APRIL 10, 1865:
“So many of our noble
young men perished for nothing!” --- Fanny Young, a Richmond Confederate
I
Although
the Civil War had “ended” the day before with the surrender of Robert E. Lee to
General Ulysses S. Grant, the fighting went on. In an era before Twitter,
Instagram, Facebook, social media, cellphone cameras, television, radio, or
even wireless telegraphy, only a few thousand people, most centered around
Appomattox Court House, Virginia and in Washington D.C., had even an inkling
that anything had changed.
Throughout
the United States, the shooting (and the killing) went on. In Moccasin Swamp,
North Carolina and Smithfield, North Carolina, Union forces engaged in small
but bloody battles with General Joseph E. Johnston C.S.A.’s men. In both engagements,
overwhelming numbers told, and the Confederates were forced to fall back. In
the western towns of Winston N.C. and in Salem, N.C., local residents raised
the white flag rather than have General George Stoneman U.S.A.’s cavalry burn
the two small cities.
In
Benton, Alabama and Lowndesborough, Alabama, the Union’s First Indiana Cavalry
and the First Wisconsin Cavalry skirmished inconclusively with irregular
Confederate forces under the overall command of General Richard Taylor.
Retreating
after his defeat at Selma, Alabama, a badly-wounded Nathan Bedford Forrest
falls upon a unit of the Fourth Union Cavalry near the Mississippi border and
puts them all to the sabre.
Along
the Rio Grande, the Union and the Confederacy continued what had recently
become a bizarre ad hoc alliance in
support of free Mexican forces led by Benito Juarez against the imperial forces
of Maximilian I, France’s puppet Emperor. Today, the Blue and the Gray,
operating together, feinted, allowing Juarez’s men, who were seeking refuge
north of the river, to escape pursuit.
A
Bahamas-based blockade runner put into port at Key West, carrying a cargo of
rifles and ammunition for the South. The harbormaster, a Unionist paid in gold,
when asked saw nothing.
II
Even
as spontaneous celebrations are breaking out throughout the Northeastern United
States, President Lincoln is suffering through a particularly acrimonious
Cabinet meeting. Lincoln’s plan to allow the Virginia Legislature to convene in
order to take Virginia out of the Confederacy, has raised a firestorm of
debate, the burning core of which is in this room.
Edwin
Stanton is nearly apoplectic with rage at the President, pounding the table and
shouting that Lincoln’s entire policy of not
recognizing Confederate-convened governments throughout the war is
imperiled by what Stanton refers to as a “harebrained” scheme. Lincoln counters
that he does not intend to recognize the “Secesh” Legislature as legitimate,
only to ask the men who are acting as
the constituted State Legislature for Virginia to take action upon his behalf.
It
is a lawyer’s nicety. Stanton retorts that Lincoln is hairsplitting, that it
will amount to recognition no matter what, and that the Confederacy will be
re-empowered if Lincoln extends recognition to any of the rebellious
governments of its several States.
Other
Cabinet Secretaries back Stanton. There is a fear expressed that Lincoln’s plan
may even result in international
recognition of the Confederacy at one second to midnight, and that such recognition
could be parlayed into many years’ more war.
Everyone
agrees that they understand Lincoln’s desperate desire for peace, admits that
they all share it, but everyone warns him that his ill-considered plan may have
precisely the opposite effect he intends. When Lincoln admits that he has
already wired the Military Governor of Virginia to allow the rebel Legislature
to convene, the room explodes.
Lincoln
looks for solace to his usually-phlegmatic Secretary of the Navy, Gideon
Welles, a madly-bewhiskered man whom Lincoln usually calls “Father
Neptune.” Welles is always Lincoln’s
closest ally in Cabinet debates, but even Welles shakes his head at the
President today. Besides, Welles asks reasonably, why not call the Unionist
State Legislature sitting in Alexandria into session? Why depend on John
Campbell’s rebel friends?
It
is a good question, and Lincoln finally, ruefully, admits defeat, saying that
he had “perhaps made a mistake” in being so overeager as to deal with the Secesh
delegates.
