Meaning of Appomattox

It was on this date, 150 years ago that General Robert E. Lee of the Confederate States of America surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant of the United States. The surrender took place at a little recognized crossroads, known as Appomattox  Courthouse, in a red brick home with white trim and a large wooden front porch.  It was owned by Wilmer McLean.  While the event did not truly end the fighting, after all, Lee only submitted to surrender his army of Northern Virginia to Grant. Yet, history has taught us that this is the end of the War between the States.  While a few more battles would rage, while it would take time for warring factions beyond this part of Virginia to know what occurred, and while there would be talk of guerrilla warfare to continue the struggle for southern independence, this is the seminal moment we recognize as the end of that great conflict.  The nation has fought additional wars since that time 150 years ago, but it would take until Vietnam for the total number of causalities in all other American wars combined to exceed those suffered in the Civil War.

1865 McLean House at Appomattox Court House

Yes, the nation fought each other, but the war was also the beginning of a new type of warfare. Tools of modern warfare were beginning to assert themselves at that time, although the tactics, particularly of rows of armed soldiers would make one think of the phalanxes of Greece or rows of Roman soldiers.  Tactics had not yet been adapted to the changing technology of warfare. The nation is fortunate that the south chose to avoid guerrilla warfare, as even today the nation's wars with Al Qaeda, and the self proclaimed Islamic State show the difficulties modern training, tactics, and weaponry have on that type of warfare.  It is not pleasant.  The destruction is great, the gains little, and the battles have been long.

Grant's draft of terms of surrender

General Lee had found his forces, down to 30,000 starving souls, penned in by the superior numbers of General Grant.  Grant had, at that time, 65,000 men in the Army of the Potomac surrounding Lee's forces.  During this conflict, the Union alone would see 110,000 to 140,000 combat deaths, the south 95,000 combat deaths.  In total the Civil War would produce, by some accounts, somewhere between 640,000 and 750,000 casualties--dead, wounded, and missing in action.  By comparison US Casualties in World War II would amount to about 405,000.  The Union possessed what Abraham Lincoln would term the terrible arithmetic.  The Union possessed more man power, more industrial might, and more money than did the south.  It is indeed terrible to put a price on one man, but the north simply had more men it could go through than did the south, and that was indeed a terrible arithmetic.  Even with the numerical advantage, Lincoln understood that the south would  need to rejoin the national fabric.  After all, the war did not begin to simply end slavery, the war began with Lincoln's desire to preserve the Union.  Recall that the Emancipation Proclamation granted freedom only to those slaves held by states in rebellion.

Lee and Grant at Appomattox Court House 

Lincoln would set forth his goals for the end of the war to nation in his second inaugural address, a little more than a month earlier than the surrender at Appomattox.  It was a short speech, just over 700 words, although not near as short as his less than 300 word Gettysburg Address.  This speech would close with a set of words as memorable as those in November 1863:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Terms of Surrender

At Wilmer McLean's house that Palm Sunday, Ulysses S. Grant, would provide terms of surrender in contrast with his moniker of Unconditional Surrender Grant, and more consistent with the words Lincoln spoke on that rainy day in early March of 1865.  Lee did not wish to surrender, but saw his situation hopeless.  In fact, he would say:  "There is nothing left me to do but to go and see General Grant, and I would rather die a thousand deaths." He saw a long prison stay, or possibly death for treason in his future.  The terms as proposed by Grant were rather simple and endearing.  Grant realized they once again or now countrymen.  It was a time to show mercy, not punishment.  For the formal signing of the terms, Grant would appear in muddy clothes, and be taken as private than the highest ranking General who commanded all US armies.  Lee, in contrast, was impeccably dressed in his best uniform, with side sword and all.  The terms would read:

Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate, one copy to be given to an officer to be designated by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as you may designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the government of the United States until properly exchanged; and each company or regimental commander to sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, artillery, and public property to be parked and stacked, and turned over to the officers appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to his home, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside.

Wilmer McLean

Lee would accept the terms of surrender, which had actually been worked out before hand in correspondence between he and Grant.  The War of Rebellion would be considered as having ended. Using the term Confederate States of America provides a certain credence to the southern efforts to secede. The soldiers would move on to begin their life anew.  For some it would be difficult.  Lee would go to Richmond, as his home and large acreage in Virginia had been confiscated by the US, and is now home to our nation's most hallowed ground.  Of course, it would be a few more months before the war would end.

Grant's note to Secretary of War Stanton on Surrender

As for Wilmer McLean, he purchased this house in 1863 moving about 120 miles south of his former residence in order to be out of harms way in the war between north and south. After all, the first major battle, the First Bull Run, occurred on his farm in 1861. Wilmer would begin the war at being at the wrong place at the wrong time, end it by being at the right place at the right time.  The parlor in McLean's brick home would enter our national conscience. A conscience where charity and mercy were above malice and retribution. A conscience where our commonalities were recognized more than our differences.  The nation would see some trying times as it struggled with reconstruction. Many of our current struggles go back to this war, but yet, we as a nation joined together. Perhaps we need to take time to not just celebrate but to pause and realize the importance of the nation and this one event in our history and how its meaning can be applied to the differences we face today.