Hallowed Heritage: The Life of Virginia

by Dorothy Margaret Torpey

While the rearguard of Lee's army was retreating toward Lynchburg, the rest of his army was retreating from Petersburg. On April 8, 1865, two Confederate corps consisting of starved, poorly equipped soldiers under General John B. Gordon and General James Longstreet arrived at a village called Appomattox Court House. When General Lee arrived, he noticed that his men were actually surrounded and far outnumbered by General Grant's Army of the Potomac. He had been corresponding with Grant concerning a surrender ever since the fall of Petersburg. Lee, realizing the futility of the comparatively small group of poorly equipped troops which he now commanded against Grant's large army, asked for an official meeting at Appomattox Court House. The meeting took place at noon on April 9, 1865, on Palm Sunday in the parlor of Wilmer McLean's House. General Lee and Colonel Charles Marshall, one of Lee's staff members and a most distinguished officer, represented the Army of Northern Virginia at the meeting while General Grant and fourteen federal officers including General George A. Custer and Major General Philip H. Sheridan constituted the remaining membership of the famous meeting.

The contrasting appearance of the two leaders was very noticeable: Grant, the victor, appeared straight from the battlefield in a dusty, fatigue uniform of a private without side arms and Lee, the vanquished, appeared in a new dress uniform of a Confederate general—the only one he owned after his personal effects had been burned in a wagon raid during an earlier retreat. Although the two leaders had had only casual meetings in their earlier years, their previous acquaintance seemed to lighten the tenseness of the situation. After an exchange of formal greetings and general conversation, the talks gradually shifted to a discussion of peace terms of surrender.

The terms have been described as most fair and generous and they included the following: parole was given to the Confederate officers and soldiers with the understanding that they were not to take up arms against the United States during the period of exchange, military weapons were to be relinquished to Union military officers with the exception of the side-arms belonging to the Confederate officers and baggage and privately-owned animals were to be kept for the spring plowing. Thus, after four years of brave fighting, General Robert E. Lee, in the name of the Army of Northern Virginia, graciously accepted with dignity the surrender terms of General Ulysses S. Grant and stated that the terms "will do much toward the conciliation of our people." General Grant then proceeded to furnish food for the starving Confederate forces. The formal surrender took place the next day. When the Union forces began to cheer during the surrendering of Confederate arms, Grant immediately ordered the cheers to cease with the remark: "The war is over; the rebels are our countrymen again." Thus, Virginia, where the first blood of the War between the States was shed, was also the scene where the final negotiations for the conclusion of the war were made.

From April 3 to April 10, 1865, Danville was the capital of the Confederacy. As the evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond took place, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, and his cabinet moved to Danville. The present Danville Public Library occupies the building known as the Confederate Memorial Mansion where Jefferson Davis held his last cabinet meeting, making Danville the Confederate capital for a few days. At the time of the meeting, this beautiful building was the home of Major W. T. Sutherlin. Governor William Smith of Virginia also evacuated from Richmond to Lynchburg where the state archives had been sent earlier.

After the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, Jefferson Davis and his cabinet fled to Greensboro, North Carolina, and eventually, to Washington, Georgia, where they finally dispersed. Davis was later confined for two years at Fort Monroe, Old Point Comfort, Virginia, from May 10, 1865 to May 15, 1867. He was finally released on bail furnished surprisingly by Horace Greeley and other individuals who had strongly opposed Davis and his Confederate ideas a few years previously.

All the remaining Confederate troops had surrendered by the first week of June, and the War between the States had ended. Since a majority of the battles had been fought in Virginia, tremendous damage had been inflicted upon Virginia during the war. The state had been a constant battleground. Virginia troops, however, had distinguished themselves in their excellent fighting tactics, and the most brilliant military leaders of the Confederacy were Virginia-born.

Not only from a military viewpoint had the Confederacy welcomed the addition of Virginia within its membership, but also from an economic viewpoint. War munitions had been manufactured in huge quantities for the Confederate forces by the Tredegar Iron Works of Richmond. Richmond was also the home of the country's largest flour mills at that time. Because of its plentiful farm products, particularly wheat and corn, the Shenandoah Valley was called the "Granary of the Confederacy."

Even in defeat, the courageous spirit of the Virginians continued. The rôle of women in Virginia as well as in the entire South cannot be overemphasized. They had suffered physically, emotionally and economically during the war. They made military uniforms by hand, stood by helplessly as their homes and, often, life fortunes were burned to the ground, experienced certain types of deprivation such as a lack of proper food (particularly sugar, salt and meat), clothing, shelter and medicinal needs and performed numerous physical household tasks previously done by the Negro slaves although many of these women were unaccustomed to such hard labor.

Individual examples of bravery and courage, far too numerous to mention, were common throughout the entire war. A most unusual contribution of the women was their continuous experimentation in the discovery of food substitutes: the use of blackberry and sassafras leaves for tea; parched wheat, rye and corn for coffee beans; sea water for salt; and corncob ashes for cooking soda. A lack of processed candles and kerosene oil left only grease and wax to be utilized for making handmade candles. Wood was frequently substituted for leather and seeds for buttons. Formal education, of necessity, was almost non-existent; with a few exceptions, like the Virginia Military Institute, education became solely one of family training.