"I ACCEPT THESE TERMS": WITNESSES OF THE SURRENDER AT APPOMATTOX
LINCOLN IN RICHMOND
By Captain John S. Barnes
50 ON APRIL 4, 1865, ABRAHAM LINCOLN VISITED THE RECENTLY ABANDONED CAPITAL OF THE CONFEDERACY WITH HIS SON, TAD. A NAVY CAPTAIN ASSIGNED TO PROTECT THE PRESIDENT'S PARTY PROVIDED A DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THE HISTORIC EVENT.
"THE MOST SICKENING SIGHT OF THE WAR"
20
artifacts
By Dr. William T.G.
ETHER OVERLAND
A PRIVATE GETS SCHOOLED
Private Frank Wilkeson, the son of war correspondent Samuel Wilkeson, Jr., was just sixteen years old when he enlisted in a New York artillery battery. At the start of the 1864 campaign season, a veteran gunner offered the young soldier some valuable advice from his years of experience.
"I
ACCEPT
THESE TERMS": LEE AT APPOMATTOX 12
Walter Taylor, Robert E. Lee's aide, recounts Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. His account of the demeanor of Lee and Grant established the surrender narrative.
24
"THE CONFEDERATES WERE NOW OUR PRISONERS": GRANT AT APPOMATTOX
As Ulysses S. Grant faced his destiny with fate, suffering from the effects of throat cancer, he recalls the surrender at Appomatox through the eyes of a dying man.
from the editor
Jeffrey R. Biggs
Welcome to HardtackIllustrated
As spring is in the air, it's a wonderful time to appreciate life on the East Coast, especially with remarkable Civil War battlefield sites just a few hours away. For Civil War enthusiasts, commemorating significant anniversaries holds the same importance as celebrating birthdays or personal milestones; this is the passion we embrace, and the approaching 160th anniversary of the surrender at Appomattox serves as the theme of the sixth edition of HardtackIllustrated .
Recent scholarship on the Civil War is moving away from viewing the Appomattox event as "the end of the war." I recently picked up Michael Vorenberg's book, Lincoln's Peace (Alfred A. Knopf, 2025), which argues that we don't truly know when the war ended. Traditionally, the end dates are considered to be April 9, 1865—the date of the Confederate surrender—or no later than August 20, 1866, when Andrew Johnson declared the war officially over; however, if we examine the war through the lens of the fight to end slavery (which many of us do), we might identify different dates that better represent its conclusion. For instance, June 19, 1865 (Juneteenth), or December 18, 1865, when the Thirteenth Amendment was adopted, could also be seen as significant endpoints. Even the National Park Service's commemoration website suggests a more nuanced interpretation of the war's conclusion than in the past. This year's commemoration theme is titled "America Unfinished: Appomattox at 160." Whatever date is chosen or orientation we view the war from, I think we all agree that the outcome of the war, the end of codified enslavement of millions, is worthy of recognition and remembrance.
All the articles featured in the magazine have also been added to the Hardtack Blog, where you can access at www.hardtackbooks.com. The quarterly magazines can be reached by web browser, as a downloadable PDF or through www.issuu.com. I prefer the digital version which has the satisfying feature of turning and curling a page oldfashioned style! Additionally, there is a resource section for Civil War enthusiasts that provides links to numerous free 19th-century newspapers. There are no paywalls— everything is completely free. I also have a Facebook account which we encourage you to like and follow so you never miss out on new content.
For those who may not be familiar with Hardtack Books, I focus on republishing timeless narratives from the Civil War. Using modern typography, graphics, and design— such as those featured in Hardtack Illustrated—I bring these firsthand accounts into the twenty-first century. The publications illuminate both the experiences of soldiers during the war and the lives of those on the home front during this critical period. The platform consists of the digital quarterly magazine, Hardtack Illustrated , as well as printed works, distributed through Amazon and other book outlets, which are typically released once a year.
Hardtack Books is a way of preserving the legacy of the Civil War for future generations, by giving old books a new and modern life.
The Spring 2025 edition of Hardtack Illustrated features an article titled "Lincoln in Richmond." In this piece, Navy Captain John S. Barnes, the son of General James Barnes,
recalls the events of late March and early April 1865. During this time, he accompanied President Lincoln on his travels along the James River in the final days of the Civil War. Barnes offers a poignant and personal account that captures the profound tragedy of Lincoln's last days.
In line with the theme of the conflict's conclusion, I have included two eyewitness accounts of the surrender at Appomattox. Both accounts come from individuals who were present and involved in the event. General Lee's wartime aide-de-camp, Walter Taylor, offers a valuable perspective, especially since General Lee himself never provided an account. The excerpt from "I Accept These Terms: Lee at Appomattox" is taken from Taylor's memoir, which was published in 1927. I cannot present a representative narrative of the surrender without including the perspective of the lead participant, General Ulysses S. Grant. His account from his memoir published in 1885, while informative and direct in his minimalist writing style, is also deeply poignant. As Grant penned his reflections, he was nearing the end of his life, reliving those harrowing days and his ultimate triumph for one last time.
