Slavery and Four Years of War Part 64

A single serious disaster occurred on the 6th to a detachment of our army. Ord, whose orders were to obstruct all lines of retreat, detached Colonel Francis Washburn with the 123d Ohio and portions of the 54th Pennsylvania and 4th Ma.s.sachusetts Cavalry, about eight hundred in all, to destroy High Bridge over the Appomattox below Farmville. Later in the day, Colonel Thomas Reed of Ord's staff with eighty cavalrymen was sent to recall Washburn. The detachments met, and having penetrated to within about two miles of the bridge, encountered Lee's advance cavalry and infantry. Washburn and Read put up one of the most gallant fights of the war, but were soon surrounded. They led repeated charges until both fell, mortally wounded. Not until most of the command had fallen did it surrender.

The Confederate loss was severe, especially in officers. This affair caused Lee to lose precious time, he being led to believe from the obstinacy of the fight that a large Union force was in his front.

The Sixth Corps, after Sailor's Creek, was ordered to pursue Lee's army directly. Its flanking work was done; its mission was to a.s.sail Lee's rear, delay him, and if possible bring him to battle.

Sheridan, with Merritt's cavalry division, followed by Ord and the Fifth Corps, continued westward, with orders not to stop for bad roads, nor wait for subsistence or for daylight. They were not to halt until planted across Lee's front.

Humphreys, who also had orders to press Lee's rear, succeeded with his corps and a cavalry division under Crook in crossing the Appomattox close on Mahone's rear. Wright, the morning of the 7th, followed Longstreet to Farmville, where the latter had pa.s.sed to the north of the river.

Grant and his staff, with a small escort, rode by us about noon.

The roads were muddy from recent rains and much cut up by the Confederate Army. Grant was dressed, to all appearance, in a tarpaulin suit, and he was, even to his whiskers, so bespattered with mud, fresh and dried, as to almost prevent recognition. He then, as always, was quiet, modest, and undemonstrative. A close look showed an expression of deep anxiety on his countenance.

Farmville is in a narrow, short valley on the south bank of the Appomattox, surrounded on the south by high bluffs. As the Sixth arrived on the heights above the town I was riding with General Wright. All were anxious to ascertain the exact whereabouts of the enemy, when, to our amazement, apparently the whole Confederate Army came into view on the high plain north of the river. It was drawn up in battle array and seemingly about to envelop and destroy Crook's cavalry, that was furiously a.s.sailing it to delay it. From the heights it seemed to us Crook's command would speedily be annihilated. Wright was an unimpa.s.sioned man, little given to excitement, but this scene threw him into a vehement state. His corps was too far off the render a.s.sistance; the Appomattox, deep through narrow, lay between, and pontoons were not up. He ordered his corps hastened forward, and plunged down the bluffs into Farmville, looking for a crossing. He soon came in front of a Virginia tavern with the usual "stoops" or low porches in front, above, and below. Grant was seated on the upper "stoop," resting his chin on his folded arms, which were on the rail of a bal.u.s.ter.

He was smoking a cigar, and doubtless casting his eyes on the situation across the river. He then looked happy, contented, and unconcerned. He did not change when Wright exhibited, by word and act, great solicitude for the fate of the cavalry. When Wright had finished, Grant withdrew his cigar from his lips, raised his head only a little, and pleasantly said: "The cavalry are doing well, and I hope General Lee will continue to fight them, as the delay will lessen his chances of escape." Grant also, pointing in the direction of the river, added: "General Wright, you will find the debris of a railroad bridge down there, on which you can construct a pa.s.sage for your infantry and get them over the river during the night." Grant resumed smoking and we went about our business.

A crossing was soon made on the iron and timbers of a broken-down bridge, over which foot soldiers could pa.s.s in single file. As the structure was liable to get out of order, each officer, from division to company commander, was required to stand at its end and see that the soldiers of his command marched on it at proper intervals and with steady step. It was 3 A.M. of the 8th before the last of the corps had crossed and bivouacked. Mounted officers and escorts swam the stream at a swollen ford near-by.

Crook lost heavily in his unequal combat, one of his brigades especially, its commanding officer, General J. Irwin Gregg, being captured, but the purpose of the attack was accomplished. Crook withdrew his recently imperilled cavalry to the south of the river about 9 P.M. of the 7th, and reached Prospect Station the same night, under orders to rejoin Sheridan.

