Lonely Whistle
(The McLean House today. It was dismantled after the war, and stored in pieces as preparation for display at the Great Columbia Exposition of 1893. It never happened, nor did the plans to reconstruct it in Washington, DC. It was not restored until after World War Two. Photo US Park Service).
My friend and I looked at the McLean House where the surrender terms were discussed. It was late on a lovely Spring day, and the house was locked and the Ranger was gone. It was an odd story: the McLean family had lived on a farm where there First Battle of Bull Run had occurred, and they wisely decided to get out of the way of the warring armies. They moved to as remote a place as possible, all the way to Appomattox Station, and built a modest two -tory home near the Courthouse.
Lee had made up his mind to save what remained of his proud Army of Northern Virginia, and accept the terms that General Grant had sent him on the 8th of April.
On the morning of April 9, 150 years ago this morning, Grant was riding toward Appomattox Court House where Union cavalry, followed by infantry from the V, XXIV, and XXV Corps had blocked the Confederate path to the southwest.
Lee sent a letter to Grant requesting a meeting to discuss his army’s surrender. It got to him just before noon, about four miles west of Walker’s Church. Grant had been suffering from a severe headache, but he later remembered that when he read about Lee’s intend to give up, the pain in his head had disappeared. He stopped to prepare his reply to Lee, writing that he would “push to the front” to meet him.
The location of the meeting was left to Lee’s discretion. Lt. Colonel Orville E . Babcock and his orderly, Capt. Dunn, took Grant’s reply and rode ahead. Babcock found Lee resting under an apple tree near the Appomattox River.
After reading Grant’s letter, Lee, his Aide-de-Camp Lt. Colonel Charles Marshall, and Private Joshua O. Johns rode toward Appomattox Court House accompanied by the two Federals. Marshall and Johns rode ahead of Lee in order to find a place for the generals to confer.
As Marshall passed through the little village, he saw Wilmer McLean leaning against a fence. He asked him if he knew of a suitable location, and McLean took him to an empty structure that was without furniture. Marshall immediately rejected this offer. Then McLean offered his own home. After seeing the comfortable McLean farm house, Marshall accepted and sent Private Johns back to inform General Lee that a meeting site had been found.
Lee arrived at the McLean house about one o’clock and took a seat in the parlor. A half hour later, the sound of horses on the stage road signaled the approach of General Grant. Entering the house, Grant met Lee in the center of the room. The generals presented a stark contrast: Lee was in a new uniform, while Grant was wearing an open-necked and mud-spattered field uniform. Only the four stars on his shoulders identified him as someone important.
Ending a war requires an ice-breaker, and the two men had met during the Mexican War. Grant asked Lee if he recalled it. Lee replied that he did, and the two conversed in a cordial manner for nearly a half hour. The elephant in the room would not be denied, though, and finally Lee invited Grant’s attention to the matter at hand.
Grant later confessed to being embarrassed at having to ask for the surrender from Lee, said simply that the terms would be just as he had outlined them in the letter from the 8th.
Lee again took the initiative and asked Grant to put the terms in writing. When Grant finished, he handed over the paper and Lee donned his reading glasses to review them. When he finished reading, the bespectacled Lee looked up at Grant and remarked “This will have a very happy effect on my army.”
Then Lee mentioned that his men had been without rations for several days, the Union commander arranged for 25, 000 rations to be sent to the hungry Confederates. After formal copies of the surrender terms, and Lee’s acceptance, had been drafted and exchanged, the meeting ended. Lee returned to his encampment, and made plans for the surrender, delegating the matter
Grant did the same thing, heading directly back to his Headquarters at City Point, VA.
My favorite Civil War figure is Major General Joshua Chamberlain, professor and warrior who led the 20th Maine at the farthest end of the Union left flank at Gettysburg, and whose wild downhill charge against John Bell Hood’s Texans saved the line from being turned. He was entrusted with taking the surrender of lee’s Army, when he and Grant had departed the field. He spoke of the event years later:
“But, as I was saying, every token of armed hostility having been laid aside, and the men having given their words of honor that they would never serve again against the flag, they were free to go whither they would and as best they could. In the meantime our army had been supplying them with rations. On the next morning, however, the morning of the 13th, we could see the men, singly or in squads, making their way slowly into the distance, in whichever direction was nearest home, and by nightfall we were left there at Appomattox Courthouse lonesome and alone.”
The whole interview is at the link, and if you have not read it, you should. My pal Pete sent it along to help refresh the memory. It is a remarkable account of the end of the most devastating conflict in North American history:
http://civilwarhome.com/chamberlainsurrender.htm
As We walked from the McLean House a dozen years ago, the sun was setting and the sky was illuminated in the color of blood. We reached the site of Lee’s headquarters encampment, nothing notable to see, except the sense of what had once been, and we could hear the lonely whistle of a train. We were alone on the field, just like Joshua Chamberlain.
Oh, and the McLeans? They could not escape the war that followed them, start to finish.
Some of the Union senior officers fought over who would take the small table on which the surrender had ben signed. Following the Surrender, and eventually the departure of the last of the soldiers, McLean lost the fortune he had made running sugar past Union blockades. He lost the house when he could not keep up the payments.
Copyright 2015 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303