This edition features two short vignettes I authored on "Artifacts of the Surrender," including the intriguing story of the chair Grant sat in during the surrender and the peculiar tale of the "lost rag doll of Appomattox."
The second feature article, titled "The Most Sickening Sight of the War," is based on an account published in a medical journal in 1907. Dr. William T.G. Morton, an early pioneer in the use of ether on the battlefield, applied his medical expertise to treat Federal and Confederate soldiers suffering from wounds sustained during the 1864 Overland Campaign. Although Dr. Morton is not a widely recognized figure from the war, his contributions to the medical history of the conflict are significant.
Finally, as is often the case, I present a firsthand account offering valuable advice on surviving combat during the Civil War. This time, a seasoned gunner named Jellet shares his hard-earned wisdom with a greenhorn artillerist.
I would like to extend to readers the opportunity to contact me in case you come across Civil War era material which you think would be great to include in future editions, or if you can think of ways to improve. I can be reached at jeffreybiggs@verizon.net.
HARDTACK BOOKS
THINGS CIVIL WAR.
George Alfred Townsend was a special war correspondent for the PhiladelphiaPress and NewYorkHeraldduring the Civil War. He followed McClellan’s Army of the Potomac and Pope’s Army of Virginia in the spring and summer of 1862, ling dozens of dispatches to his editors. Finally, a er su ering from the e ects of ‘swamp fever,’ he took a two-year break in Europe, where he lectured about his experiences. Townsend returned to the war front in 1865 and -a er taking the pen name of “GATH” - was the rst correspondent to describe the war’s climax at Five Forks. He released his memoir in 1866, detailing his personal experiences and recollections of the Civil War and those dramatic days.
Campaigns of a Non-Combatant: The Memoir of a Civil War Correspondent
ISBN 13: 978-0986361531
by: George Alfred Townsend
Release: 1st QTR 2024 | Price $17.99 |Pages: 269
Design & Editor: Jeffrey R. Biggs
INQUIRIES: Jeffrey Biggs, jeffreybiggs@verizon.net
AVAILABLE AT: Amazon.com | Ingram | Bookshop.com
is Hardtack Books reissue of Campaignsofa Non-Combatantis not a facsimile of the original work. Instead, it reimagines Townsend’s work in a modern font with dozens of illustrations and editorial footnotes.
About Hardtack Books: Hardtack Books specializes in republishing timeless Civil War narratives. Our goal is to make these captivating stories more accessible and appealing to today’s history enthusiasts at a moderate cost. By using modern styles in typography, graphics, and design, we bring to the twenty- rst century these rsthand accounts that shed light on both wartime experiences and the lives of those on the home front during the critical years of the Civil War.
At Hardtack Books, we are dedicated to preserving the rst-hand accounts of enlisted men, newspaper correspondents, and war leaders. Our mission is to bring these original sources, including memoirs, correspondence, and newspaper articles, together in contemporary publications.
THE FOLLOWING EXCERPT IS FROM "RECOLLECTIONS OF A PRIVATE SOLDIER IN THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC ," PUBLISHED IN 1887.
A PRIVATE GETS SCHOOLED FROM A VETERAN
PRIVATE
FRANK WILKESON, THE SON OF WAR CORRESPONDENT SAMUEL WILKESON JR., WAS JUST SIXTEEN YEARS OLD WHEN HE ENLISTED IN A NEW YORK ARTILLERY BATTERY. AT THE START OF THE 1864 CAMPAIGN SEASON, A VETERAN GUNNER OFFERED THE YOUNG SOLDIER SOME VALUABLE ADVICE FROM HIS YEARS OF EXPERIENCE.
On the evening of May 3rd we fell in for dress parade. Up and down the immense camp we could see
regiment after regiment, battery after battery, fall into line. The bugles rang out clearly in the soft spring air, distant drums beat, and trumpets blared. Then there was silence most profound. We listened attentively to the orders to march.
To the right, to the left, in the distance before us, and far behind us, cheers arose. Battery after battery, regiment after regiment, cheered until the men were hoarse. My comrades did not cheer. They seemed to be profoundly impressed, but not in the least elated. The wonted silence
of the evening was repeatedly broken by the resounding shouts of distant troops, who could not contain their joy that the season of inactivity was over, and the campaign, which we all hoped would be short and decisive, was opened. That night many unwonted fires burned, and we knew that the veteran troops were destroying the camp equipage which they did not intend to carry.
Jellet, the gunner of the piece I served on, came to me that evening, and kindly looked into my knapsack, and advised me as to what to keep and what to throw away. He cut my kit down to a change of underclothing, three pairs of socks, a pair of spare shoes, three plugs of navy tobacco, a rubber blanket, and a pair of woollen blankets.
"Now, my lad," Jellet said, "do not pick up any thing, excepting food and tobacco, while you are on the march. Get hold of all the food you can. Cut haversacks from dead men. Steal them from infantrymen if you can. Let your aim be to secure food and food and still more food, and keep your eyes open for tobacco.
