Articles of Agreement Relating to the Surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia

Context

By April 1865 the costs of the Civil War were staggering. About three million American men, one-third of all free males between the ages of fifteen and fifty-nine, had served in the war. Out of a population of 31 million people, total casualties exceeded one million. Six hundred and twenty thousand people were killed either in battle or by disease. The three hundred and fifty thousand Union dead represented 10 percent of all adult males of fighting age; the two hundred and sixty thousand Confederates represented 15–20 percent of all adults in the rebel states and a staggering 25 percent of white males between the ages of twenty and forty. The death toll exceeded that of deaths in all other U.S. wars from the Revolution through the Persian Gulf War. An additional seventy-five thousand died of war wounds after the war ended, and an estimated fifty thousand civilians died, totaling as many as seven hundred and fifty thousand dead because of the war. Approximately two hundred and seventy-five thousand on each side were maimed. Another four hundred and ten thousand spent time in unsanitary, overcrowded prison camps. Nearly 1.25 million of three million men who served in the Civil War were either killed or maimed. For the South alone, of a free white population of approximately five million, of which 1.4 million were draft-age males, over five hundred thousand men were either killed or maimed.

By 1865 Union forces permeated every corner of the Confederacy. William Tecumseh Sherman's army had cut a swath of destruction 425 miles long and 60 miles wide through Georgia and South Carolina. His forces had destroyed two-thirds of the value of all southern wealth. They had torn up two-thirds of its nine thousand railroad miles, and confiscated two-fifths of farm livestock. The planters had lost four billion dollars in slave property, and the worth of their lands had fallen to a fraction of their prewar value. The Confederate currency was worthless. Farms choked on weeds, as conscripted small farmers had to leave their farms under the care of their wives and children.

In addition to the loss of 10 percent of its adult males, the North also had paid a heavy price for the war. The historian David Donald estimates that the total cost ran as high as ten billion dollars. Northerners had grown embittered as the war dragged on, not only by the mounting deaths and conscription but also by widely publicized news of atrocities like the massacre of Black troops at Fort Pillow (Tennessee) by forces under the command of General Nathan Bedford Forrest and the starvation of thirteen thousand Union prisoners at Andersonville prison in Georgia.

Having staked all on its war for independence, the South had lost everything. All that remained was its honor and the valor of its two major armies still in the field. Ruined and disconsolate at the prospect of surrendering to the hated Yankees, anger and resentment smoldered beneath surface resignation. The threat of prolonged guerrilla struggle loomed. If further provoked, the North was capable of vengefully turning on the South, whose treasonous responsibility for the war might have been punished by harsh occupation, trial and execution of the leaders of the rebellion, indemnification for northern losses, and political subjugation. The way in which the Civil War was concluded would determine the climate of opinion on both sides and be of decisive influence in shaping the possibilities for postwar reunion and reconstruction.

On February 3, 1864, Confederate President Jefferson Davis sent Vice President Alexander Stephens to confer with President Abraham Lincoln at Hampton Roads aboard the Union transport ship the River Queen. With Davis insisting on southern independence, Lincoln demanded unconditional surrender and sent the Confederate officials back to Richmond. In his Second Inaugural Address of March 4, 1864, Lincoln appealed to the nation for a peace without vengeance: “With malice towards none, with charity for all  …  let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds  … to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace.” Lincoln signaled that he would see the struggle for reunion without slavery through to the end, but he was offering a peace free of retribution and vengeance.

On March 28 the generals George Gordon Meade, Sherman, and Grant and Admiral David Dixon Porter met with President Lincoln at City Point aboard the River Queen to discuss the military situation. According to Sherman's account of the meeting in his memoirs, when told that “one more bloody battle” remained to be fought, “the president exclaimed more than once, that there had been blood enough shed, and asked us if another battle could be avoided.” Sherman asked, “What was to be done with the rebel armies when they were defeated?” Lincoln replied that “all he wanted was for us to defeat the opposing armies, and to get the men composing the Confederate armies back to their homes, at work on their farms and in their shops” (Sherman, pp. 811–813). Sherman would recollect that Lincoln's words echoed the Second Inaugural Address, which called for “charity.” Both Sherman and Grant would later insist that the lenient surrender terms they offered were determined during this meeting with Lincoln.

When Union forces punched holes in the rebel line southwest of Petersburg, Virginia, on April 2, Lee decided to abandon the city and cabled Jefferson Davis to evacuate Richmond. Under the cover of darkness Lee crossed the Appomattox River, moving west and hoping to turn south to link up with General Joseph Johnston in North Carolina. On April 4 an exultant Lincoln visited Richmond. When Major General Godfrey Weitzel asked him what the army was supposed to do with the rebels, Lincoln responded, “If I were you I'd let ’em up easy” (Perret, p. 403). Lincoln feared that a political vacuum after the Confederate surrender would lead to anarchy and years of guerrilla warfare.

After Sheridan's cavalry beat Lee to the food and provisions awaiting him at Appomattox Station, he knew that his starving army was trapped. Rejecting the suggestion of his fellow officers that he disperse his troops to fight as guerrillas, Lee prepared to surrender to Grant. Grant and Lee began an exchange of messages on April 7, known as the “Surrender Letters.” Grant asked for the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. Hoping to negotiate an armistice rather than a surrender, Lee proposed a meeting to discuss peace terms. Grant appealed for Lee to lay down his arms without further loss of life. When Lee received word that General Meade was preparing to attack him, he stopped trying to negotiate and asked Grant to meet to discuss surrender terms. Lee had a subordinate choose Wilmer McLean's house in the town of Appomattox Court House as the meeting place.

Expecting to be arrested, Lee donned his finest gray uniform. In sharp contrast, Grant wore his usual simple private's uniform. Following small talk about their mutual time in the Mexican-American War, Lee asked Grant for his surrender terms. Grant stated that his terms were the same as in his letter—Lee's men would simply turn in their arms and return home under parole. Eager to accept terms not mentioning arrest or imprisonment for his officers or men, Lee asked Grant to write the terms on paper. When Grant asked whether the terms were satisfactory, Lee replied, “It is more than I expected” (Hendrickson, p. 195). The last sentence was tantamount to a general amnesty for all Confederate troops—they would not have to worry about reprisals for having taken up arms against the government. Referring to the provision that his officers could keep their side arms, private horses, and baggage, Lee turned to Grant and said, “This will have a very happy effect upon my army” (Hendrickson, p. 195).

Continuing to press for concessions for his men, Lee noted that his cavalry and artillerymen owned their own horses, which the terms did not allow them to keep. Musing that these men would need their horses to plant crops to feed their hungry families, Grant stipulated that he would instruct the parole officers to let the men keep their horses. Grant went further, offering to provide transportation home for Lee's men. Mostly impassive to this point, Lee offered his appreciation at such unexpectedly generous terms by remarking, “This will have the best possible effect on the men. It will be very gratifying and do much to conciliating our people” (Hendrickson, p. 198). The meeting closed on a further note of conciliation when, after listening to Lee describe the famished state of his army, Grant asked, “Suppose I send over twenty-five thousand rations. Do you think that will be a sufficient supply?” Lee replied, “I think it will be ample and it will be a great relief I assure you” (Hendrickson, p. 200). After two and a half hours, Lee rose, bowed to Grant, and shook his hand before walking out of the house to meet his men and deliver the surrender terms.