A World on Fire_ Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War - Amanda Foreman [423]
At 8:30 A.M. Lee was informed that Gordon’s attack had failed and the troops were falling back toward Longstreet’s position, which was itself under fire from Federal forces. “Then,” said Lee, “there is nothing left for me to do but to go to General Grant, and I would rather die a thousand deaths.”13 He had prepared for this moment, having dressed before the battle in his best uniform, with red sash, ceremonial sword, and gold scabbard (the last given to him by a group of English female admirers).14 Welly was still exchanging fire with Federal soldiers when Fitz Lee received Lee’s dispatch that he was surrendering the army that day.
When the Union and Confederate generals gathered at 1:00 P.M. in the parlor of Wilmer McLean’s brick house a short distance from Appomattox Court House, Grant was struck by the extreme contrast between Lee’s immaculate clothes and his own “rough travelling suit” (which was only a private’s uniform adorned with the stars and epaulets of a lieutenant general). Lee had just two officers with him; Grant was accompanied by Generals Sheridan, Ord, and Porter and most of his staff, but the witnesses stood back respectfully as the two men chatted for a while, as though the occasion was no more than two veterans meeting for the first time since the Mexican-American War. “What General Lee’s feelings were I do not know. As he was a man of so much dignity, with an impassible face, it was impossible to say,” wrote Grant in his memoirs, “but my own feelings, which had been quite jubilant on the receipt of his letter, were sad and depressed.”15 Finally Lee could take the suspense no longer and brought the subject around to the surrender.
At four in the afternoon, Lee and his aides stepped out onto the sunlit porch of the McLean house, the document of surrender signed. Grant had offered generous terms: the Confederates were to lay down their weapons in perpetuity, but in return the officers could keep their horses and sidearms, and all could return to their homes unmolested. Grant had also offered to send rations to the famished Confederates. Lee mounted his horse, Traveller, and rode toward his own lines. “As the great Confederate captain rode back from his interview with General Grant,” wrote Francis Lawley,
the news of the surrender acquired shape and consistency, and could no longer be denied. The effect on the worn and battered troops—some of whom had fought since April 1861 … passes mortal description. Whole lines of battle rushed up to their beloved old chief, and, choking with emotion, broke ranks and struggled with each other to wring him once more by the hand. Men who had fought throughout the war, and knew what the agony and humiliation of the moment must be to him, strove with a refinement of unselfishness and tenderness which he alone could fully appreciate, to lighten his burden and mitigate his pain. With tears pouring down both cheeks, General Lee at length commanded voice enough to say: “Men, we have fought through the war together. I have done the best that I could for you.”16
Lawley did not stay to watch the defeated Confederates stack arms and surrender their regimental flags on April 12. He was in New York, finishing his report on Richmond’s evacuation, when the ceremony took place. His refusal to witness the final moments of the Army of Northern Virginia meant that he deprived himself of an experience that would surely have helped to heal rather than increase his sorrows. There was none of the crowing or ritual humiliation that he had feared; indeed, as the first line of Confederates stepped forward to deliver their weapons—members of Stonewall Jackson’s old brigade—the Federal guard stood at