MARCH
2, 1865:
The Battle of
Waynesboro, Virginia.
After
having been repulsed the day before by Jubal Early’s scarecrow force of 1,500
men in the fastness of the Luray Valley, Philip Sheridan returns today with
3,000 men and George Armstrong Custer under his command. Although Sheridan has
been tasked to join Sherman in North Carolina, he considers Early’s force a
threat to Grant’s rear and decides to clear out the Luray Valley once and for
all. Today, Early brings up his artillery,
and there is a brief standoff, but Early’s thirteen remaining guns are no match
for Sheridan’s multiple artillery brigades. Nor can Early resist attack from
all sides. He has anchored his line in a dense woods, thinking that the
Federals cannot move on him from that direction. When the Yankees come howling
through the small forest, Early’s line finally cracks. Surrounded on all sides,
almost all of his 1,500 men throw down their weapons and surrender.
Early
himself, with just a few men, perhaps 50 in all, rides east to join Robert E.
Lee at Richmond. When the patchworn General presents himself to Lee, Lee takes
one look at him and his remaining force, and relieves him from command, telling
him to “go home.”
Early
and a few like-minded men ride for Texas where they hear Confederate holdouts are
massing. This rumor turns out to be false, and for a time Early goes to Mexico
and then to Canada in defiance of the Union, before returning to Virginia. His
part in the Civil War is over.
Robert
E. Lee, in the shadow of this defeat, sends a message to Grant asking for a
“military convention” between them in order to end “the calamities of war.” Lee
asks for a cease-fire and negotiations again between the “two Sovereign
Powers”. Grant, under orders from Lincoln, responds that he can only discuss
surrender terms that end in reunification.
