Posted on 04/09/2019 7:40:56 AM PDT by Bull Snipe
The Army of Northern Virginia passes into history. General Lee surrenders the 28,000 men of his army to General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. This is the third Confederate Army that has surrendered to Grant during the war.
God bless both Generals and all the men who fought.
I honor their sacrifice.....
I honor their statues.
For anyone with a Soul who has visited Gettysburg, the thousands who perished there did not die in vain..You feel that to your core...
Right on!
Indeed......Hallowed ground
If I remember correctly, it was observed in the Ken Burns documentary series (with the legendary Shelby Foote and others) that the early start of the war took place in a farmer’s field near Appomattox and then in 1865, Lee signed the terms of surrender in this same farmer’s kitchen or dining room. Funny how the war’s start and then end took place in this farmer’s yard and then in his house.
General Lee didn’t actually surrender. He walked into the room and handed his hat and sword to the butler. He only realized shortly after that the “butler” was actually General Grant. Silly but quite an understandable faux pas given the circumstances. Alas, being the Southern gentleman, General Lee, not wanting to embarrass himself nor General Grant, accepted his fate and history ended another chapter. True story.
I find that hard to believe. Under the circumstances, General Lee would not surrender his sword to a butler. The McLean family did not employ a butler.
Your story is close, the farmer was originally near Bulls Run at the first battle, then moved to Appomattox Courthouse figuring in would be far enough away from action. But yes, the war started in his yard and ended in his house.
The house has a summer kitchen in the basement. I think that was a good idea.
It was Wilmer McLean. The Battle of First Manassas in 1861 took place near his house in northern Virginia so he moved to Appomattox. Lee surrendered to Grant at his house there in 1865
True story.
I don’t know Grant had been on Lees Staff earlier before the war and was wearing a military jacket and certainly would not look much like a butler.
Most butlers don’t stink of whiskey during working hours.
Find out what brand of whiskey he drinks and send a barrel of it to all my generals.
Thanks for the posting. Another event that occurred on this date 77 years ago was the fall of Bataan.
That’s right. There was no butler present. In fact, Lee had to wait for Grant to arrive. And Grant did not accept Lee’s sword.
The Battle of Palmetto Ranch took place on May 13, 1865 thewas last battle of the Civil War.
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qfp01
Must really frost you that Bobby Lee got his butt kicked by a drunk then.
"I wish to call attention to the story of Gen. Grant’s refusal to accept the surrender of Gen. Lee’s sword at Appomattox, a story without a particle of foundation in fact, and utterly unreasonable, yet widely circulated by Northern writers and speakers, and credited by a good many people in the South.Col. Charles Marshall, who was, I believe, the only officer accompanying Gen. Lee on that occasion, has declared that nothing of that kind occurred. Dr. J. William Jones, in "Personal Reminiscences of Gen. Robert E. Lee," at page 303, reports Gen. Lee as making a similar statement during a conversation with a company of friends as follows: "Gen. Grant returned you your sword, did ne not General? . . . The old hero . . . replied, "No sir; he did not. He had no opportunity of doing so. I was determined that the side arms of officers should be exempt from the terms of surrender, and of course I did not offer mine. All that was said about swords was that Gen. Grant apologized to me for not wearing his own sword, saying it had been taken off in his baggage, and he had been unable to get it in time."
But we need not depend solely on the testimony of those men. The well-ascertained circumstances of the situation flatly and irreconcilably contradict the story. The two generals met to consider the question of surrender. It would have been contemptibly nonsensical and pusillanimous of Gen. Lee to tender his sword before the terms were agreed upon. By the terms they did agree upon all Confederate officers were to retain their side arms and other private property. There was less reason than ever for the surrender of the sword. No one except a scared coward or the most truckling toadeater would have dreamed of committing voluntarily such an act of self-humiliation."
(Farce of Lee’s Offer of Sword to Grant, J.F.J. Caldwell, Confederate Veteran, May, 1900, pg. 204
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