"DO NOT PICK UP ANYTHING...CUT
HAVERSACKS FROM DEAD MEN...KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN FOR TOBACCO...FILL YOUR CANTEEN AT EVERY STREAM... NEVER WASH YOUR FEET UNTIL THE DAY'S MARCH IS OVER... "
Do not look at clothing or shoes or blankets. You can always draw those articles from the quartermaster. Stick to your gun through thick and thin. Do not straggle. Fill your canteen at every stream we cross and wherever you get a chance elsewhere. Never wash your feet until the day's march is over. If you do, they will surely blister." And here Jellet became highly impressive and shook his index finger at me warningly and solemnly, "and," he said, "get hold of food, and hang on to it; you will need it." The next morning we had our things packed and our breakfast eaten by sunrise. Our useless plunder was piled up; to each bundle was fastened a tag, on which was the name of its owner. The pile was turned over to the battery quartermaster, who said he would take good care of the property. He did, too — such good care that we never again saw a particle of it. I wanted to burn the camp, but the old soldiers who had fought under McClellan, and Burnside, and Hooker, and Meade, and Pope, scornfully snubbed me. They said: "Leave things as they are," and they added, significantly: "We may want them before snow flies."
WAR
CHARLES MARSHALL GRANT RECALLS THE
"I ACCEPT THESE TERMS." - R.E. LEE THE SURRENDER AT
MARSHALL
AND
U.S.
THE END OF WAR
"THE CONFEDERATES WERE NOW OUR PRISONERS, AND WE DID NOT WANT TO EXULT OVER THEIR DOWNFALL."
- U.S. GRANT
Lee at Appomattox
BY CHARLES MARSHALL
THE FOLLOWING EXCERPT IS FROM "AN AIDE-DECAMP OF LEE," PUBLISHED IN 1927.
I ACCEPT THESE TERMS
WALTER TAYLOR, ROBERT E. LEE'S AIDE,
RECOUNTS LEE'S SURRENDER AT APPOMATTOX COURTHOUSE. HIS ACCOUNT OF THE DEMEANOR OF LEE AND GRANT ESTABLISHED THE SURRENDER NARRATIVE.
WE STRUCK UP THE HILL towards Appomattox Courthouse. There was a man named McLean who used to live on the first battlefield of Manassas at a house about a mile from Manassas Junction. He didn’t like the war, and having seen the first battle of Manassas, he thought he would get away where there wouldn’t be any more fighting, so he moved down to Appomattox Court House. General Lee told me to go forward and find a house where he could meet General Grant, and of all people, whom should I meet but McLean? I rode up to him and said, “Can you show me a house where General Lee and General Grant can meet together?” He took me into a house that was all dilapidated and that had no furniture in it. I told him it wouldn’t do. Then he said, “Maybe my house will do!” He lived in a very comfortable house, and I told
CHARLES MARSHALL (TOP) DESCRIBED THE UNIFORM LEE (RIGHT) WORE AT THE SURRENDER AS THE HANDSOMEST UNIFORM HE HAD EVER SEEN.
CONGRESS/AMERICAN CIVIL
(OPPOSITE) ARTICLES OF AGREEMENT IN REGARD TO THE SURRENDER OF THE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA UNDER GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE. NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Lee at Appomattox
him I thought that would suit him. I had taken the orderly along with me, and I sent him back to bring General Lee and [Orville] Babcock (ed. Babcockservedasaide-de-camptoGrant), who were coming on behind. I went into the house and sat down, and after a while, General Lee and Babcock came in. Colonel Babcock told his orderly that he was to meet General Grant, who was coming on the road, and turn him in when he came along. So General Lee, Babcock, and I sat down in McLean’s parlor and talked in the most friendly and affable way.
In about half an hour we heard horses, and the first thing I knew General Grant walked into the room. There were with him General Sheridan, General Ord, Colonel Badeau, General Porter, Colonel Parker, and quite a number of other officers whose names I do not recall. General Lee was standing at the end of the room, opposite the door, when General Grant walked in. General Grant had on a sack coat, a loose fatigue coat, but he had no side arms. He looked as though he had a pretty hard time. He had been riding and his clothes were somewhat dusty and a little soiled. He walked up to General Lee and Lee recognized him at once. He had known him in the Mexican war. General Grant greeted him in the most cordial manner, and talked about the weather and other things in a very friendly way. Then General Grant brought up his officers and introduced them to General Lee.
II REMEMBER that General Lee asked for General Lawrence Williams, of the Army of the Potomac. That very morning General Williams had sent word by somebody to General Lee that Custis Lee, who had been captured at Sailor Creek and was reported killed, was not hurt, and General Lee asked General Grant where General Williams was, and if he could not send
TMuhranoff,CCBY-SA4.0<https://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>,viaWikimediaCommons
Lee at Appomattox
for him to come and see him. General Grant sent somebody out for General Williams, and when he came, General Lee thanked him for having sent him word about the safety of his son.
After a very free talk General Lee said to General Grant: “General, I have come to meet you in accordance with my letter to you this morning, to treat about the surrender of my army, and I think the best way would be for you to put your terms in writing.” General Grant said: “Yes; I believe it will.” So a Colonel Parker, General Grant’s Aide-de-Camp, brought a little table over from a corner of the room, and General Grant wrote the terms and conditions of surrender on what we call field note paper, that is, a paper that makes a copy at the same time as the note is written. After he had written it, he took it over to General Lee.