Lee, late on the evening of the 7th, seems to have been personally seized with a panic on hearing some threatening reports of being cut off or flanked, and he caused his trains to retreat in a wild rush and the infantry under Longstreet to march at double-quick to c.u.mberland Church, where he formed for battle.(18)

General Ewell, at supper with Wright the night after his capture on the 6th, made some remarks about the hopeless condition of the Confederate Army, and suggested that Lee might be willing to surrender. This and other like talk of Ewell, being communicated by a Dr. Smith to Grant, suggested the idea to him of demanding the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia.(19) A note to this effect was accordingly sent to Lee, under a flag of truce, at 5 P.M. of the 7th. Lee immediately answered, saying he did not entertain the opinion that further resistance was hopeless on the part of his army, yet asked Grant to name the terms he would offer on condition of surrender. Grant, on the 8th, replied that there was but one condition he would insist on, viz.:

"That the men and officers surrendered shall be disqualified for taking up arms against the government of the United States until properly exchanged."

Lee, the same day, responded, saying that in his note of the day before, he "did not intend to propose the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia," but only to ask the terms of Grant's proposition, adding that he could not meet Grant with the view of surrendering that army, but as far as Grant's proposal might affect the Confederate States forces under his command and tend to the restoration of peace, he would be pleased to meet Grant the next day at 10 A.M.

Very early on the 9th Grant sent Lee a note saying: "I have no authority to treat on the subject of peace; the meeting proposed for 10 A.M. to-day could lead to no good."

At the earliest dawn of the 8th, the Sixth Corps pushed after Lee, compelling him to abandon some of his heaviest artillery and a further part of his trains. Longstreet covered Lee's rear, and his troops had not been seriously engaged on the retreat. Ord and the Fifth Corps struggled westward, cutting off all chance of Lee turning southward and of thus extricating himself. The 8th was not a day of battles but of the utmost activity in both armies.

I note an incident. While halted, about noon on the 8th, in some low pines to drink a cup of coffee and eat a cracker, Colonel Horace Kellogg, of the 123d Ohio, who had been captured with Washburn's command on the 6th, near High Bridge, came to us through the bushes from a hiding-place to which he escaped soon after his capture.

He looked cadaverous, was wild-eyed, and in a crazed condition, caused by starvation and want of water for two days. We had to restrain him, and give him water, coffee, and food in small quant.i.ties at first, to prevent his killing himself from over-indulgence.

Sheridan, who had concentrated his cavalry at Prospect Station under Crook, Merritt, and Custer, at daybreak of the 8th hastened westward, south of Lee, to Appomattox Station. Sergeant White, of the scouts, in advance, in disguise, west of the Station, met four trains from Lynchburg with supplies sent in obedience to the Burkeville dispatch already mentioned. The trains were feeling their way eastward, in ignorance of Lee's whereabouts. The Sergeant had the original dispatch with him, and exhibited it, and, by dwelling on the starving condition of Lee's army, easily persuaded the officers in charge to run the trains east of Appomattox Station, he having, meantime, sent word to Sheridan where they could be found. Custer hastened forward, sending two regiments by a detour, in a gallop, to seize and break the railroad behind the trains.

The trains were captured. One was burned, and the other three sent eastward towards Farmville. This capture took place just as the head of Lee's column came in sight.(20) Custer attacked Lee's advance, and was soon joined by Devin's division and a brigade from Crook. Together they drove it back, capturing twenty-five pieces of artillery, a hospital train, and a large park of wagons which were being sent ahead of Lee's main army. Sheridan's headquarters, at night, were at a farm-house, just south of Appomattox Station, and about three miles southwest of the Court-House of that name.

Neither he nor his command slept that night. Sheridan was now across Lee's front, and if he could hold on, Lee must surrender.

Ord, with the Fifth Corps following, was hastening to Sheridan.

The supreme hour was at hand. Ord was no laggard, and it was known that he would put forth all human effort, yet Sheridan dispatched through the night officer after staff officer to apprise Ord of the immediate danger the cavalry was in, if unsupported, and to a.s.sure him that his presence with his column would end the Rebellion.

Before day-dawn the cavalry was in the saddle, in battle array, bearing down on the Confederate advance, then at the Court-House.

Ord arrived in person before sun-up of the 9th, and hastily consulted Sheridan where to put in his troops on their arrival. Ord then returned to hurry on his weary, hungry, foot-sore men, who had marched all the night, having little sleep for many days. Sheridan turned from the consultation with Ord to take charge of the battle already raging near the Court-House.

Let us look within the lines of the Confederate Army and see what was transpiring there. That army had, since Sailor's Creek and Farmville, been directed, of necessity, along the north of the river on Appomattox Court-House and Lynchburg. It had been a.s.sailed, night and day, flank and rear, from the time it left Petersburg.

