Fred and Lois-The Travelin' Texans

Appomattox Court House National Park

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General Lee's table
Painting of the ceremony
General Grant's table
Union soldier describing the last days
MacLean's House
Appomattox Court House

 

Many of you have heard of Appomattox Court House and the story of the surrender of General Lee to the Union General Grant. The park is named after the court house, but the surrender actually happened in the home of a Mr. MacLean. Gen. Lee had been retreating and had stopped outside the town of Appomattox with Gen. Grant's army in hot pursuit. As Gen. Grant found a way to surround Lee, Lee met with his officers on the evening of May 8, 1865. They decided that they would make one attempt to break through Grant's lines and that if that was not succesful they would have to surrender. Lee had begun his retreat with about 50,000 men and now only had 23,000 left; of those only 8,000 were healthy enough to fight. Early on the morning of May 9, with heavy fog helping to hide his troops, they made an attack against the Union calvary and were able to break through the line. They thought they had it made, but as they topped the hill just south of Appomattox, the fog lifted and what they saw were over 50,000 union troops waiting for them. At approximately 9 a.m. Lee ordered his troops to raise the white flag of surrender and they did so.

Several unusual things took place during the next few hours. Grant sent a messenger to Gen. Lee saying that he could pick the place where they would meet. Lee then sent his aide into town to find an appropriate place with two conditions. One, the place should be a neutral site, a home, and that the owner of the home would have to agree to them using it. Well, the aide had a problem; most of the people had left town when the fighting started that morning and the town was mostly deserted. He saw one man that was inspecting his property and he approached him. The man was a Mr. MacLean, a sugar speculator. The aide explained what he needed and MacLean said he had a building down by the road, but it was an old bar and the aide said that would not be appropriate. The aide asked if they could use his house and MacLean finally ageed. A message was sent to Gen. Grant and they were to meet at 1 p.m. Lee was the first to arrive and brought two other officers to the meeting; he did not want his officers to have to go through this humiliating experience. Lee was also worried about what was going to happen; he did not know if he was to be taken prisoner or even immediately executed as a traitor. When Grant came to the meeting he was not really sure how to start the meeting so he began a conversation about the Mexican War, they both had met in Mexico during that engagement. After about 20 minutes, Lee had to interupt the conversation to say that he was here to surrender. Grant took a pen and paper and began to write the conditions of the agreement. It basically said that Lee's men had to lay down their arms, swear allegience to the Union, promise not to start another uprising against the US and if they did these things they could go home; no trials, no prison, no executions. This was a very unusual set of surrender terms. Both men discussed the terms to make sure they understood them and Lee asked for a copy to take to his officers. A Lt. Col. Parker, a Seneca Indian fighting for the Union, was asked to write a copy because he had good penmenship. There were further discussions about horses, etc. because Lee knew that his men would need their horses to plow their fields when they got home. Grant agreed to the idea, but would not change the original document. Lee took another piece of paper and wrote a letter to Grant stating that he accepted the terms. There is not an acutal document of "surrender" that both men signed, just the letter from Grant stating the terms and a letter from Lee saying he agreed. Grant instructed his men that if any Conferate soldier claimed to own his horse, let they were to let him keep it. The two generals appointed three officers from each army to establish the process of turning in their arms and finalizing the surrender. It was agreed that on May 12, the Confederate soldiers were to march into Appomattox and lay down their arms. They were given a "parole document" that would let them go home without interference from any Union troops they might encounter.

As Lee was leaving the ceremony, the Union troops outside the MacLean house began to yell and celebrate. Grant came outside immediately and demanded that they stop celebrating and taunting the Lee. He said they were now all part of the same nation again and instructed his officers to make sure no more actions of celebration were to take place.

Even though Gen. Lee was the commander of all the troops of the Conderacy, he was only surrendering the Tennesse Army, the group that was at Appomattax. Grant met with him on May 10 and tried to convince him to surrender them all and he said he could not do that. Grant left without getting that aggreement. There were no harsh words between the two men during any of their meetings.

This day started with a battle at day break and by 2 p.m. the generals had agreed to the terms for the surrender. Since it happended so quickly there were no photographers or other official scribes, just the two letters written by the two generals. A very historic day that turned the tide of the nation.

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