General Lee was sitting at the side of the room; he rose and went to meet General Grant to take that paper and read it over. When he came to the part in which only public property was to be surrendered, and the officers were to retain their side arms and personal baggage, General Lee said: “That will have a very happy effect.”
General Lee then said to General Grant: “General, our cavalrymen furnish their own horses; they are not Government horses, some of them may be, but of course, you will find them out — any property that is public property, you will ascertain that, but it is nearly all private property, and these men will want to plough ground and plant corn.”
General Grant answered that as the terms were written, only the officers were permitted to take their private property, but almost immediately he added that he supposed that most of the men in the ranks were small farmers, and that the United States did not want their horses. He would give orders to allow everyman who claimed to own a horse or mule to take the animal home.
General Lee having again said that this would have an excellent effect, once more looked over
the letter, and being satisfied with it, told me to write a reply. General Grant told Colonel Parker to copy his letter, which was written in pencil, and put it in ink. Colonel Parker took the table and carried it back to a corner of the room, leaving General Grant and General Lee facing each other and talking together. There was no ink in McLean’s ink stand, except, some thick stuff that was very much like pitch, but I had a screw boxwood inkstand that I always carried with me in a little satchel that I had at my side, and I gave that to Colonel Parker, and he copied General Grant’s letter with the aid of my inkstand and my pen.
TTHERE WAS ANOTHER table right against the wall, and a sofa next to it. I was sitting on the arm of the sofa near the table, and General Sheridan was on the sofa next to me. While Colonel Parker was copying the letter. General Sheridan said to me, “This is very pretty country.”
I said, “General, I haven’t seen it by daylight. All my observations have been made by night and I haven’t seen the country at all myself.”
He laughed at my remark, and while we were talking I heard General Grant say this: “Sheridan, how many rations have you?” General Sheridan said: “How many do you want?” and General Grant said, “General Lee has about a thousand or fifteen hundred of our people prisoners, and they are faring the same as his men, but he tells me his haven’t anything. Can you send them some rations?”
“Yes,” he answered. They had gotten some of our rations, having captured a train.
General Grant said: “How many can you
"GENERAL
LEE WAS IN FULL UNIFORM. HE HAD ON THE HANDSOMEST UNIFORM I EVER SAW HIM WEAR."
send?” and he replied “Twenty-five thousand rations.”
General Grant asked if that would be enough, and General Lee replied, “Plenty; plenty an abundance and General Grant said to Sheridan “Order your commissary to send to the Confederate Commissary twenty-five thousand rations for our men and his men.”
After a while Colonel Parker got through with his copy of General Grant’s letter and I sat down to write a reply. I began it in the usual way: “I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of such a date,” and then went on to say the terms were satisfactory. I took the letter over to General Lee, and he read it and said: “Don’t say, ‘I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of such a date’; he is here; just say, ‘I accept these terms.’” Then I wrote: Headquarters of the Army of Northern Virginia April 9, 1865, I received your letter of this date containing the terms of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia proposed by you. As they are substantially the same as those expressed in your letter of the 8th instant, they are accepted. I will proceed to designate the proper officers to carry the stipulations into effect.
Then General Grant signed his letter, and I turned over my letter to General Lee and he signed it. Parker handed me General Grant’s letter, and I handed him General Lee’s reply, and the surrender was accomplished. There was no theatrical display about it. It was in itself perhaps the greatest tragedy that ever occurred in the history of the world, but it was the simplest, plainest, and most thoroughly devoid of any attempt at effect, that you can imagine.
The story of General Grant returning General Lee’s sword to him is absurd, because General Grant proposed in his letter that the officers of the Confederate Army should retain their side-arms. Why, in the name of common sense, anybody should imagine that General Lee, after receiving a letter which said that he should retain his side-arms, yet should offer to
ONE OF THE MOST UNUSUAL INVOLVES WILMER MCLEAN OF HOMES. IN 1861, HE LIVED GENERAL BEAUREGARD USED DURING THE FIRST BATTLE OF ENVIRONMENT, MCLEAN RELOCATED APPOMATTOX. INTERESTINGLY, WOULD AGAIN BE DRAWN INTO
UNUSUAL COINCIDENCES IN HISTORY AND HIS UNFORTUNATE CHOICE NEAR MANASSAS, WHERE USED HIS HOUSE AS HEADQUARTERS OF BULL RUN. SEEKING A QUIETER RELOCATED TO THE VILLAGE OF INTERESTINGLY, FOUR YEARS LATER, HIS HOME INTO THE CONFLICT. The Photographic History of the Civil War , V. 3 (1911)
surrender his sword to General Grant, is hard to understand. The only thing of the kind that occurred in the whole course of the transaction — which occupied perhaps an hour — was this: General Lee was in full uniform. He had on the handsomest uniform I ever saw him wear; and he had on a sword with a gold, a very handsome gold and leather, scabbard that had been presented to him by English ladies. General Grant excused himself to General Lee towards the close of the conversation between them, for not having his side arms with him; he told him that when he got his letter he was about four miles from his wagon in which his arms and uniform were, and he said that he had thought that General Lee would rather receive him as he was, than be detained, while he sent back to get his sword and uniform. General Lee told him he was very much obliged to him and was very glad indeed that he hadn’t done it. After that a general conversation took place of a most agreeable character. I cannot describe, it. I cannot give you any idea of the kindness, and generosity, and magnanimity of those men. When I think of it, it brings tears into my eyes.
