Ask anyone you know what the most “important” or “historic” month in American history is, and the answer will likely not be April. After all, we have no official federal holidays during April. What’s to commemorate?
You’re more likely to hear “July,” for Independence Day. Or, maybe “September,” as in 1789, when the US Constitution was ratified. Others will say “December,” as in the Christmas Day massacre led by George Washington’s soldiers on Hessian troops in Trenton that helped turn the tide of the Revolutionary War (along with subsequent battles) against King George III and Great Britain.
But on April 9th in 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant, commander of the Army of the Republic. I always found it remarkably interesting that the surrender not only came with generous terms (Confederate soldiers could keep their sidearms and horses and would be paroled and be recognized as US citizens, immediately) but occurred in the Appomattox home of Wilmer McClain. It was McClain’s prior home in Manassas, Virginia, where the war broke out just 4 years earlier. McClain relocated to Appomattox to escape the conflict.
The surrender would be the second most momentous event of April 1865. The first was the subsequent assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, just 5 days later on April 14th. Perhaps no author has captured the history of April 1865 better than Jay Winik. His book is a must-read.
Terrific journalist and author Salena Zito outlines the story better than I can in her outstanding story today (April 9) in the New York Post and, in doing so, makes a really important point captured in the headline.
APPOMATTOX, VA. — On April 9, 1865, Gen. Robert E. Lee strode onto the porch of a two-story brick home and stared out at a lawn filled with Union soldiers, his Confederate staff of two, and his horse Traveler.
Still wearing full military dress, Lee raised his gloved hands and punched his left fist into his right palm. The sound of leather meeting leather echoed in the unsteady silence.
Then, as Lee mounted Traveler, Major Gen. Ulysses S. Grant emerged from the house onto the porch.
Now facing each other, Grant raised his hat, as did Lee. It wasn’t a salute, but clearly an acknowledgment of the moment.
As Lee turned towards the dirt road and headed east towards his troops, the 198th Pennsylvania Infantry played “Auld Lang Syne.”
The Civil War was over.
“As the sun rose that morning neither man would know by mid-afternoon the war, for all intents and purposes, would end that day,” explained Ernie Price, a park ranger and director of education at Appomattox National Park.
But by mid-morning, Lee knew the Confederate cause was finished. He sent a message to Grant to meet for the purpose of surrender, and the Appomattox home of grocer Wilmer McLean was chosen for the moment.
When they met, Grant was poorly dressed, his uniform rumpled and covered in mud from the ride the night before. Years later in his memoirs, he admitted that he had no idea what he was going to ask from Lee in the surrender.
Yet, once he sat down at a small spindle desk in McLean’s front parlor, words of reconciliation poured out.
“Grant knew that the Confederate soldiers from that moment on were going to be US citizens again,” said Price. “Instead of placing them in prisons in the North, he sends them home. His reasoning is: The sooner the South’s economy rebounds, the sooner the country can reconcile, so he paroles them.”
Grant also allowed Lee’s men to keep their personal sidearms and animals, knowing they would desperately need rations to survive.
This week marks the 153rd anniversary of Appomattox, and tourists from around the world still come to the McLean home to remember this singular moment, which kept our nation whole after a bloody, brutal war. When I visited last month, parents, students, and children listened to different park rangers tell the story of the two generals, and were surprised by the emotion they felt.
Grant and Lee understood that a divided nation is a toxic nation
“I wish more people young and old would understand the gravity of this moment and apply that kind of grace in their daily lives,” said 13-year-old Mathilde Colas, with remarkable clarity, as she visited with her family. “It is certainly easier to bring people together if you are generous with your words and actions. That is what I learned most from our visit today.”
The best and the worst of our country’s past sometimes happen side by side. The journey to understand who we once were isn’t always a road to perdition. Sometimes it’s a path toward inspiration.
Between the first shots fired at Fort Sumter in April 1861 and Lee’s surrender here, more than 800,000 soldiers died from fighting, starvation and disease. Five days after the war’s end, President Abraham Lincoln was dead, having paid the ultimate sacrifice for his steadfastness to preserve the union.
Afterwards the country was thrown into both mourning and uncertainty about its future as it faced reconstruction.
All of which should prove to folks who often moan that we live in the worst time possible for this country that, indeed, we do not.
As the two generals waited for their treaty to be prepared in McLean’s parlor, Grant introduced Lee to his staff, including Lt. Col. Ely Parker, a Seneca Indian, who later recalled their exchange.
“It’s good to see one real American here today,” Lee told him.
“General, we are all Americans today,” Parker replied.
Grant and Lee understood that a divided nation is a toxic nation — and that moment 153 years ago should serve as a reminder for all of us, to not just look to the bad and condemn, but to look to the good and apply it to our lives today.
Lee’s surrender did not officially end all hostilities but signaled the war’s inevitable conclusion. General Joseph Johnston’s Corp, headquartered in Hillsborough, North Carolina - whose troops Lee was desperately trying to unite with - would not surrender to Union General William T. Sherman until April 26th, also under generous terms but complicated by Lincoln’s death.
The war would not completely end until June when the last Confederate General, Stand Watie - a Cherokee Indian Nation leader from Oklahoma - surrendered and returned to farming. The “civilized tribes” of Oklahoma mostly supported the Confederacy during the war for two reasons: in retribution for Andrew Jackson’s forced removal of their tribes from Georgia, the Carolinas, and Florida, and the use of slaves by some Oklahoma tribes. They were punished by having their lands taken away and opened to “land runs” (but their nations continue to exist - it’s complicated).
Too little credit is given to General Lee - and General Grant for that matter - for their actions just before and after Appomattox to reunite a toxic and divided nation. Lincoln’s assassination and the alcoholic southern Democrat Andrew Johnson’s combative ascension to the Presidency would complicate things and result in a divisive and painful period known as “reconstruction.” Lee would only live four years longer, but during that time, rescued Washington College in Lexington, Virginia - now known as Washington and Lee University. The President’s House Lee occupied is still in use by the current President. Lee’s family, including his father, former Virginia governor and Revolutionary War hero “Light Horse” Henry Lee, and Civil War horse, Traveler, are buried on campus grounds. It is a highly ranked school with a stunningly beautiful campus that has sadly become more “woke,” as have too many other colleges and universities.
History is an invaluable guide and teacher. And we know what happens when we fail to learn from history, or worse, try to erase it. We repeat it, at great costs.