Which mans surrender at appomattox

The Union general was shabbily dressed in a rough uniform with muddy boots and felt self-conscious. They shook hands and exchanged pleasantries. Grant sat down at a small table to compose the terms of surrender and personally stood and handed them to Lee rather than have a subordinate do it.

Grant graciously allowed the Confederate officers to keep their side arms, horses, and baggage. Lee asked that all the soldiers be allowed to keep their horses since many were farmers, and Grant readily agreed. Their business completed, the two generals shook hands, and Lee departed with a bow to the assembled men.

As Lee slowly rode away, Grant stood on the porch and graciously lifted his hat in salute, which Lee solemnly returned. Grant was so conscious of being respectful that when the Union camp broke out into a triumphal celebration, Grant rebuked his men and ordered them to stop. On April 12, the Union formally accepted the Confederate surrender in a solemn ceremony.

Brigadier General Joshua Chamberlain, the hero of Gettysburg, oversaw a parade of Confederate troops stacking their weapons. As the Army of Northern Virginia began the procession, Chamberlain ordered his men to raise their muskets to their shoulders as a salute of honor to their fellow Americans. Confederate Major General John Gordon returned the gesture by saluting with his sword. At the end of the dreadful Civil War, in which , men died, the Americans on both sides of the war demonstrated remarkable respect for each other.

That vision tragically did not survive the death of the martyred Lincoln a few days after the events at Appomattox. Williams is currently writing a book on the Declaration of Independence.

Your email address will not be published. Richard Taylor controlled forces in Alabama, Mississippi, and part of Louisiana. Edmund Kirby Smith's men were west of the Mississippi, and Brig.

Stand Watie was in command of an Indian unit in the Far West. The day after Lee's surrender, the federal War Department was still trying to work out who was included in the terms of the agreement; its terms had not yet been received in Washington.

Was it all members of the Army of Northern Virginia or just those who were with Lee at the time of surrender? Godfrey Weitzel, the Union commander in charge of Richmond, telegraphed Grant that "the people here are anxious that [John] Mosby should be included in Lee's surrender. They say he belongs to that army.

In addition, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton requested from Grant further clarification about forces in Loudoun County, Virginia, that belonged to the Army of Northern Virginia and whether they fell under Lee's surrender. Grant clarified the matter in a telegram to Stanton on the night of April This matched a telegram sent mid-afternoon from Chief of Staff Gen. Henry W. Halleck to Maj. Winfield Scott Hancock in which the chief of staff advised the general that the secretary of war wanted him to print and circulate the correspondence between Grant and Lee concerning the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia.

Halleck then provided further guidance that "All detachments and stragglers from that army will, upon complying with the conditions agreed upon, be paroled and permitted to return to their homes.

John Mosby, the Gray Ghost. National Archives Identifier View in National Archives Catalog. Since not everyone was yet in a surrendering mood, Halleck further advised that those who did not surrender would be treated as prisoners of war.

He ended the telegram with one exception, "the guerrilla chief Mosby will not be paroled. Mosby's response was delivered to Hancock on April Mosby was not ready to surrender his command but would meet to discuss terms of an armistice. After reading the letter, Hancock agreed to meet at noon on April 18; a cease-fire would begin immediately. That evening the War Department wired that Grant had authorized Hancock to accept the surrender of Mosby's command.

In the days just after President Abraham Lincoln's assassination on April 14, there were heightened personal safety concerns for top officers. Hancock sent Brig. George Chapman, a Union cavalry officer, in his place to confer with Mosby on the April Mosby was still not ready to surrender and requested a hour extension of the cease-fire.

Chapman agreed and notified Mosby that the cease-fire would continue until noon on April The "Gray Ghost" chose to disband his unit rather than surrender en masse. In his announcement read to his men on April 21, Mosby told them, "I disband your organization in preference to surrendering it to our enemies.

I am no longer your commander. Most of Mosby's officers, and several hundred of his men, rode into Winchester to surrender themselves and sign paroles. Federals allowed them to keep their horses. Hancock estimated that around rangers were paroled. Others followed suit and started turning themselves in at other towns in Virginia.

Even more joined their colleagues and signed paroles in Washington and at military posts over the next several months. Mosby and his younger brother, William, went into hiding, near their father's home outside Lynchburg, Virginia, soon after learning of Johnston's surrender to Sherman in North Carolina. In mid-June William received assurances from a local provost marshal in Lynchburg that his brother would be paroled if he turned himself in.

