Virginia and Virginians eminent Virginians, executives of the colony of Virginia from Sir Thomas Smyth to Lord Dunmore. Executives of the state of Virginia, from Patrick Henry to Fitzhugh Lee. Sketches of Gens. Ambrose Powel Hill, Robert E. Lee, Thos. Jonathan Jackson, Commodore Maury |
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FROM RICHMOND TO APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE. |
 | Virginia and Virginians |  |
FROM RICHMOND TO APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE.
It was a dark and moonless night when Lee withdrew the wreck of
his shattered army from Petersburg and Richmond. Orders had been
issued for the forces to unite at Chesterfield Court House, a point nearly
midway between the two cities. From this point it was his intention,
it appears, to reach Danville and form a junction with Johnston, who
was then marching northward; but a terrible disappointment awaited the
army at Amelia Court House. The orders of General Lee for the forwarding
of supplies thither from Danville had been shamefully neglected,
and with this bitter revelation all hope vanished; capitulation
starving army, the loved cause for which they had so heroically striven
for four long and weary years must be relinquished. No orders were
given relating to straggling, and of the 38,000 who started on the march,
thousands in soulful mortification abandoned the ranks. Especially was
this true of Virginians, who stopped at home rather than go on to participate
in the final bitter surrender.
Grant's forces followed on in rapid pursuit, and at Jetersville, the
cavalry under Sheridan, passed in front of the fugitive army. But now
the soil of the "Old Dominion" so long reddened with the life-blood of
her sons, is to bloom again; her hills and valleys which erst have quaked
with the reverberation of arms are to be re-attuned to nature's peaceful
music; the bugle blast of war is to be stilled; and her patriot sons, unsurpassed
as soldiers, are equally to vindicate themselves as citizens. It
was late on the evening of the 6th that several of the Confederate generals
gathered around the bivouac fire, and then decided in view of the
state of affairs to advise General Lee to surrender, but before their
action was reported a correspondence was opened between Generals
Lee and Grant, which resulted in an interview and arrangement of
the terms of surrender. After the meeting, which occurred at the house
of Wilmer McLean, in the little village of Appomattox Court House,
Grant wrote as follows:
In accordance with the substance of my letter to you
on the 8th inst., I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of
Northern Virginia on the following terms, to wit: Rolls of all the officers
and men to be made in duplicate, one copy to be given to an officer
designated by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as
you may designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to
take up arms against the government of the United States until properly
exchanged, and each company or regimental commander to sign a
like parole for the men of his command. The arms, artillery, and public
property to be packed and stacked, and turned over to the officers
appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side arms
of the officers nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each
officer and man will be allowed to return to his home, not to be disturbed
by the United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and
the laws in force where they may reside.
To this General Lee replied:
I received your letter of this date, containing the terms
of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia as proposed by you.
As they are substantially the same as those expressed in your letter of
the 8th instant, they are accepted. I will proceed to designate the
proper officer to carry the stipulations into effect.
The futile struggle was ended. General Lee rejoined his ragged and
shrunken army to bid it a sad farewell. In that memorable address he
touchingly said: "Men! we have fought through the war together. I
have done the best I could for you." And grandly indeed had the
simple utterance been attested! It was a magnificent pageant from the
Chickahominy to the final act at Appomattox Court House; sublime in
its realization of valor, endurance, and patriotism. Freedom records no
sacrifices surpassing it in magnitude. And the grand hero, Lee, reillumining
the lustrous diadem of his mother Virginia, is jointly enshrined
in the reverential hearts of her sons with her Washington.
Crushingly overwhelmed, the starving army of Northern Virginia
laid down its arms, but its pitiful fate only invested with mournful incense
its heroism and sacrifices. Its achievements will increasingly command
the admiration of the world during all time.
The blighting effects of the war remained. The prophecy of Howell
Cobb, uttered in the Montgomery Convention, that the Gulf States
need have no fears, for Virginia would be made the theater of war, had
been terribly fulfilled. The iron hand was everywhere visible. Materially
and socially she had been shaken to her center. As a helmless wreck,
she was seemingly helpless amid furious elements. Her industrial system
blasted, her manufactures wrecked, her wealth dissipated, her commerce
destroyed, and her once bounteous fields, her sanctuaries and the
homes of her people alike a spectacle of desolation. A funereal pall of
darkest gloom overspread and all but paralyzed the present, whilst the
dread uncertainty of the fateful future almost held hope even in chained
abeyance. But the oft-tried and as nobly exemplified spirit of the Old
Dominion again asserted itself. Her brave sons, accepting the stern
ultimatum, girded themselves about with newly-born energies and united
in the effort of reparation. Gloriously have they redeemed their misfortunes,
and righteous is the result. With grandly waxing strength,
marvelously developing natural resources and expanding wealth, her
unapproachable geographical advantages are enforcing recognition. Disdaining
the grinding shackles of arrogant and arid New England;
endeared to the great South as the votive shrine upon which was
manufacture, fast withering in the palsied hands of the late arrogant
North.
| Virginia and Virginians | |