CIVIL WAR

General Ulyess S. Grant General Robert E. Lee

"The Slow Collapse of the South"

  On the 29th of March 1865 the Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee was being driven back by the Army of the Potomac commanded by General Ulysses S. Grant at Petersburg, Virginia. Lee informed President Jefferson Davis that he would have to evacuate Petersburg which would doom Richmond (the Southern capitol) as well.

  On the 2nd of April the Confederate States government fled Richmond ahead of the advancing Northern forces. Later that night, Lee's forces abandoned Petersburg.

  When Lee attempted to reach the Danville Railroad to retreat, Gen. Phillip Sheridan cut him off by reaching the Danville Railroad ahead of the retreating rebels. On th 5th of April Lee lost fully one-third of his army, captured by Sheridan at Saylor' Creek. Four days later the Confederates, attempting to reach the Shenandoah Valley, arrived at Appomattox Court House, hungary and exhausted. Sheridan's forces were again blocking the way. In desparation, Lee ordered a Cavalry charge but was unable to penetrate the Federal Line. General Joshua Chamberlain was there and recorded the events that then unfolded...

"A soldierly, young figure, a Confederate staff officer undoubtedly, Now I see the white flag earnestly borne, and its possible purport sweeps before my inner vision like a wrath of morning mist. He comes steadily on, the mysterious form in gray, my mood so whimsically sensitive that I could even smile at the material of the flag - wondering where in either army was found a towel, and one so white. But it bore a mighty message."      Over at the Confederate lines, Lee uttered with great weariness: "There is nothing left for me to do but go and see General Grant, and I would rather die a thousand deaths."   They met in the house of a man named McLean. Lee was resplendent in his dress uniform, sash and sword. Grant arrived in his mud-stained field uniform.   Surrender terms were discussed and agreed upon and the document written and signed. Grant agreed to let Southern cavalrymen keep their horses and he agreed to provide food for the Southern troops. As Lee rode away, the men of the North rose to attention and saluted.   The next day, Lee said his farewell to the Army of Northern Virginia. His men lined up to turn in their arms. As they marched by the silent ranks of Federal Bluecoats, they tearfully dropped their rifles, colors and Confederate flags. Joshua Chamberlaine watched, his mind reeling:   "What visions thronged as we looked into each other's eyes! Here pass men of Antietam, the Bloody Lane, The Sunken Road, the Cornfield, the Burnside Bridge...Here comes Cobb's Georgia Legion, which held the stone wall on Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg, close before which we piled our dead for breastworks...Now the sad great pagent -- Longstreet and his men! What shall we give them for greeting that has not already been spoken in volleys of thunder and written in lines of fire on all the riverbanks of Virginia?... Ah, is this Pickett's Division? - this little group left of those who on lurid last day of Gettysburg breasted level cross-fire and thunderbolts of storm, to be strewn back drifting wrecks, where after that awful, futile, pitiful charge we buried them in graves a furlong wide...How could we help falling on our knees, all of us together, and praying God to pity and forgive us all!" As the Confederate Commander rode away, Confederate soldiers wept. [General Robert E. Lee's Farewell] [HOME PAGE]   [CIVIL WAR INDEX] Everette Carr Attala County Coordinator