Artifacts of the Surrender
THE "LOST RAG DOLL OF APPOMATTOX"
Lula McClean, the eight-year-old daughter of Wilmer McLean, had known nothing but war for her entire life. On the afternoon of April 9, 1865, she lost a rag doll to a young officer who, recognizing the significance of the moment in the parlor of the McLean house, took the cherished toy with him. This was not the only treasure taken during that chaotic time; many personal relics of a war nearing its end were pilfered. Horace Porter retrieved the pen that General Lee used to surrender the Army of the Potomac. Phil Sheridan paid twenty dollars for the oval table where General Grant drafted the terms of surrender, which he gifted on the spot to George Custer's wife. Additionally, General Edward Ord paid Wilmer McLean forty dollars in federal greenbacks for the marble-topped table used by General Lee. The rag doll's journey was more carefree than that of more obvious treasures. According to Horace Porter, the doll was "tossed from one officer to another" by the younger staff members. It's rumored that Robert Todd Lincoln, the eldest son of President Lincoln, and George Custer were among those young officers who played catch with the doll. One established fact about the doll's fate is that it was acquired by Lt. Colonel Thomas William Channing Moore, a staff officer under Phil Sheridan. Family lore passed that an exuberant Sheridan, celebrating the defeat of Lee's army, snatched the doll from the mantel in the parlor and threw it to the young staff officer as a keepsake.
Thomas W.C. Moore passed away in 1881, starting the family tradition of handing the doll down to the oldest male heir. The doll came into the possession of his eldest son, Thomas Channing Moore, who was a successful manager at International Business Machines. After Thomas Channing Moore died in 1931, the doll was inherited by Richard Channing Moore. In 1951, Richard allowed his nine-year-old son to be photographed with the rag doll, which was then encased in a glass frame. "It hasn't been
The Newsday (Suffolk Edition) , April 25, 1951 edition, showed the glass encased rag doll with the portrait of Thomas W.C. Moore and his eight-yearold great grandson.
"A child's doll was found in the room, which the younger officers tossed from one to the other, and called her the "silent witness." This toy was taken possession by Colonel Moore of Sheridan's staff, and is now owned by his son." - Horace Porter
lost," Moore quipped, "we always show it to our visitors and we love to tell its story...I guess the historians lost track of it." The rag doll, which was missing its brown calico print skirt that had likely been stitched to the bodice, remained intact and well-preserved after nearly one hundred years of use. In 1951, The Saturday Evening Post published an editorial discussing the fate of the doll, stating, "The sights and sounds of that room will linger forever in the thread of her rags... riding off without a whimper under the arm of the very same redheaded and sunburned aide-de-camp to whom Sheridan had given his saber, Lt. Col. Thomas W.C. Moore." The national attention the doll garnered in the 1950s attracted the notice of Douglas Southall Freeman, who wrote a "heartbreaking" letter to the Moore family requesting the doll's return to the Appomattox Museum.
Ultimately, fate prevailed over the desire to keep the relic. In 1991, Richard Channing Moore, the grandson of Thomas W.C. Moore, passed away at the age of eighty-two. After receiving numerous requests from the National Park Service, his widow agreed to return the "silent witness" to its original home. Recalling the mistreatment the doll endured on April 8, 1865, Mrs. Moore stated, "I'd hate to think of those men being so rough with a child's toy."
LuLa McLean's doll is now on exhibit and is safely housed at the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park.
THE "LOST RAG DOLL OF APPOMATTOX"
Artifacts of the Surrender
The chair on which Ulysses S. Grant sat while writing the terms of surrender for Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia has a fascinating history, much like many artifacts from the McLean House. After the surrender was signed, there was a brief scramble among Federal officers to collect any items that had not been secured. The most sought-after items were tables, inkstands, and chairs. Despite Mr. McLean's protests, some items were taken in exchange for gold coins and greenbacks, while others were simply stolen. Brigadier General Henry Capehart, a surgeon from West Virginia, paid Wilmer McLean $10 for the leather-backed swivel chair used by Grant. He then entrusted it to his provost marshal, Captain Wilmon Blackmar, for safekeeping in the headquarters wagon.
After the war, Capehart, who left the service as a major general and was awarded the Medal of Honor for saving a drowning man, returned to medicine and established a practice in Bridgeport, Ohio.
Dr. Capehart and Grant's chair remained in Ohio until both relocated to Fargo, North Dakota, where another medical practice was
established. Active in the local Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.), Capehart lent Grant's chair to the post commander for his use at chapter meetings. In 1895, at the age of seventy, Capehart finally parted with Grant's chair and donated it to Wilmon Blackmar, the officer who, thirty years earlier, had relieved Henry Capehart of the chair and placed it in a wagon for safekeeping. Wilmon Blackmar was a collector of Civil War memorabilia, and in his will, he bequeathed Grant's chair to the Smithsonian.
