Grant and Lee discussed the old army and having met during the Mexican War. Grant proposed that the Confederates, with the exception of officers, lay down their arms, and after signing paroles, return to their homes.
Lee agreed with the terms, and Grant began writing them out. One issue that Lee brought up before the terms were finalized and signed was the issue of horses. He pointed out that unlike the Federals, Confederate cavalrymen and artillerymen in his army owned their own horses. Grant stated that he would not add it to the agreement but would instruct his officers receiving the paroles to let the men take their animals home.
Lee also brought up the subject of rations since his men had gone without rations for several days. Grant agreed to supply 25, rations to the hungry Confederate soldiers. Most of the rations were provided from Confederate supplies captured by Sheridan when he seized rebel supply trains at Appomattox Station the previous day. Lee and Grant designated three officers each to make sure the terms of the surrender were properly carried out. Grant and Lee met on horseback around 10 in the morning of April 10 on the eastern edge of town.
There are conflicting accounts to what they discussed, but it is believed that three things came out of this meeting: each Confederate soldier would be given a printed pass, signed by his officers, to prove he was a paroled prisoner; all cavalrymen and artillerymen would be allowed to retain their horses; and Confederates who had to pass through Federal-occupied territory to get home were allowed free transportation on U.
Printing presses were set up to print the paroles, and the formal surrender of arms took place on April For those who stayed with Lee until the end, the war was over. It was time for them to head home. Lee left Appomattox and rode to Richmond to join his wife. Her assessment was spot on, for the Confederacy still lived.
Joseph E. Johnston's army—the next largest after Lee's still at war—was operating in North Carolina. Richard Taylor controlled forces in Alabama, Mississippi, and part of Louisiana. Edmund Kirby Smith's men were west of the Mississippi, and Brig. Stand Watie was in command of an Indian unit in the Far West. The day after Lee's surrender, the federal War Department was still trying to work out who was included in the terms of the agreement; its terms had not yet been received in Washington.
Was it all members of the Army of Northern Virginia or just those who were with Lee at the time of surrender? Godfrey Weitzel, the Union commander in charge of Richmond, telegraphed Grant that "the people here are anxious that [John] Mosby should be included in Lee's surrender.
They say he belongs to that army. In addition, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton requested from Grant further clarification about forces in Loudoun County, Virginia, that belonged to the Army of Northern Virginia and whether they fell under Lee's surrender.
Grant clarified the matter in a telegram to Stanton on the night of April This matched a telegram sent mid-afternoon from Chief of Staff Gen. Henry W. Halleck to Maj. Winfield Scott Hancock in which the chief of staff advised the general that the secretary of war wanted him to print and circulate the correspondence between Grant and Lee concerning the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. Halleck then provided further guidance that "All detachments and stragglers from that army will, upon complying with the conditions agreed upon, be paroled and permitted to return to their homes.
John Mosby, the Gray Ghost. National Archives Identifier View in National Archives Catalog. Since not everyone was yet in a surrendering mood, Halleck further advised that those who did not surrender would be treated as prisoners of war. He ended the telegram with one exception, "the guerrilla chief Mosby will not be paroled. Mosby's response was delivered to Hancock on April Mosby was not ready to surrender his command but would meet to discuss terms of an armistice.
After reading the letter, Hancock agreed to meet at noon on April 18; a cease-fire would begin immediately. That evening the War Department wired that Grant had authorized Hancock to accept the surrender of Mosby's command. In the days just after President Abraham Lincoln's assassination on April 14, there were heightened personal safety concerns for top officers. Hancock sent Brig. George Chapman, a Union cavalry officer, in his place to confer with Mosby on the April Mosby was still not ready to surrender and requested a hour extension of the cease-fire.
Chapman agreed and notified Mosby that the cease-fire would continue until noon on April The "Gray Ghost" chose to disband his unit rather than surrender en masse.
In his announcement read to his men on April 21, Mosby told them, "I disband your organization in preference to surrendering it to our enemies. I am no longer your commander. Most of Mosby's officers, and several hundred of his men, rode into Winchester to surrender themselves and sign paroles.
Federals allowed them to keep their horses. Hancock estimated that around rangers were paroled. Others followed suit and started turning themselves in at other towns in Virginia. Even more joined their colleagues and signed paroles in Washington and at military posts over the next several months. Mosby and his younger brother, William, went into hiding, near their father's home outside Lynchburg, Virginia, soon after learning of Johnston's surrender to Sherman in North Carolina.
