The Last Salute of the Army of Northern Virginia

 

 Lee's Surrender, By My Great Grandfather

The following is an article which provides General Joshua Chamberlain's comments and memories concerning the Army of Northern Virginia's Surrender at Appomattox.

The Last Salute Of The Army Of Northern Virginia. 
 
From the Boston Journal, May, 1901
 
Details of the Surrender of General Lee at Appomattox Courthouse, April 9th, 1865.

LENIENT TERMS OF GENERAL GRANT.

By General J. L. Chamberlain.
It is an astounding fact that among the thousands of official documents bearing upon the Civil war in the National Archives at Washington there is absolutely nothing dealing with one of the most dramatic features of the great four years' internal struggle--the actual ceremonies attendant upon the formal surrender by General Lee's army of all Confederate property in their possession at Appomattox Courthouse thirty-six years ago.

When General Lee surrendered to General Grant, April 9th, 1865, the war was virtually over, but of the details of the surrender, the pathetic sadness on the one side, the jubilant satisfaction on the other, and, more particularly of the precise arrangements, the mode of procedure and the Northern army officer whose duty it became to take charge of the rebel arms and the rebel battleflags as they were given up--of all this our official war records tell not a word.

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