Soon after General Lee’s return ride his chief of ordnance reported a large amount of United States currency in his possession. In doubt as to the proper disposition of the funds, General Lee sent the officer to ask my opinion. As it was not known or included in the conditions of capitulation, and was due (and ten times more) to the faithful troops, I suggested a pro rata distribution of it. The officer afterwards brought three hundred dollars as my part. I took one hundred, and asked to have the balance distributed among Field’s division,—the troops most distant from their homes.
The commissioners appointed to formulate details of the capitulation were assigned a room in the McLean residence. The way to it led through the room occupied as General Grant’s head-quarters.
As I was passing through the room, as one of the commissioners, General Grant looked up, recognized me, rose, and with his old-time cheerful greeting gave me his hand, and after passing a few remarks offered a cigar, which was gratefully received.
The first step under capitulation was to deliver to the Union army some fifteen hundred prisoners, taken since we left Petersburg, not all of them by my infantry, Rosser’s and Mumford’s cavalry having taken more than half of them. Besides these I delivered to General Grant all of the Confederate soldiers left under my care by General Lee, except about two hundred lost in the affairs about Petersburg, Amelia Court-House, Jetersville, Rice’s Station, and Cumberland Church. None were reported killed except the gallant officers Brigadier-General Dearing, of Rosser’s cavalry, Colonel Bostan, of Mumford’s cavalry, and Major Thompson, of Stuart’s horse artillery, in the desperate and gallant fight to which they were ordered against the bridge-burning party.
General Grant’s artillery prepared to fire a salute in honor of the surrender, but he ordered it stopped.
As the world continues to look at and study the grand combinations and strategy of General Grant, the higher will be his award as a great soldier. Confederates should be foremost in crediting him with all that his admirers so justly claim, and ask at the same time that his great adversary be measured by the same high standards.
On the 12th of April the Army of Northern Virginia marched to the field in front of Appomattox Court-House, and by divisions and parts of divisions deployed into line, stacked their arms, folded their colors, and walked empty-handed to find their distant, blighted homes.
There were “surrendered and paroled” on the last day of our military history over twenty-eight thousand officers and men,—viz.:
| General Lee and staff | 15 | |
| Longstreet’s corps[215] | 14,833 | |
| Gordon’s corps[216] | 7,200 | |
| Ewell’s corps | 287 | |
| Cavalry corps | 1,786 | |
| Artillery | 2,586 | |
| Detachments | 1,649 | |
| Total | 28,356 |
In glancing backward over the period of the war, and the tremendous and terrible events with which it was fraught, the reflection irresistibly arises, that it might perhaps have been avoided and without dishonor. The flag and the fame of the nation could have suffered no reproach had General Scott’s advice, before the outbreak, been followed,—“Wayward sisters, depart in peace.” The Southern States would have found their way back to the Union without war far earlier than they did by war. The reclaiming bonds would then have been those only of love, and the theory of government formulated by George Washington would have experienced no fracture. But the inflexible fiat of fate seemingly went forth for war; and so for four long years the history of this great nation was written in the blood of its strong men.