Today in U.S. History: April 9, 1865 – Lee surrenders to Grant by Kaye Spencer #WesternFictioneers @kayespencer

The end of the War Between the States was at hand…

In the spring of 1865, after four years of war on American soil, General Ulysses Grant was closing in on General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia.  At this time, Lee’s army was still a Confederate force to be reckoned with, but just barely.

As Grant continued, slowly and doggedly, to take control of roads and thus supply lines, Lee experienced increasing numbers of deserters, which steadily weakened his forces. Grant knew and Lee knew that Grant knew that Lee needed to hook up with General Joseph Johnston’s army to the south. But the way was not an easy one to traverse.

The Union army met the Confederate army at the Battle of Ft. Stedman at Petersburg, Virginia in late March. This was Lee’s final offensive, but his casualties came at too high of a price to keep going much longer. Still, Lee hung on.

The Battle of Five Forks in Dinwiddie County, Virginia followed on April 1st. Again, Lee’s troops sustained considerable loss. So Lee retreated from the Richmond and Petersburg areas with Union troops hot on his heels.

Lee’s troop rallied for a bit, but the Federal army came on. By this time, Lee’s men numbered around 30,000. Lee met the Union forces for a final confrontation in the Appomattox Campaign. Lee’s intent was to make a hard march to join forces with Johnston, but General Sheridan had other ideas. He caught up with Lee on April 6th for the Battle at Sayler’s Creek [sic per Gallagher, The Great Courses, 2000).

Lee’s troops suffered great losses through death and capture. Many of his men were too hungry to continue, and others simply threw down their weapons and walked away. Then the Union army maneuvered into position in front of the Confederates, and there was no place left for Lee to go.

“I would rather die a thousand deaths [than surrender],” Lee said (Gallagher, 2000). Nevertheless, Lee sent the message for terms of surrender to Grant.

Lee and Grant met in the parlor of Wilmer McLean’s red brick house in the small Virginia village of Appomattox Court House on the afternoon of April 9, 1865 to sign formal surrender documents. When Lee offered his sword to Grant, Grant refused it.

Signing the surrender from a contemporary sketch - eyewitnesstohistory.com

According to Gary W. Gallagher, Ph.D., University of Virginia professor of history with specialty in the American Civil War, “…Lee showed up for this meeting immaculately dressed—a dress uniform, his saber. He expected to be taken prisoner, and he wanted to look like a soldier. Grant showed up for the meeting in muddy clothing. This has often been construed as a deliberate affront on Grant’s part that he wanted to humiliate Lee by showing up dressed shabbily. It isn’t true at all. When Grant learned definitively that there would be a meeting, he wanted to hurry to get to the spot, so that Lee didn’t have to sit and wait. He believed that would be humiliating to Lee to have to sit and wait…”

On the terms of surrender...

     ‘…the terms of surrender were simple. Confederate officers could keep their side arms [and swords]. All soldiers would be fed and allowed to keep their horses and mules. None would be tried for treason. “Let all the men who claim to own a horse or mule take the animals home with them to work their little farms,” Grant said. “This will do much toward conciliating our people,” replied Lee.

       As Lee rode off, Union troops started to celebrate the Union victory, but Grant silenced them. “The war is over,” he said. “The rebels are our countrymen again.” After the surrender, Lee returned to his men and quietly told them: “I have done for you all that it was in my power to do. You have done all your duty. Leave the result to God. Go to your homes and resume your occupations. Obey the laws and become as good citizens as you were soldiers.”’ (Boyer 394-395)

Chamberlain at Lee's Surrender - Kaye Spencer's personal collection

On April 12th, Confederate soldiers formally stacked arms at Appomattox Court House, but Lee and Grant were no longer there. However, General Joshua Chamberlain of Gettysburg’s Little Round Top fame was on hand for the surrender.

But the word was slow in spreading…

• On April 26th, General Joseph Johnston surrendered to General Sherman a Durham Station, North Carolina.
• On May 4th, General Richard Taylor surrendered at Citronelle, Alabama.
• On May 10th, Jefferson Davis was captured in Irwinville, Georgia. He was imprisoned at Fortress Monroe for two years. He was never tried for treason.
• On May 13th, the last land battle was fought at Palmito Ranch near Brownsville, Texas.

Until next month on the 2nd Monday for another episode of 'Today in U.S. History',

Kaye Spencer

Writing through history one romance upon a time

Website/Blog- https://www.kayespencer.com
Instagram - kayespencer
Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/kayespencer
Pinterest - http://www.pinterest.com/kayespencer
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/kayespencer23
Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/author/kayespencer
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayespence
Prairie Rose Publications - http://prairierosepublications.com/
YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/c/kayespencer0203

References:
*Boyer, Paul. American Nation. Austin: Holt, Rineholt and Winston, 2000.
*Gallagher, Gary. The American Civil War, Part 4, Lecture 46, "Petersburg to Appomattox", The Great Courses. Chantilly: The Teaching Company, 2000. DVD
*"Surrender at Appomattox, 1865," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (1997).
*Wikipedia Contributors. "Battle of Appomattox Court House." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 27 Mar 2018. Web. 08 Apr 2018. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Appomattox_Court_House>

Civil War Reenacting: Children Soldiers

By Matthew Pizzolato

A civil war reenactment is always a family affair, so there are usually children of various ages present. Some of the youngest have to remain in camp during a battle, or join a group of spectators to watch. There are a few tasks for some youngsters who aren't quite old enough to carry a rifle on the battlefield, such as flag-bearers and drummer boys. Some are used as couriers behind the lines to carry messages from one body of troops to another.

