted a pocket Inkstand and feather quill from his kit, and with the aid of these the historic document was written and the names of Grant and Lee affixed at the bottom. Afterwards an effort was made to arrest and indict Leo 'for treachery, but Grant, who know Lee's nobility of character and how he had fulfilled to the letter all the surrender obligations, obliga-tions, prevented any such disgraceful sequel to the great event |