Appomattox Court House National Historical Park is the site
of the surrender of the General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia
to Union General U. S. Grant in the parlor of the McLean House in the very
small village of Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.
The surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox was the
result of three crippling actions that happened near this town over two
days. First, on April 8, 1865 scouts
from Union General Phillip Sheridan's Cavalry came upon 3 Confederate supply
trains containing essential supplies and food for Robert E. Lee's Army of the Northern
Potomac, waiting to be unloaded by Confederate soldiers. Lee's Army was in tatters and starving and
the train's cargoes were their last hope.
The trains and their crucial contents were captured by Union Brevet
Major General George Armstrong Custer (yep--same guy as his Last Stand!) and
his men. The Confederates got
nothing! Next, Custer's men came upon
the Confederates sent to unload the trains and captured a number of their
cannon and wagons. These were the last
Confederate trains to operate during the war.
 |
| Appomattox Court House |
Finally, the next day, April 9, the Battle of Appomattox
Court House erupted with the Union forces cutting off Lee's Army from their
escape route. There were casualties on
both sides. At this point, Lee consulted with his top subordinates and decided
that surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia was the only option. The McLean House was selected for the formal
surrender between Generals Lee and Grant.
Grant's terms for surrender were remarkably generous. There were to be no arrests or punishments
for the Confederate generals, officers or men!
Grant asked only that the Confederates pledge not to take up arms
against the United States. He allowed Confederate officers to keep their
sidearms and any soldier who owned his horse was allowed to keep it. Lee requested that his men receive a parole
pass to show they had surrendered and were not deserters, who would be
shot. Grant agreed and Federal printing
presses and printers were hurriedly brought into the Clover Hill Tavern and by
April 11 had printed 30,000 blank parole passes. Passes for Confederate soldiers were signed
by their own officers while Confederate officers had their passes signed by
Union officers.*
President Abraham Lincoln and General Grant had met earlier
and discussed terms of Confederate surrender, should it be offered. It had been agreed that revenge in the form
of punishment would harm the cause of reunification of the country. Grant's other magnanimous offer to Lee's Army
was that all Confederate parolees could use Federal ships and trains when available
to return to their homes and that they could draw food and supplies from
federally controlled stations in the South.
The Confederate troops relaxed and waited. Grant and Lee had
a second meeting to work out more details and it was decided that a formal
surrender parade of Confederate troops would be held on the morning of April 12th
on the Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road lined with the Union troops. That event, like the surrender, went far to
set the tone of reunification of the North and South into one united country
again. The men of the Army of Northern
Virginia marched before 5000 men of the Union Army, laid down their flags,
stacked their weapons and began the journey back to their homes.* There was no
jeering, catcalls or anything except respect from each army for the other. Brigadier General Joshua L. Chamberlain
dubbed the ceremony “Honor answering honor.”*
All were tired, hungry and anxious to return home to their
families. It was a remarkable event!
But it was not all over everywhere. Joseph E. Johnson's Army in North Carolina
surrendered on April 26; Richard Taylor's Army in Alabama on May 4 and
Edmund Kirby Smith's Army in Texas surrendered on June 2. All surrendered on the terms established at
Appomattox Court House.* On June 2nd,
1865, the Confederacy ceased to exist and four long years of the Civil War was
finally over!
Visiting Appomattox Court House National Historic Park is a
great experience. The National Park Service began work on the town site in 1935
to acquire land, reconstructed the McLean House and began research but took a
break during World War II. In 1954, the
area was designated Appomattox Court House National Historical Park and work
began to restore important buildings, and later, rebuild the burned out
Courthouse, gather appropriate furnishings and begin opening the Park to
visitors. 
 |
| Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road --The Surrender Parade route |
 |
| Re-enactment ranger printing Parole passes |
Our favorite part of the visit was a ranger reenacting the
role of John Dennett, a reporter for the New York newspaper, The Nation, who
came to Appomattox in the summer of 1865 to talk to people about how the war
affected them. He interviewed all of us
(35-40 people) asking our residence state and making comments about each of the
answers. He told us about his
“dispatches” sent to the paper. His
dress, mannerisms and speech were perfect and he told us many details of the
actual surrender and the aftermath that were not known to us. The great generosity of the surrender terms
had impressed him as well as us! His
talk was about 45 minutes and very well done.
Unfortunately we had missed an earlier reenactment but if you go to Appomattox
be sure to make time for these programs as you will definitely learn a lot.
* quotes from the official brochure given to visitors at Appomattox Court House National Historic Park.
The Park has a number of sites outside the township, like both Lee and Grant's headquarter areas but we were very impressed with the small Confederate Cemetery west of town with the graves of one Union soldier and 18 Confederate soldiers, including several unknown, killed on April 8 and 9, just before the Surrender took place—very sad.
 |
| The current Appomattox courthouse |
 |
| Virginians still like "Bobbie" Lee a lot!! |
No comments:
Post a Comment