As with all Civil War lore, the story of the chair does not stop with the Smithsonian. There was a dust-up involving the local Fargo Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.), which was so enamored with the idea of having Ulysses S. Grant's original chair that they replaced it with a similar one after the real one was given to the Smithsonian after Capehart's passing. The chair continued to be used by the post commander, and over time, it was forgotten that a similar chair had taken the place of the original. New G.A.R. members came to believe in the authenticity of the chair, despite claims from the Smithsonian regarding its true history. ▫
GRANT'S CHAIR
The inscription on the back of the chair at right reads: "This is the chair in which Genl. U. S. Grant sat when he signed the Articles of Capitulation resulting in the surrender of the Confederate Army by Genl. R. E. Lee at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, April 9th, 1865."
A FORMER PROVOST MARSHAL AND COLLECTOR OF CIVIL WAR MEMORABILIA
COLONEL HENRY CAPEHART
Grant at Appomattox
THE CONFEDERATES WERE NOW OUR PRISONERS
THE FOLLOWING EXCERPT IS FROM "PERSONAL MEMOIRS OF U.S. GRANT." THE TWO VOLUME HISTORY WAS WRITTEN BY GRANT IN THE LAST YEAR OF HIS LIFE. THE MEMOIR WAS PUBLISHED IN 1885 BY MARK TWAIN AFTER GRANTS DEATH.
BY ULYSSES S. GRANT
AS ULYSSES S. GRANT FACED HIS DESTINY WITH FATE,
SUFFERING
FROM THE EFFECTS OF THROAT CANCER, HE RECALLS THE SURRENDER AT APPOMATTOX THROUGH THE EYES OF A DYING MAN.
I WAS CONDUCTED at once to where Sheridan was located with his troops drawn up in line of battle facing the Confederate army nearby. They were very much excited, and expressed their view that this was all a ruse employed to enable the Confederates to get away. They said they believed that Johnston was marching up from North Carolina now, and Lee was moving to join him, and they would whip the rebels where they now were in five minutes if I would only let them go in. But I had no doubt about the good faith of Lee, and pretty soon was conducted to where he was. I found him at the house of a Mr. McLean, at Appomattox
A MYTH DEBUNKED: PRINT SHOWS GENERALS LEE, EACH WITH TWO STANDING AT CENTER TREE WITH SCARRED AND CONFEDERATE HORSEBACK IN THE AND THE SOLDIERS ARE GROUPED IN BACKGROUND. GENERAL THE "FAMOUS APPLE FABRICATION.
DEBUNKED: THIS POSTWAR GENERALS GRANT AND TWO OFFICERS NEARBY, CENTER BENEATH A LARGE SCARRED TRUNK; UNION CONFEDERATE OFFICERS ARE ON THE MIDDLE DISTANCE SOLDIERS OF EACH ARMY FORMATIONS IN THE GENERAL GRANT DISMISSES APPLE TREE" AS A PURE
Grant at Appomattox
Court House, with Colonel Marshall, one of his staff officers, awaiting my arrival. The head of his column was occupying a hill, on a portion of which was an apple orchard, beyond a little valley which separated it from that on the crest of which Sheridan’s forces were drawn up in line of battle to the south.
Before stating what took place between General Lee and myself, I will give all there is of the story of the famous apple tree.
Wars produce many stories of fiction, some of which are told until they are believed to be true. The war of the rebellion was no exception to this rule, and the story of the apple tree is one of those fictions based on a slight foundation of fact. As I have said, there was an apple orchard on the side of the hill occupied by the Confederate forces. Running diagonally up the hill was a wagon road, which, at one point, ran very near one of the trees, so that the wheels of vehicles had, on that side, cut off the roots of this tree, leaving a little embankment. General Babcock, of my staff, reported to me that when he first met General Lee, he was sitting upon this embankment with his feet in the road below and his back resting against the tree. The story had no other foundation than that. Like many other stories, it would be very good if it was only true.
II HAD KNOWN General Lee in the old army and had served with him in the Mexican War; but did not suppose, owing to the difference in our age and rank, that he would remember me, while I would more naturally remember him distinctly, because he was the chief of staff of General Scott in the Mexican War.
Library of Congress
When I had left camp that morning I had not expected so soon the result that was then taking place, and consequently was in rough garb. I was without a sword, as I usually was when on horseback on the field, and wore a soldier’s
blouse for a coat, with the shoulder straps of my rank to indicate to the army who I was. When I went into the house I found General Lee. We greeted each other, and after shaking hands took our seats. I had my staff with me, a good portion of whom were in the room during the whole of the interview.
What General Lee’s feelings were I do not know. As he was a man of much dignity, with an impassible face, it was impossible to say whether he felt inwardly glad that the end had finally come, or felt sad over the result, and was too manly to show it. Whatever his feelings, they were entirely concealed from my observation; but my own feelings, which had been quite jubilant on the receipt of his letter, were sad and depressed. I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse. I do not question, however, the sincerity of the great mass of those who were opposed to us.
