First off, I’d like to explain that Appomattox Court house is not a courthouse. It is a town that is the county seat of Appomattox County. This is important because if Grant would have asked Lee to meet him at the courthouse, Lee would have assumed he was going to be arrested and tried there. Instead, they met at the McLean house, in a nice parlor, and discussed the terms of surrender. We visited the site of Appomattox Court House this morning. It was a beautiful, nearly perfect day. The sky was clear and blue. The breeze played with the trees and brought coolness to the morning. The area is lush green, with magnolia trees and tall grass all around. The buildings on the site are mostly brick, two story homes and businesses. A terrific ranger named Cogan give us an overview of the events of April 8 and 9, 1865. It is a story I haven’t ever been very clear about until now.
The McLean house where Lee surrendered to Grant.
Confederate General Robert E. Lee was retreating. His barefoot, tired and bedraggled men crossed High Bridge, then set it on fire. Lee decided to try to fake out Grant. He headed North knowing that his badly needed supplies were actually south of him. He was trying to throw Grant off. Unfortunately for Lee, Grant’s men were so close behind Lee’s army that they were able to put out the fire on High Bridge with only a little damage done. Grant knew that Lee’s supplies were south and guessed that Lee was trying a fake, so Grant split his army, some following Lee and some going south.
The end result is that the next morning, Lee’s troops were boxed in. There were high cliffs on the James River in one direction, and Union troops all around in the other three directions. At first, Lee was unaware of his position. He knew there were cavalry soldiers on the ridge, but advanced on them. The Cavalry retreated. Lee’s men took the ridge. Instead of seeing a path free back to North Carolina, they saw about 30,000 blue coated infantrymen. Lee had no other choice but to surrender.
I didn’t realize that Lee’s surrender at Appomattox wasn’t the official end of the War. Since the Union had never recognized the Confederacy as a country, no treaty was ever signed. Surrender happened gradually as commanders and generals began to hear of Lee’s surrender and then decided whether to surrender themselves or to fight a bit longer.
Union troops under Chamberlain lined the road. One by one the regiments and units of the Confederacy marched between the rows. Chamberlain called the Union men to salute them as they passed. The Confederates returned the salute. “…someone called for three cheers for the last brigade to surrender… [F]or us this soldierly generosity was more than we could bear. Many of the grizzled veterans wept like women, and my own eyes were blind as my voice was dumb,” recalled a Confederate soldier.
- Chamberlain’s men lined this road while Confederate troops marched by them in the surrender ceremony. can you imagine?
I walked that road this morning. The quiet beauty of the countryside masked the drama and emotion, and the incredible importance of the events that occurred here. If Grant had not been the gentleman he was, if he had not been as gracious and acted with the integrity he showed, the Union may not have survived the horrible ordeal of reunification and reconstruction. Instead, he welcomed the defeated soldiers home. He didn’t disgrace or mock them. He had humbled the army of the Confederacy, but respected the individual man.