III
What
the President and his Cabinet were not aware of was that while they hotly debated
the legality of the Virginia Legislature, the room might really have exploded.
A
Confederate “explosives expert,” Thomas F. Harney by name, was arrested by
Illinois cavalrymen, along with a number of Mosby’s Rangers on the road into
Washington.
Harney,
a member of the Confederate Torpedo Bureau, had been funded by Confederate
agent John Surratt to blow up the White House by placing several hogsheads of
gunpowder (in barrels marked “flour”) in the White House storeroom directly
beneath the Cabinet Room. Harney is arrested with detailed sketches of the
White House floor plan on his person.
What
Harney did not know was that the odds of his succeeding were poor. The layout
of the basement and the reinforced first floor of the White House would have
probably caused the force of the blast to move horizontally rather than
vertically, causing damage to the building but less damage to the Cabinet Room
than Harney wished. The current structure of the White House, rebuilt after World War II,
will not allow for such a scheme.
No
one knows who authorized the Harney mission; like many another Confederate
covert operation, its roots fade into the inky blackness that surrounds them.
IV
Ulysses
S. Grant and Robert E. Lee meet again in Appomattox. The rain which had
threatened on the Ninth has become a downpour on the Tenth. Regardless of the
weather, the McLean House has become the epicenter of a reunion of the West
Point Class of 1846, and Union and Confederate officers who have not spoken in
four years find each other and begin rebuilding friendships undone by the
war.
Men
of the line are also having reunions. Led by Border State men from Maryland,
Federals and Confederates are crossing into each others’ camps seeking out
brothers, cousins, sons, uncles and fathers unmet in four years. Tears of joy
flow when they find each other unscathed, and tears of sorrow flow when they do
not, and when bad news of home reaches long-absent ears.
Billy
Yanks, shocked at the condition of their Confederate counterparts begin
carrying extra rations across the lines. A few jokes are told, tentatively.
Soon men in blue and gray are walking arm in arm around the villages of
Appomattox Court House and Appomattox Station, heedless of the weather.
In
Wilmer McLean’s home, General Lee puts the finishing touches on his Farewell
Address, General Orders Number 9, which, like his idol George Washington’s,
will be memorized and recited by generations of southern schoolchildren. It
reads:
After four years of
arduous service marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of
Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and
resources.
I need not tell the
brave survivors of so many hard fought battles, who have remained steadfast to
the last, that I have consented to this result from no distrust of them; but
feeling that valor and devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate
for the loss that must have attended the continuance of the contest, I
determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have
endeared them to their countrymen.
By the terms of the
agreement, officers and men can return to their homes and remain until
exchanged. You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from a
consciousness of duty faithfully performed; and I earnestly pray that a
Merciful God will extend to you His blessings and protection.
With an unceasing
admiration of your constancy and devotion to your Country, and a grateful
remembrance of your kind and generous consideration for myself, I bid you all
an affectionate farewell.
Sitting
at the same table this time, Grant and Lee struggle over the details of the
formal surrender of The Army of Northern Virginia. Grant insists there must be
a formal ceremony in which all the
men can participate. Although Lee is initially chary of the idea, Grant is
persuasive, and when Grant gives Lee a verbal description of what he envisions,
Lee realizes that the ceremony will not be a humiliation but an honorarium to
his men. It is scheduled for the Twelfth of April.
The
five Articles of Agreement Relating To
The Surrender Of The Army Of Northern Virginia read as follows:
Appomattox Court House
Virginia
April 10, 1865
Agreement entered into
this day in regard to the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia to the
United States Authorities.
1st The troops shall
march by Brigades and Detachments to a designated point, stock their Arms,
deposit their flags, Sabres, Pistols, etc. and from thence march to their homes
under charge of their Officers, superintended by their respective Division and
Corps Commanders, Officers, retaining their side Arms, and the authorized
number of private horses.
2. All public horses and
public property of all kinds to be turned over to Staff Officers designated by
the United States Authorities.