Provisions were scarce, and many of its best officers had, in the last week, fallen or been captured. It, however, had held out bravely and with more spirit than would be expected. It was an old and once splendidly organized and equipped army, and its discipline had been good. Pendleton and others of Lee's generals (not including Longstreet) secretly, on the 7th, held a council, and with a view of lightening Lee's responsibilities, decided to inform him that they thought the time had come to surrender his army. The next day Longstreet was requested to bear the report of this council to Lee. He declined, and Pendleton made to report to Lee himself. The latter, if correctly reported, said: "I trust it has not come to that," adding, among other things, "If I were to say a word to the Federal commander, he would regard it as such a confession of weakness as to make it the condition of demanding an _unconditional surrender_."(21)

Gordon, with Fitz Lee at the head of the cavalry, commanded the advance, and Longstreet the rear. The night of the 8th found Lee's advance at Appomattox Court-House forced well back, and Longstreet's rear pressed close on his main body. General Lee called in council, at a late hour that night, Lieutenant-General James Longstreet, Major-Generals John B. Gordon, Fitzhugh Lee, and Wm. N. Pendleton.(22) This was the last council of war of the Army of Northern Virginia, if it could be called one. The meeting was in a secluded spot, in a gloomy pine woods, without shelter. The night was damp and chilly, and there was a small, smoky, green-pine fire, affording little light. The whole surrounding was calculated to dispirit the five officers, to say nothing of the occasion. Little was said or done. Lee made some inquiry as to the position of the troops.

At the end of an hour the council broke up, Lee directing Gordon to ma.s.s his command, including all the cavalry under Fitz Lee and General Long's batteries of thirty guns, and move through Appomattox Court-House, where the advance rested, and to commence the movement at 1 A.M. The trains were to follow closely, covered by Longstreet's corps, which was still Lee's rear-guard. Sheridan's cavalry was to be overwhelmed, and, with this done, the retreat was to continue on to Lynchburg. At 3 in the morning General Lee rode slowly forward apparently to join his van-guard in the effort to break through our lines. Not, however, until 5 A.M. of the 9th did Gordon and Fitz Lee get in motion against Sheridan's cavalry, which they then found spread over a wide front near Appomattox Court-House.

The battle commenced, the Union cavalry sullenly falling back.

This inspired new hope in the Confederate Army. General Mumford, with a portion of his Confederate cavalry division, found a break in Sheridan's line, and charging through, escaped. This gave rise to a report that the road had been opened.(23)

Gordon pushed on with renewed confidence, infantry, cavalry, and artillery, first striking Crook and McKenzie on the Union left, then Merritt in the centre, the latter two yielding as though defeated. Crook, however, held firmly on the extreme left, while Merritt drew from the centre to the right, there to unite Custer and Devin's cavalry divisions, leaving the centre apparently abandoned. Gordon hastily dispatched word of his success, and, inspired with a hope of complete victory, hurled his hosts into the great gap thus made, capturing two pieces of artillery, and moved forward to the crest of a ridge. But, alas! From this crest Gordon and his officers saw a new scene. They beheld through the mists and the morning gray, on the plain before them, Ord's column, formed and forming, in full array, ready for strong battle. Hope vanished from the minds of the Confederate generals. The Fifth Corps, under General Charles Griffin, was also then arriving on Ord's extreme right in support of the cavalry already there. The cavalry in the centre had been but a curtain. Gordon halted and sent word of the situation to his chief, notifying him that further effort was hopeless, and would cause a useless sacrifice; that he had "fought his troops to a frazzle."(24)

Ord was Sheridan's superior in rank, but both decided to end matters at once, so, with battle flags and guidons bent to the front, the combined forces advanced to their work. Some artillery shots pa.s.sed through their lines, but did not arrest them. The Confederates retired to another ridge immediately fronting the Court-House.

Gordon there displayed a white flag, indicating a willingness to negotiate. Custer first saw it. He notified Sheridan, who notified Ord, and the attack was suspended. Sheridan galloped to the front, though fired on by soldiers of a South Carolina brigade,(25) and soon joined Gordon. A truce looking to a surrender was made.

Colonel J. W. Forsyth of Sheridan's staff pa.s.sed through the Confederate Army to Meade, and notified him of the truce, and thus stopped the Second and Sixth Corps then attacking Longstreet.

Colonel Newhall, Sheridan's Adjutant-General, rode to meet Grant and advise him that Lee desired a meeting with a view to surrendering his army.

Little has been said of the great soldier, Meade, in this campaign.

Much credit is due him. He aided in organizing a victory at Five Forks (26) and in planning the a.s.sault on Petersburg. Though ill at Jetersville, and much of the time thereafter to the end of the campaign, he was always up with one or the other of his corps, doing all it was possible for him to do to accomplish the great result finally attained.

Let us again return to Grant--the silent soldier. On the 5th of April Grant and his staff with a small escort became separated from his headquarters camp equipage and wagons. He was even without his sword. He and his staff thereafter slept on porches of farm- houses or bivouacked in the woods or fields without cover. They picked up scant fare at any camp they could find it, and often went hungry, as did many other officers. As a result of exposure to frequent rains, poor food, fatigue, loss of sleep, and, doubtless, extreme prolonged anxiety, Grant, on the afternoon of the 8th, had a violent attack of sick-headache. At a farm-house that night he was induced to bathe his feet in hot water and mustard and to have mustard plasters applied to his wrists and the back of his neck, but all this brought him no relief. He lay down to sleep in vain.

