A World on Fire_ Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War - Amanda Foreman [422]
Francis Lawley had changed his mind about fleeing immediately to New York, returning instead to observe the final scene of the drama that had absorbed his life since he became the Times’ special correspondent. “All day long upon the 6th, hundreds of men dropped from exhaustion,” he wrote, “and thousands let fall their muskets from inability to carry them any further.”5 Lee pleaded with his son Rooney, who was commanding a division of the cavalry corps, to keep up its spirits, exhorting him, “don’t let it think of surrender. I will get you out of this.”6 But Sheridan pounced on the Confederate army as it retreated across Sayler’s Creek. Two divisions, amounting to almost a quarter of Lee’s forces, were cut off from their comrades; here, beside a naked line of trees, occurred the final battle between the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia.
Ill.60 Richmond, Virginia, after capture by the Federals, by Thomas Kennard.
Shells screaming, passed us, some bursting a few feet off us, volley of bullets coming in every direction [wrote Welly]. Every now and then, I heard bullets go with a thud into some unfortunate soldier, who would give a scream and all was over. I had a very narrow escape by a Parrot [sic] shell passing within 2 inches of my head and bursting within a foot of me, by coming in contact with a tree, a piece of it killing a man about a hundred yards off. It certainly was very exciting. People may talk about hunting, but a good battle is a 100 times more exciting.7
The surrounded Confederates tried to fight their way through, many resorting to fists and teeth if they had no weapons.38.1 But after five hours the two divisions surrendered, making prisoners of nine Confederate generals (including Custis, Lee’s eldest son) and almost eight thousand soldiers. The gray countryside turned black with the smoke rising from burning wagons. Lawley looked about him and saw “exhausted men, worn-out mules and horses, lying down side by side—gaunt famine glaring hopelessly from sunken lack-lustre eyes—dead mules, dead horses, dead men everywhere—death, many times welcomed as God’s blessing in disguise.”9
Lee dragged the remains of his army across the Appomattox River and reached Farmville on April 7. The precious rations were waiting for him, but also the news that the way ahead to Appomattox Station, twenty-five miles west of Farmville—where the rest of his supplies had been sent—was blocked by Sheridan. Straggling had diminished Lee’s army to fewer than 13,000 men, yet when he received a note from Grant on the evening of the seventh asking for surrender to avoid “any further effusion of blood,” he tried to use the correspondence to buy time while his officers looked for an escape route to Danville. That night, General Fitz Lee sent Welly to deliver a note to his uncle, Robert E. Lee, who was, wrote the British officer, “quite calm, although the Army is in such a state.”10 The next day was even worse for the Confederates. “No food, and marching all day. It is a fearful sight to see the state of our Army, hundreds upon hundreds lying in the road, not able to move from hunger and fatigue,” wrote Welly. “The enemy surround us on all sides.” Lee’s army was so depleted that one brigade had only eight men.11
During the night of April 8, Lee’s senior commanders, Longstreet, Gordon, and Fitz Lee, gathered in a copse near Appomattox Court House to discuss the possible courses left open to them. Fitz Lee did not wish to be a part of any surrender, and informed his uncle that he would take the remainder of his corps and flee southward. But the others were prepared to surrender with Lee if their final attempt to escape failed. Though there were only 10,000 soldiers present for duty against a pursuing force of 116,000, the generals agreed there should be one last attempt to break through Grant’s encirclement: “At 6 A.M., our line