General Ulysses Grant and the Power to Forgive

Appomattox came four years almost to the day from the fall of Fort Sumpter [first battle of the Civil War].  It marked the end of one of the bloodiest fratricidal wars of history.  As always in such cases, passions had run high on both sides; both sides had been guilty of excesses; great amounts of property had been destroyed; the war cost a million men; there was mourning and suffering throughout the land.  A seedbed had been prepared that could have been sown for recurring crops of war and misery during long generations to come. 

Having surrounded Lee’s army, Grant [commander of the Union Army], moved by loft motives of humanity, opened negotiations to stop “further effusion of blood.”  Lee, moved with a like motive, accepted the approach.  Grant suggested a desire for peace stating the one condition he would insist upon – “that the men and officers surrendered shall be disqualified to taking up arms against the United States until properly exchanged.”  Lee responded stating his earnest desire for peace and asked if Grant’s proposals would lead to that end.  Grant answered he lacked authority for such negotiations, but assured Lee that he was equally desirous with Lee for peace, and so was the whole North.

Lee then proposed the surrender of his army.  Grant, the victor asked Lee, the vanquished, where he would like the interview between them to take place. Lee chose the house of McLean, in the village of Appomattox.  Grant appeared dressed as were his private soldiers, save for shoulder straps that indicated his rank.  Grant, seeking to cause as little humiliation as possible, began the interview with Lee by recalling their joint service in Mexico.  They so conversed pleasantly for a short time, when Lee brought up the subject of their meeting, asking Grant for his terms.  Grant repeated those he had already given, adding that all arms, ammunition, and supplies were to be treated as captured property.

Grant, still anxious to avoid Lee’s unnecessary humiliation, began to talk in a pleasant vein about the prospects of peace; Lee again returned to the subject of the meeting and suggested the terms be submitted.

Grant then wrote out the formal proposals.  As he came to the term covering arms, ammunition, and supplies, he glanced at the handsome sword Lee carried, and still urged by the desire to cause as little humiliation as possible, he added a provision that officers should retain their side arms, horses, and baggage.  Grant finished the terms with the provision as to the parole of officers and men. 

Lee read the terms and observed, “This will have a very happy effect upon my army.”

Grant asked if Lee had any suggestion to offer as to the form of the terms.  Lee observed that in his army cavalry men and artillerists owned their own horses and asked if they would be permitted to retain their horses.  Grant said the terms did not cover this.  Lee’s face showing some anxiety, Grant said the subject was new to him, but, while the terms would stand as written, he would give orders that all men claiming horses would be permitted to take the animals to be used on their farms. To this generous, unrequested kindness by Grant, Lee observed: “This will have the best possible effect upon the men.  It will be very gratifying and will do much towards conciliating our people.”

Lee informed Grant that he had no food, either for his own men or for his prisoners.  He asked Grant if he might return the prisoners.  Grant said yes, and asked Lee how much food he needed for his own men.  Lee did not know.  Grant asked if 25,000 rations would help.  Lee replied that this “would be a great relief.”  Meanwhile, news of the surrender reached the Union army, who began firing salutes. Grant ordered these stopped at once, declaring: “The war is over, the rebels are our countrymen again, and the best sign of rejoicing after the victory will be to abstain from all demonstrations in the field.”  The men in blue mingled together around the common campfires with the men in gray, often eating from a common mess.  The war was actually over. 

Grant and Lee met as gentlemen; they negotiated as gentlemen; they parted as gentlemen.  The next day Grant made a formal call upon Lee and they visited together for half an hour.  There was no bitterness, no hatred.  They, for themselves, buried the past.  Grant’s terms for Lee’s surrender became the terms for the surrender of all the Southern armies. 

Appomattox showed the temper of this people of ours, not in the course of a long period of growth, advancement, and peace, but at the close of a bloody, fratricidal war, where literally father fought son, and son father, and brother fought brother - a kind of war that makes more and deeper wounds that any other kind of conflict.  Yet this temper and concept, this high idealism and lofty purpose of Grant and Lincoln, seemingly fostered by the tragedies of the war, followed us for a half a century thereafter. 

 Learn more at www.TheGloriousCauseOfAmerica.org