On the morning of the 9th General Grant returned him an answer as follows: “I have no authority to treat for peace.... I will state, however, General, that I am equally anxious for peace with yourself, and the whole North entertains the same feeling. The terms upon which peace can be had are well understood. By the South laying down their arms they will hasten that most desirable event, save thousands of lives, and hundreds of millions of property not yet destroyed. Seriously hoping that all our difficulties may be settled without the loss of another life, I subscribe myself, etc.”
General Grant, immediately after sending this message to Lee, started to join the column south of the Appomattox River. Early in the morning Battery H with the Sixth Corps moved out and advanced along the narrow road leading to Appomattox Court House. Late in the evening of the 8th, General Sheridan had struck the railroad at Appomattox Station, drove the enemy from there, and captured twenty-five pieces of artillery, a hospital train, and four trains of cars loaded with supplies for Lee’s army. Sheridan, in a characteristic dispatch to Grant, says: “Custer is still pushing on. If General Gibbon and the Fifth Corps can get up to-night, we will perhaps finish the job in the morning.” The following morning General Ord’s command and the Fifth Corps reached Appomattox Station just as the enemy was making a desperate effort to break through our cavalry. The infantry was at once thrown in. Sheridan then moved his troops around to the enemy’s left and decided to attack at once. Just as Custer’s division was forming to charge, a white flag appeared, and Custer sent word to Sheridan: “Lee has surrendered; do not charge; the white flag is up.” Sheridan immediately rode over to Appomattox Court House, where he was met by General Gordon, who requested a suspension of hostilities with the assurance that negotiations were then pending between Generals Grant and Lee for a capitulation. General Ord then joined the party. After shaking hands all around, and explaining the situation to Ord, General Gordon went away, agreeing to return in half an hour. When he came back at the appointed time he was accompanied by General Longstreet, who brought with him a dispatch, the duplicate of one that had been sent General Grant through General Meade’s lines back on the road over which Lee had been retreating. This dispatch read as follows:
“I received your note of this morning on the picket-line, whither I had come to meet you, and ascertain definitely what terms were embraced in your proposal of yesterday with reference to the surrender of this army. I now ask an interview in accordance with the offer contained in your letter of yesterday for that purpose.”
General Grant joined Sheridan and Ord about one o’clock in the afternoon, and in company they proceeded to the dwelling of a Mr. McClean at Appomattox Court House. The interview here between the two commanders was brief, the business in hand frankly discussed, as became soldiers, and the result summed up in these concluding letters:
Appomattox Court House, Va.,
April 9, 1865.
General: In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the 8th instant, 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 to be 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 sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, artillery, and public property to be parked 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 United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside.
U. S. GRANT,
Lt. Gen.
General R. E. Lee.