General Lee was dressed in a full uniform which was entirely new, and was wearing a sword of considerable value, very likely the sword which had been presented by the State of Virginia; at all events, it was an entirely different sword from the one that would ordinarily be worn in the field. In my rough traveling suit, the uniform of a private with the straps of a lieutenant-general, I must have contrasted very strangely with a man so handsomely dressed, six feet high and of faultless form. But this was not a matter that I thought of until afterwards. We soon fell into a conversation about old army times. He remarked that he remembered me very well in the old army; and I told him that as a matter of course I remembered him perfectly, but from the difference in our rank and years (there being about sixteen years’ difference in our ages), I had thought it very likely that I had not attracted his attention sufficiently to be remembered by him after such a long interval. Our conversation grew so pleasant that I almost forgot the object of our meeting.
Grant at Appomattox
After the conversation had run on in this style for some time, General Lee called my attention to the object of our meeting, and said that he had asked for this interview for the purpose of getting from me the terms I proposed to give his army. I said that I meant merely that his army should lay down their arms, not to take them up again during the continuance of the war unless duly and properly exchanged. He said that he had so understood my letter.
Then we gradually fell off again into conversation about matters foreign to the subject which had brought us together. This continued for some little time, when General Lee again interrupted the course of the conversation by suggesting that the terms I proposed to give his army ought to be written out. I called to General Parker, secretary on my staff, for writing materials, and commenced writing out the following terms:
APPOMATTOX
C. H., VA., Ap 19th, 1865.
GEN. R. E. LEE, Comd’g C. S. A.
GEN: In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the 8th inst., I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of N. Va. on the following terms, to wit: Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate. One copy to be given to an officer designated by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as you may designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged, and each company or regimental commander sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, artillery and public property to be parked and stacked, and turned over to the officer appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their
private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside.
Very respectfully,
U. S. GRANT, Lt. Gen.
When I put my pen to the paper I did not know the first word that I should make use of in writing the terms. I only knew what was in my mind, and I wished to express it clearly, so that there could be no mistaking it. As I wrote on, the thought occurred to me that the officers had their own private horses and effects, which were important to them, but of no value to us; also that it would be an unnecessary humiliation to call upon them to deliver their side arms. No conversation, not one word, passed between General Lee and myself, either about private property, side arms, or kindred subjects. He appeared to have no objections to the terms first proposed; or if he had a point to make against them he wished to wait until they were in writing to make it. When he read over that part of the terms about side arms, horses and private property of the officers, he remarked, with some feeling, I thought, that this would have a happy effect upon his army.
Then, after a little further conversation, General Lee remarked to me again that their army was organized a little differently from the army of the United States (still maintaining by implication that we were two countries); that in their army the cavalrymen and artillerists owned their own horses; and he asked if he was to understand that the men who so owned their horses were to be permitted to retain them. I told him that as the terms were written they would not; that only the officers were permitted to take their private property. He then, after reading over the terms a second time, remarked
"I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse."
that that was clear.
I then said to him that I thought this would be about the last battle of the war—I sincerely hoped so; and I said further I took it that most of the men in the ranks were small farmers. The whole country had been so raided by the two armies that it was doubtful whether they would be able to put in a crop to carry themselves and their families through the next winter without the aid of the horses they were then riding. The United States did not want them and I would, therefore, instruct the officers I left behind to receive the paroles of his troops to let every man of the Confederate army who claimed to own a horse or mule take the animal to his home. Lee remarked again that this would have a happy effect.
He then sat down and wrote out the following letter:
HEADQUARTERS
NORTHERN
ARMY OF
VIRGINIA, April 9, 1865.
GENERAL:—I received your letter of this date containing the terms of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia as proposed by you. As they are substantially the same as those expressed in your letter of the 8th inst., they are accepted. I will proceed to designate the proper officers to carry the stipulations into effect.
R. E. LEE, General.
LIEUT.-GENERAL U. S. GRANT.
While duplicates of the two letters were being made, the Union generals present were severally presented to General Lee.
The much talked of surrendering of Lee’s sword and my handing it back, this and much more that has been said about it is the purest romance. The word sword or side arms was not mentioned by either of us until I wrote it in the terms. There was no premeditation, and it did not occur to me until the moment I wrote it down. If I had happened to omit it, and General
Grant at Appomattox
A SKETCH BY ALFRED WAUD OF FEDERAL TROOPS SHARING RATIONS WITH THE DEFEATED CONFEDERATES. ON THE REVERSE OF THE DRAWING WAUD WROTE, "THE REBELS SOLDIERS WERE ENTIRELY WITHOUT FOOD AND OUR MEN SHARED COFFEE AND RATIONS WITH THEM. " LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Appomattox
Lee had called my attention to it, I should have put it in the terms precisely as I acceded to the provision about the soldiers retaining their horses.
General Lee, after all was completed and before taking his leave, remarked that his army was in a very bad condition for want of food, and that they were without forage; that his men had been living for some days on parched corn exclusively, and that he would have to ask me for rations and forage. I told him “certainly,” and asked for how many men he wanted rations. His answer was “about twenty-five thousand;” and I authorized him to send his own commissary and quartermaster to Appomattox Station, two or three miles away, where he could have, out of the trains we had stopped, all the provisions wanted. As for forage, we had ourselves depended almost entirely upon the country for that.