3. Such transportation
as may be agreed upon as necessary for the transportation of the Private
baggage of Officers will be allowed to accompany the Officers, to be turned
over at the end of the trip to the nearest U.S. Quarter Masters, receipts being
taken for the same.
4. Couriers and Wounded
men of the artillery and Cavalry whose horses are their own private property
will be allowed to retain them.
5. The surrender of the
Army of Northern Virginia shall be construed to include all the forces
operating with that Army on the 8th inst., the date of commencement of
negociation [sic] for surrender, except such bodies of
Cavalry as actually made their escape previous to the surrender, and except also
such forces of Artillery as were more than Twenty (20) miles from Appomattox
Court House at the time of Surrender on the 9th inst.
Neither
Grant nor Lee will be present for the formal surrender ceremony (despite many
historical representations to the contrary); Grant will have returned to
Washington D.C. to report to Abraham Lincoln and Lee, having gotten word that
his sons Custis (a P.O.W. shortly to be released) and Rooney (M.I.A., who
surrenders on this very day) are safe, will be returning to Richmond and to the
arms of his beloved Anna.
As
they part, Grant asks Lee if, as General-in-Chief of the Confederacy, he can
surrender all the armies of the
Confederacy. Lee demurs for a reason Grant respects. He cannot do so, he says,
without consultation with his civilian Commander-in-Chief. But, Lee promises
that he will devote all his efforts to pacifying the country and bringing the
people back into the Union.
Lee
is as good as his word. Not long after Appomattox, a young ex-Confederate, upon
returning to his allegiance to the United States, is castigated by his father,
also a veteran:
“You have disgraced the
family!”
“But Father, General Lee
asked it of all of us.”
“Oh,” said the older man. “That alters the case. Whatever General Lee
says is all right.”
And
Lee’s last letter to Jefferson Davis, written on this day, advises the
Confederate President to “. . . [S]ave
useless effusion of blood . . . [M]easures
[should] be taken for the suspension
of hostilities and the restoration of peace.”
V
Not
all men in The Army of Northern Virginia follow Lee’s lead. A number slip off
overnight to join General Joseph E. Johnston C.S.A.’s unsurrendered Army of
Tennessee in North Carolina. Other men leave the army to head for hideouts in Lynchburg
or in the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains from which they can continue fighting.
Some seek service with Colonel John Mosby in northern Virginia, who likewise
has not surrendered.
General
Fitzhugh Lee (Robert E. Lee’s cousin and subordinate) later told the story of
crossing paths with a flinty Confederate who was walking toward Appomattox with
his gun across his shoulders ---
“Where
are you going?” asked Lee, who was in shirtsleeves without insignia.
“I’ve
been on furlough these last two months, and I hear tell that old Bob Lee’s army
is up around Appomattox. I’m gwine back to fight.”
“Well,
you can go back,” said Lee. “But not to fight. General Lee has surrendered.”
“Naw,”
answered the soldier. “Yaw must be thinkin’ of that bastard Fitz Lee. Bob Lee
would never surrender to no Yankees, and that’s a fact.”
When,
after Appomattox, General Joshua L. Chamberlain U.S.A., the future Governor of
Maine, told General Henry Wise C.S.A., the former Governor of Virginia, that, “Brave men may become good friends,” Wise answered plainly:
“You may forgive us but
we won’t be forgiven. There is rancor in our hearts which you little dream of.
We hate you, sir!”
VI
Jefferson
Davis and his Cabinet are just sitting down to dinner with the Sutherlin family
when a courier bursts into the dining room with the news of Lee’s surrender at
Appomattox. Davis is flabbergasted. Immediately, plans are put in motion for
Davis and his Government to move south into North Carolina, where Joseph
Johnston’s army can protect them. Davis rushes to pack. No one knows how far
(or near) the Yankee armies may be.
Mrs.
Sutherlin asks her President, “Mr. Davis, does General Lee’s surrender mean
that the war is ended?”
“Not
at all,” Davis replies. “We will fight it out to the Mississippi.”