He, however, during the night, received and sent dispatches relating to the next day's operations. At 4 o'clock his staff found him in a yard in front of the house, pacing up and down with both hands to his head and suffering great pain. He wrote a note in the early morning answering Lee's note of the previous day. He rode early to Meade's camp (then in the immediate rear of the two pursuing corps), and there drank some coffee, with little relief. His staff tried to induce him to ride that day in an ambulance, but, sick as he was, he mounted his favorite horse--Cincinnati--and in consequence of dispatches from Sheridan giving an account of the situation at the front, started by a circuitous route to join him. Some five miles from the Court-House a dispatch from Meade was handed Grant, advising him of a two-hours' truce and of the place General Lee would meet him; also this note from Lee:

"April 9, 1865.

"General,--I received your note of this morning on the picket line, whither I had come to meet you, and ascertain definitely what terms were embraced in your proposal of yesterday with reference to the surrender of this army. I now ask an interview, in accordance with the offer contained in your letter of yesterday, for that purpose.

"R. E. Lee, General.

"Lieutenant-General U. S. Grant."

Grant wrote to Lee (11.50 A.M.), saying he would meet him as requested. General Porter asked Grant, as they rode on, about the pain in his head. Grant answered: "The pain in my head seemed to leave me as soon as I got Lee's letter."(27) He reached the Court- House about 1 P.M., where he was met by Ord and Sheridan. Lee had already arrived, and was awaiting Grant at the McLean house. The two Generals met face to face. Lee wore a new Confederate uniform and a handsome sword. He was tall, straight, and soldierly in appearance. He wore a full gray beard. Grant, much below Lee in stature, wore only a soldier's blouse and soiled suit, and was without a sword, having only some dingy shoulder-straps denoting the rank of Lieutenant-General.

Lee, on his arrival, dismounted, and was seated for a short time at the roadside, beneath an apple tree. This circ.u.mstance alone gave rise to the widely circulated report that the surrender took place under an apple tree.(28)

Some civilities pa.s.sed between the Generals at the McLean house.

There was substantially no negotiation as to the terms of surrender.

Lee asked Grant to write them. Grant said: "Very well, I will write them out." He took a manifold order-book, and without consultation with anybody, in the presence of Lee and others, wrote:

"General,--In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the 8th inst. I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on the following terms, to wit: Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate. One copy to be given to an officer designated by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers you may designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the government of the United States until properly [exchanged], and each company or regimental commander sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, artillery and public property to be parked and stacked, and turned over to the officer appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside.

"Very respectfully, "U. S. Grant, Lt.-Gen."

This was immediately handed to General Lee, who, after reading it, observed the word "_exchanged_" had been inadvertently omitted after the words "until properly." The word was inserted. Lee inquired of Grant whether the terms proposed permitted cavalrymen and artillerists who, in his army, owned their horses, to retain them. Grant answered that the terms, as written, would not, but added, that as many of the men were small farmers and might need their animals to raise a crop in the coming season, he would instruct his paroling officers to let every man who claimed to own a horse or mule keep it. Lee remarked that this would have a good effect.

Grant's draft was handed to be copied to an _Indian_, Colonel Ely S. Parker (Chief of the Six Nations) of Grant's staff, he being the best scribe of Grant's officers present. Lee mistook Parker for a negro, and seemed to be struck with astonishment to find one on Grant's staff.

Lee then wrote this note:

"Headquarters Army of Northern Virginia, April 9, 1865.

"General,--I received your letter of this date containing the terms of surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia as proposed by you.

As they are substantially the same as those expressed in your letter of the 8th inst. they are accepted. I will proceed to designate the proper officers to carry the stipulations into effect.

"R. E. Lee, General.

"Lieut.-General U. S. Grant."

Generals Gibbon, Griffin, and Merritt were designated by Grant, and Generals Longstreet, Gordon, and Pendleton by Lee, to carry into effect the terms of surrender.

Before separating, Lee stated to Grant that his army was badly in want of food and forage; that his men had lived for some days on parched corn, and that he would have to ask for subsistence. Grant promised it at once, and asked how many men there were to supply.

Lee replied, "About twenty-five thousand." Grant authorized him to send to Appomattox Station and get a supply out of the recently captured trains. At that time our army had few rations, and only such forage as the poor country afforded.

Some detachments and small bands of Lee's army escaped, but there were paroled 2781 officers and 25,450 men, aggregate 28,231.(29)