April 9 was a sad day for General Lee. As he stepped out of the door of the house where the terms of surrender had been agreed upon and stood in silence, waiting for his horse to be brought to him, he clasped his hands together as if in deep pain and looked far away into the distance. Then, mounting his steed, he rode back to the Confederate camp, where his officers and men awaited his coming.
General Lee on His Horse, Traveller.
On his approach they crowded about their beloved chief in their eagerness to touch him, or even his horse. Looking upon his veteran soldiers for the last time, Lee said, with saddened voice: “We have fought through the war together; I have done the best I could for you. My heart is too full to say more.” Then he silently rode off to his tent.
These simple, heartfelt words to his “children,” as he called his soldiers, were like the man who spoke them. For during the entire war he was always simple in his habits. Rarely did he leave his tent to sleep in a house, and often his diet consisted of salted cabbage only. He thought it a luxury to have sweet potatoes and buttermilk.
The gentleness and kindness of General Lee was seen also in his fondness for animals. When the war was over his iron-gray horse, Traveller, which had been his faithful companion throughout the struggle, was very dear to him. Often, when entering the gate on returning to his house, he would turn aside to stroke the noble creature, and often the two wandered forth into the mountains, companions to the last.
Within a year after the close of the war General Lee was elected President of Washington College, at Lexington, Virginia—now called Washington and Lee University. There he remained until his death, in 1870. His countrymen, in all sections of the Union, think of him as a distinguished general and a high-minded gentleman.
Three years after the close of the war (1868) General Grant was elected President of the United States and served two terms. Upon retiring from the presidency, he made a tour around the world, a more unusual thing in those days than now. He was everywhere received, by rulers and people alike, with marked honor and distinction.
His last days were full of suffering from an illness which proved a worse enemy than ever he had found on the field of battle. After nine months of brave struggle, he died on July 23, 1885. Undoubtedly he was one of the ablest generals of history.
The war, in which these two distinguished commanders had led opposing sides, had cost the nation not only thousands of men, the vast majority in the prime of their young manhood, but millions of dollars. But it had two striking results: it preserved the Union, for it was now clear that no State could secede at will; and it put an end to slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation had set free only those slaves in the States and parts of States which were under the control of Union armies; but after the war the Thirteenth Amendment set free all the slaves in all the States in the Union for all time. These were the benefits purchased by the terrible sacrifice of life.