As we review the events which transpired at this time, we are impressed with this thought: Was ever such generous terms allowed or magnanimity displayed as was shown by Grant to Lee’s defeated army? When informed by Lee that his troops were suffering for want of food, Grant directed that twenty-five thousand rations should be issued to the Confederate forces. In the meantime our soldiers hastened to divide their rations with their late enemies, to stay their hunger until provisions from the trains could be drawn for them. When Grant stipulated that the officers and men of Lee’s army should retain their horses as they would be needed in raising a crop “to carry themselves and their families through the next winter,” it deeply touched the heart of Lee, who said that this kind and thoughtful act would have a happy effect upon his army. Grant did not lose sight of the fact that these men were Americans, and his own countrymen, and his noble soul could not suffer any indignity to be heaped upon his misguided but gallant foes. Washington received the surrender of the British army at Yorktown in the War of the Revolution, although his antagonist Lord Cornwallis affected indisposition and declined to be present in person, but Grant spared Lee this humiliation at Appomattox, and designated three of his subordinate generals to carry into effect the paroling of Lee’s troops, while he himself hastened to Washington to stop the purchase of supplies, and what he deemed other useless outlay of money.
The final parting of Lee with his soldiers who had followed him so faithfully during the entire war is said to have been very affecting. As the men crowded around their departing chief, he, with streaming eyes, grasped and pressed their outstretched hands, saying: “Men, we have fought through the war together. I have done the best that I could for you.” There were few dry eyes among those who witnessed the scene. The Confederates as fast as paroled took their way severally to their homes, many of them supplied with transportation, as well as food, by the government they had fought so long and bravely to destroy.
On the 11th of April our corps was ordered to march to Burkeville Station. We started at eight A. M., marched several miles and encamped. The next day, the 12th, we continued our march, and reached our destination on the 13th. This was a charming place, evidently a large and well ordered plantation before the war. Here we remained several days, enjoying to the utmost a much needed rest.
On the 15th we learned with profound sorrow and great indignation of the assassination of our beloved president Abraham Lincoln, at the hands of the miscreant Booth. It seemed almost incredible that this generous spirit, who in the words of his own declaration, “with charity to all, with malice toward none,” should have met such an untimely end when he was about to enter into the full fruition of the reward of his labors in the preservation of a “government of the people, for the people, and by the people.”
On the 22d of April Captain Allen forwarded the following report to the Adjutant General of the State of Rhode Island, concerning the movements of Battery H from the 1st to the 13th of April, 1865:
Battery H, 1st R. I. Lt. Artillery,
Artillery Brigade, 6th Corps,
Burkeville Junction, Va.
April 22d, 1865.
General: I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by my battery during the recent battles between April 1st and 13th, 1865. On the evening of April 1st I received orders to join the First Division of the Sixth Corps, which I did at twelve P. M. of that day.