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Download The War ends in Wilbur McLean`s living room. “Surrender at
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The War ends in Wilbur McLean’s living room. “Surrender at Appomattox” After the Confederate line broke on April 1st, 1865 Gen. Grant’s orders for his troops was to get ahead of Lee’s army before he could move south to join Confederate Gen. Joe Johnston’s army in the Carolinas. The Union infantry kept up steady pressure behind the Confederates, never letting them rest, while the northern cavalry tried to get in front. Gen. Lee not only needed to escape but find food for his army that now mustered about 30,000 men. As if one last insult to her army that the Confederate government had not been able to supply, on April 4th the Confederate army reached Amelia Courthouse and a supply train sent directly from Richmond. The hungry Confederates cheered when they saw the train but it soon became silent when the doors of the boxcars were opened to reveal box after box of ammunition and not a single box of food. Gen Grant and Gen. Lee exchanged letters the next few days. Gen. Grant’s letters suggested that it was time for the Army of Northern Virginia to surrender before more lives were lost unnecessarily. Gen. Lee’s letters said he didn’t think it was time yet to surrender but asked what terms he might expect if he did surrender his army. On April 8th the Union cavalry and a few divisions of Union infantry reached Appomattox Courthouse before the Confederates. Gen. Lee now realized there was no alternative but to meet Gen. Grant and surrender. Union officers looked for a place for the two generals to meet and finally settled on the home of Wilbur McLean. Ironically, Mr. McLean had moved to this out of the way village to escape the war. His farm near a little town named Manassas was destroyed during the first large battle of the Civil War: 1st Bull Run. After the surrender in his parlor souvenir hunters would strip his house of everything including the wallpaper from the walls. The Confederate army watched as Gen. Lee in his finest uniform rode Traveler towards the McLean house. Soldiers cried out for him to not surrender, that they could still fight. Gen. Lee told them no, it was time to go home. As Lee crossed the open field just outside the village of Appomattox Courthouse his artillery officer, Gen Porter Alexander rode up to him and saluted. Gen Alexander asked Lee not to surrender but to take his army into the mountains in small units and fight as guerillas. Alexander suggested they could fight for a hundred years. Gen. Lee told him, “No, if we go into the mountains those people will go into the mountains.” Lee rode on to the McLean House. Lee entered the McLean parlor and the Union officers noticed that he was dressed in an immaculate gray uniform with bright gold trim. He carried a spectacular presentation sword and was every bit the picture of a general. Minutes later Ulysses arrived on Cincinnati. He wore the same mud spattered uniform he had ridden and slept in for the past two days. He carried no sword and as his staff officer Col. Amos Webster recalled, “Grant, covered with mud in an old faded uniform, looked like a fly on a shoulder of beef.” Once the men sat at the small tables the uniforms were no factor. Gen. Grant was given a pencil and paper and began to write his terms of surrender. Gen. Lee waited. When Gen. Lee read the surrender instrument he noticed that his officers could retain their handguns, horses, and baggage. He said that, “this will have a very happy effect upon my army.” Lee then added by asking if the enlisted men would also retain their horses? Ulysses was surprised to find out that unlike in the Union army the Confederate cavalry and artillery horses were owned by the men. Gen Grant said he would not rewrite the terms but would tell his officers to let any man that proved he owned a horse to keep it. The horses would be needed for spring planting. The terms were very generous and then Ulysses asked how many rations the Confederates needed and supplied them. Gen. Lee offered his sword but Ulysses told him to keep his sword. If this was the end of the story it would have secured Gen. Grant’s place in history as a great man but the last sentence in the surrender article was his greatest moment. He wrote, “….each officer and man will be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as the observe their paroles and the laws in force where they reside.” Ulysses added this sentence in a hope that it would prevent treason trials that in world history had often become witch hunts and reprisals. Grant overstepped his authority to write that sentence that was clearly a political statement but it was ratified by Congress nearly unanimously and was now the law of the land. There would be no treason trials. As Ulysses stepped out of the McLean House onto the porch the Union cannons began to fire in celebration. Grant stopped the firing and said, “The war is over. The rebels are our countrymen again.” The four year Civil War that cost over 600,000 American lives was essentially over at 4 PM April 9th, 1865 in great part to the generalship of Brown County’s Ulysses S. Grant. Union troops share their rations with starving American citizens that before yesterday’s surrender were Confederate soldiers. Union troops at attention as Confederates stack arms and furl battle flags.