Thus the last line of battle formed in the Army of Northern Virginia was by the invincible First Corps, twice conqueror of empire!
GENERAL ALEXANDER ARRANGING THE LAST LINE OF BATTLE FORMED IN THE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA.
In talking over the delicate situation, General Lee told General Longstreet that he feared his refusal to meet General Grant’s proposition might cause him to demand harsh terms. General Longstreet assured him that he knew General Grant well enough to be certain that the best terms possible would be given—even such terms as he himself would be willing to give a gallant foe under similar circumstances. How true this estimate proved all the world now knows.
APPENDIX
LONGSTREET
He lies in state, while by his flag-draped bier
Pass the long ranks of men who wore the gray—
Men who heard shriek of shot and shell unmoved—
Sobbing like children o’er the lifeless clay.
Through the fair South the heroes whom he led
Against the blue lines in the stricken field
Muse on the days ere Appomattox wrenched
The laurel wreath from Dixie’s shattered shield.
The glories of Manassas, Chancellorsville,
And all the triumphs those gray legions gained
Seem gathered in a shadowy host beside
That casket and those colors battle-stained!
While in the frozen North the men who strove
Against his squadrons, bartering blow for blow,
Bow silvered heads, exclaiming lovingly,
“May he rest well! He was a noble foe!”
Genius and courage equally were his—
He fought in cause his heart maintained as right,
And when the sword clanked in the rusted sheath
He murmured not against the losing fight,
But made endeavor, with a loyal soul,
To heal the wounds the years of strife had wrought—
And in the fields of peace more glories won
Than in the battles his gray warriors fought!
—W. A. P., in Chicago Journal.