(The Five Forks. Lee ordered George Pickett to “hold the junction at all costs.” Inexplicably, Pickett went to lunch and his leaderless troops were routed, closing the last rail line to Richmond and Petersburg, and forcing their evacuation. Photo Donald Hogan).

One hundred and fifty years ago today, Robert E. Lee looked at the papers that had just come from Ulysses Grant under flag of truth. Lee had his headquarters not far from the McLean House near Appomattox Courthouse, a short walk.

Grant camp was on the other side of the courthouse. You should visit the scene where it ended sometime if you are in the neighborhood.

It was a spring filled with stunning events as the armies rose from their winter quarters. With the rail lines cut, Lee withdrew to the west, his force increasingly composed of North Carolina men who were eager to be home and done with it all. Formations evaporated even as some were determined to fight to the end.

I went to Five Forks, one of the places along the road that parallels I-85 southwest of Petersburg (“No Dad, not another battlefield!”) years ago, and in a completely different context. As with many of these places of momentary great consequence, it is a sleepy place now, and without the signs, you could never tell anything untoward had occurred.

I visited Appomattox a few years later, returning from on a brilliant afternoon when the park was empty. It was Spring. My friend and I walked down from the site of Grant’s encampment, past the Courthouse to the McLean House. It is all preserved now by the Park Service, but it was pretty rough and ready then, with an uneasy space between two heavily-armed groups of men, one hungry and ragged and the other eager to seal a decisive victory.

On 08 April, Brevetted Maj. Gen. George A. Custer’s division of Union cavalry captured a supply train and twenty-five guns, driving off and scattering the Confederate defenders at Appomattox Station.

It was an unusual fight, pitting Rebel artillery without infantry support against Union cavalry. Custer captured and burned three trains loaded with provisions for Lee’s famished army. That night a Federal cavalry brigade under Brevet Brigadier General Charles Smith occupied the ridge less than a mile west of Appomattox Court House and dug in. Lee’s line of withdrawal was blocked.

That was about it, end game. Lee reviewed the letters he had received from Grant the day before, and the proposed terms of surrender:

To wit: The officers would individually pledge not to bear arms against the US government of the United States

Each company or regimental commander would require a like pledge of their men

Officers would not be expected to surrender their side arms, their horses, or their baggage

All horses and mules claimed by men in the Confederate Army were to remain theirs

Lee thought hard about it. The terms seemed fair and non-punitive. On this day, 150 years ago, he made up his mind.

(Appomattox Court House. Photo National Park Service.)

Copyright 2015 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303