However, during the Civil War, the term Children Soldiers had an entirely different meaning. The official age to join the military was eighteen, but a lot of young men lied about their ages and recruiters weren't very strict when the boys looked old enough. Ironically, it was the abundance of boyish-looking men that made it easier for women to disguise themselves as men and join the ranks.

Johnny Clem

Still, a lot of underage soldiers succeeded in enlisting, on both sides of the conflict. A lot of them were assigned as regimental musicians but still managed to see action. Johnny Clem was twelve years old when he joined the Second Michigan regiment as a drummer boy. During the battle of Chicamauga, he was ordered to surrender by a Confederate officer. Clem shot the man and ran back to the Union lines. He was celebrated as a hero throughout the Union and became famous as the "Drummer Boy of Chicamauga."

It is estimated that as many as 20% of the soldiers who fought during the War were under eighteen. Most of them were assigned as musicians and in theory didn't fight. But once a battle started, many of them picked up weapons to defend themselves and their friends. A lot of the boys who joined were runaways who wanted to fight alongside family members and some were orphans.

Private Edwin Francis Jemison

Elisha Stockwell, a soldier from Wisconsin, described his experience during the battle of Shiloh as follows. 

“I want to say, as we lay there and the shells were flying over us, my thoughts went back to my home, and I thought what a foolish boy I was to run away and get into such a mess as I was in. I would have been glad to have seen my father coming after me.”

Private Edwin Francis Jemison, a private in the Confederate Army, was killed at the age of seventeen when fighting at the Battle of Malvern Hill. 

According to U.S. Military records, there were 127 soldiers who were thirteen, 320 who were fourteen, about 800 who were fifteen, 2,758 who were sixteen, and around 6,500 were seventeen. Of course, that is just the numbers for the Union Army. Total figures for the Confederate Army are unknown, but is believed to have been even higher. 

Matthew Pizzolato's short stories have been published online and in print. He is a member of Western Fictioneers and his work can be found in the Wolf Creek series as well as his own publications, THE WANTED MAN, OUTLAW and TWO OF A KIND. 

He is the Editor-in-Chief of The Western Online, a magazine dedicated to everything Western. He can be contacted through Twitter @mattpizzolato or via his website: 

www.matthew-pizzolato.com

Civil War Reenacting: Tents

By Matthew Pizzolato

One of the biggest disparities at a reenactment when compared to the War is that for the most part, every reenactor has his own tent.  The soldiers during that time weren't so fortunate. 

When the War began, both armies used Sibley tents, named after Confederate Brigadier General Henry H. Sibley.  The design was based on Native American tepees.  A Sibley tent was a round cone that was eighteen feet in diameter and twelve feet high.  It was supported by a center pole and was designed to sleep twelve men comfortably aligned around the center pole.  However, when supplies were short, they sometimes housed up to twenty a night.  During the summer months, bathing was a luxury for an army in the field so conditions often were intolerable inside a Sibley and many men chose to sleep under the stars when the weather was permitting.

Different sizes of wedge tents or A-frames

As the War dragged on, the large Sibley tent was replaced by smaller tents often called wedge tents or A-frames.  The official size of a wedge tent given by the Quartermaster Department of the U.S. Army was 6'10" long, 8'4" wide and 6'10" tall.  These tents would generally sleep four men.

The reproduction tents used today are somewhat larger, most of them being nine feet long by nine feet wide and seven feet high.  However, they come in several different sizes.

What most soldiers would have used while the army was marching is the shelter tent or dog tent as they came to be called because they didn't require wagon trains for transportation since they didn't use ridgepoles.  A shelter tent consists of two canvas shelter halves (each man would carry one half in a knapsack) that buttoned together and were held up often with freshly cut saplings and rope. They were barely five foot square and only provided enough room to crawl in and lay under and would sleep two men. There was no front or rear flap and on cold nights, soldiers would often throw blankets over the openings.

Those were the regular accommodations for the enlisted men in the Union Army.  Those in the Confederate army weren't as fortunate and due to the lack of supplies, often slept out in the elements with nothing more than a wool blanket.

There were larger tents for officers, known as a wall tents and the largest wall tents often served as hospitals.

Matthew Pizzolato's short stories have been published online and in print. He writes Western fiction that can be found in his story collection, The Wanted Man and the novella Outlaw as well as his newest release, Two of a Kind.

Matthew is the editor and webmaster ofThe Western Online, a magazine dedicated to everything Western and can be contacted via his personal websiteor on Twitter @mattpizzolato.