In mid-June William received assurances from a local provost marshal in Lynchburg that his brother would be paroled if he turned himself in. John Mosby presented himself the next day only to be told the offer had been countermanded by Union authorities in Richmond. Several days passed before Grant himself interceded, and on June 16 Mosby was told his parole would be accepted. The following day, Mosby turned himself in and signed the parole in Lynchburg.
Mosby returned to the business of law shortly after the war. Mosby, like Lee prior to his surrender, was counting on Johnston to pull away from Sherman in North Carolina and join other Confederate forces.
But Johnston was being pursued by the forces commanded by Union Gen. William T. After Sherman's successful "March to the Sea," in which his army marched from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia, in the fall and winter of , he steadily pushed Johnston's Confederate army further north through the Carolinas.
Sherman marched through South Carolina, capturing the state capital, Columbia, in February. Sherman's forces clashed with Johnston's army at Averasboro on March 16 and again at Bentonville in a multiday battle that ended on March Johnston's Confederate army was reduced to around 30, following the battle of Bentonville.
This amounted to about half the size of Sherman's Union command. When Maj. Grant had ridden west all morning toward the fighting, knowing he was drawing near to the end of the Army of Northern Virginia. Lee, still believing he could escape Grant, declined to surrender but did ask about the possibility of a peace agreement. Grant tactfully replied that he could not discuss a peace agreement, but he could consider a military surrender. As he realized his army was cornered, Lee asked to discuss terms of surrender on April 9.
When Lee arrived at his rear lines, Maj. General Gordon sent word to him that Grant was on the move and could not be reached immediately. Grant sent a reply with one of his staff officers, Orville Babcock, agreeing to meet and telling Lee to select a meeting site. After some difficulty and confusion, Babcock crossed into Confederate lines under a flag of truce, and he found Lee resting in an apple orchard near the village, by the Appomattox River.
It may be that McLean was also the only property owner who had not fled the village to avoid the fighting from that morning and the evening before. McLean showed Marshall an abandoned, unfurnished building first, but Marshall rejected it as unsuitable. Only then did McLean offer the use of his home. Grant was uncertain how to bring up the subject of surrender, so after introducing his staff and the army commanders with him, he brought up the Mexican War and the brief meeting the two men had then.
Eventually Lee said they should get to the business at hand. In his order book, Grant quickly wrote out the terms, which had already been outlined for Lee in the letters the two generals exchanged over the two previous days.
The surrender was conducted through an exchange of two short letters. Aside from Grant and Lee, only Lt. Approximately a dozen other Union officers entered the room briefly, including Captain Robert Todd Lincoln.
Few besides Grant left detailed accounts of what transpired and while some accounts disagree on the details, there are many key consistencies. The heart of the terms was that Confederates would be paroled after surrendering their weapons and other military property. If surrendered soldiers did not take up arms again, the United States government would not prosecute them. Grant also allowed Confederate officers to keep their mounts and side arms. Lee appeared relieved by the terms.
Grant said he could not tell what Lee was thinking, but some indication of his anxiety might be inferred. Although Lee agreed to the terms, he asked if his men could keep their horses and mules in the cavalry and artillery. Having secured the fort, Confederate officials granted Anderson and his men safe passage. During the voyage north, they had no idea what kind of reception they would receive when they arrived in New York.
To honour Anderson and his men, the city held an enormous rally in Union Square, an event which would have been appropriate for a victorious general.
Praise for Anderson was not restricted to the North. For his part, Robert Anderson seemed somewhat embarrassed by the whole affair.
A career military man, he had never sought the spotlight. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse in April is often cited as its end though in reality it was only the first in a series of surrenders that signaled Confederate defeat.
Between Fort Sumter and Appomattox Courthouse, both Union and Confederate forces surrendered on dozens of occasions, including some of the decisive battles of the war: Fort Donelson, Harpers Ferry and Vicksburg. In the largest of these surrenders, soldiers numbering in the thousands laid down their arms. In nearly every Civil War battle, soldiers — individually and in small groups — found themselves in a position where choosing not to fight appeared to be their only option, and threw up their arms in surrender.
One out of every four soldiers surrendered at some point during the American Civil War; many surrendered on multiple occasions. Although the statistics are woefully incomplete, approximately , soldiers surrendered. This is approximately equal to the number of soldiers killed. If death shaped the Civil War, so too did surrender. When under fire, one could surrender honourably once it became evident that continuing to fight would prove fruitless.
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