John Mosby presented himself the next day only to be told the offer had been countermanded by Union authorities in Richmond. Several days passed before Grant himself interceded, and on June 16 Mosby was told his parole would be accepted. The following day, Mosby turned himself in and signed the parole in Lynchburg. Mosby returned to the business of law shortly after the war. Mosby, like Lee prior to his surrender, was counting on Johnston to pull away from Sherman in North Carolina and join other Confederate forces.

But Johnston was being pursued by the forces commanded by Union Gen. William T. After Sherman's successful "March to the Sea," in which his army marched from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia, in the fall and winter of , he steadily pushed Johnston's Confederate army further north through the Carolinas.

Sherman marched through South Carolina, capturing the state capital, Columbia, in February. Sherman's forces clashed with Johnston's army at Averasboro on March 16 and again at Bentonville in a multiday battle that ended on March Johnston's Confederate army was reduced to around 30, following the battle of Bentonville.

This amounted to about half the size of Sherman's Union command. When Maj. John M. Schofield's Union force joined Sherman at Goldsboro several days later, the combined Union force reached approximately 80, men. Sherman was now on a rail line that connected him directly with Petersburg, Virginia. Sherman went to City Point, Virginia, where he met with Grant and Lincoln on March 27 and 28 to discuss the coming end of the war.

After the meetings ended, Sherman returned to his army to resume his pursuit of Johnston. As the two adversaries continued moving north, Johnston learned of the evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond and of Lee's surrender at Appomattox.

The plan for Lee and Johnston to join forces had collapsed. With Grant now free from fighting Lee in Virginia, the two Union forces—Grant's and Sherman's—could turn their combined attention toward Johnston and crush his lone Confederate army. Sherman's army started marching toward Raleigh on April 10 with Johnston's army retreating before it.

Word reached Sherman of Lee's surrender on April 11, and he informed his troops the following day. Those talks stopped several days later after Union forces entered Raleigh on April The following day Johnston sent a letter proposing a suspension of operations to allow civil authorities to make arrangements ending the war. Sherman notified Grant and Stanton that "I will accept the same terms as Gen. Grant gave Gen. Lee, and be careful not to complicate any points of civil policy.

Johnston, who had received advice from both Governor Vance and Confederate President Davis regarding peace talks, reached out to Sherman to discuss terms of his surrender.

Sherman offered Johnston the same terms as those given Lee at Appomattox. Johnston suggested that they take it one step further and "arrange the terms for a permanent peace. Breckinridge accompanying Johnston. After Appomattox, however, only the most zealous and desperate could pretend the Union was not already victorious and the Confederacy was destined to end.

As the sun rose on April 9th in Appomattox, General Lee still clung to the belief his war was not over. General John B. Robert E. Lee hoped there was only a thin line of Union cavalry ahead of him that he could smash through, find supplies and rations, and then turn south to march to North Carolina to continue the fight.

Lee was in the middle of the fight, his headquarters was east of the village near the center of his army. Lee knew more Federal troops were approaching from the east and perhaps the south, and he hoped he could move his army before the Federal reinforcements arrived. By a.

Read more about the Battle of Appomattox Court House here. Grant had ridden west all morning toward the fighting, knowing he was drawing near to the end of the Army of Northern Virginia. Lee, still believing he could escape Grant, declined to surrender but did ask about the possibility of a peace agreement.

Grant tactfully replied that he could not discuss a peace agreement, but he could consider a military surrender. As he realized his army was cornered, Lee asked to discuss terms of surrender on April 9. When Lee arrived at his rear lines, Maj. General Gordon sent word to him that Grant was on the move and could not be reached immediately. Grant sent a reply with one of his staff officers, Orville Babcock, agreeing to meet and telling Lee to select a meeting site.

After some difficulty and confusion, Babcock crossed into Confederate lines under a flag of truce, and he found Lee resting in an apple orchard near the village, by the Appomattox River. It may be that McLean was also the only property owner who had not fled the village to avoid the fighting from that morning and the evening before. McLean showed Marshall an abandoned, unfurnished building first, but Marshall rejected it as unsuitable. Only then did McLean offer the use of his home.

Grant was uncertain how to bring up the subject of surrender, so after introducing his staff and the army commanders with him, he brought up the Mexican War and the brief meeting the two men had then. Eventually Lee said they should get to the business at hand. In his order book, Grant quickly wrote out the terms, which had already been outlined for Lee in the letters the two generals exchanged over the two previous days. The surrender was conducted through an exchange of two short letters.