Download The War ends in Wilbur McLean`s living room. “Surrender at

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.