Generals Gibbon, Griffin and Merritt were designated by me to carry into effect the paroling of Lee’s troops before they should start for their homes—General Lee leaving Generals Longstreet, Gordon and Pendleton for them to confer with in order to facilitate this work. Lee and I then separated as cordially as we had met, he returning to his own lines, and all went into bivouac for the night at Appomattox.
Soon after Lee’s departure I telegraphed to Washington as follows:
HEADQUARTERS APPOMATTOX
C. H., VA., April 9th, 1865, 4.30 P.M.
HON. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War, Washington.
General Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia this afternoon on terms proposed by myself. The accompanying additional correspondence will show the conditions fully.
U. S. GRANT, Lieut.-General. ▫
One with slave
Largely Forthe a wealth soldier's soldiers Potomac's From to the candid flawed
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One of the hardest fighting regiments in the Civil War, the First Delaware Volunteers battled in virtually every engagement with the Army of the Potomac's Second Corps from Antietam to Appomattox. One of only a handful of regiments from a slave state, the First Delaware would pay a higher price than many for the cost of restoring a broken country.
TheyFoughtfortheUnion:AHistoryof theFirstDelawareVolunteersintheArmy ofthePotomacby Jeffrey R .Biggs
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Largely forgotten in post-Civil War memory, TheyFought theUnionrevisits these border state soldiers through wealth of untapped sources, personal accounts and soldier's diaries while always placing these conflicted soldiers into the larger context of the Army of the Potomac's struggles in the Eastern Theatre of the war. From the original recruitment as a three-month regiment the end of the conflict four years later, the author's candid retelling of these extraordinary and oftentimes flawed men is riveting.
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Nearly twenty years after the close war, members of the First Delaware Regiment Association requested that its original adjutant, Captain William Penn Seville, prepare a history of the regiment's exploits in the late war. This revised edition of Seville's manuscript, while maintaining the dialogue and prose of the original, adds context to Seville's history by adding new voices to the work from other soldiers letters, diaries and accounts of the battles as they experienced it. New content uncovered during research on this fascinating regiment has been added in the form of footnotes and appendices.
William Penn Seville's History of the First Delaware Volunteers by William P. Seville, ed. by Jeffrey R. Biggs
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Lincoln in Richmond
On April 4, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, energized by the evacuation of Richmond, visited the recently abandoned capital of the Confederacy with his son, Tad. As they walked from the James River landing to downtown Richmond, President Lincoln received a warm and enthusiastic welcome from many Black laborers. One of the most poignant images of this moment was Lincoln sitting at the former desk of Jefferson Davis and requesting a glass of water, highlighting the irony of the war's circumstances. ¶ Navy Captain John Sanford Barnes was assigned to protect the president's party during his visit to Richmond, and he provided a detailed account of the historic event.
by Captain John S. Barnes
THE FOLLOWING EXCERPT IS FROM "WITH LINCOLN FROM WASHINGTON TO RICHMOND IN 1865," PUBLISHED IN APPLETON'S , 1907.
LINCOLN IN RICHMOND
Mr
.Lincoln remained in Petersburg only an hour or two, when, rejoining the train, we returned to City Point, the President going on board the Malvern for the night. He was in high spirits, seemed not at all fatigued, and said that the end could not be far off. I was on board the Malvernuntil ten or eleven o’clock that evening. General Weitzel telegraphed confirming the rumor which had reached Grant at Petersburg, that Richmond was being evacuated and that General Lee was in retreat and President Davis had fled. All that evening a lurid glare
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Alan and Lois Fern Acquisition Fund
A POST-WAR DEPICTION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN BEING GREETED BY A LIVELY CROWD OF LABORERS AND FREED CIVILIANS.
"A FEW MINUTES' WALK BESEECHING RUNNERS; ONLY AS OUR FOOTSTEPS OF ECHOES BUMP THEIR REPLY; AND THIS IS RICHMOND.
WALK AND WE TREAD THE PAVEMENTS OF THE CAPITAL. THERE ARE NO
RUNNERS; THERE IS NO SOUND OF LIFE, BUT THE STILLNESS OF A CATACOMB, FOOTSTEPS FALL DULL ON THE DESERTED SIDEWALK, AND A FUNDERAL TROOP THEIR ELFIN HEADS AGAINST THE DEAD WALLS AND CLOSE SHUTTERS IN RICHMOND. SAYS A MELANCHOLY VOICE: ‘AND THIS IS RICHMOND.'"
LINCOLN IN RICHMOND
lit up the sky in the direction of Richmond. Heavy detonations followed each other in rapid succession, which Admiral Porter rightly interpreted as the blowing up of the rebel ironclads. Mr. Lincoln then made up his mind he would go to Richmond the next day. Mr. Stanton had sent him a telegram, which was delivered that evening, expostulating with him about unnecessary exposure, and drawing a contrast again between the duties of a president and that of a general. This had reference to his proposed visit to Petersburg. Mr. Lincoln replied, in effect, that he had been to Petersburg and was going to Richmond the next day but would take care of himself.
Admiral Porter gave orders that evening to the gunboats to clear away the obstructions in the river and to make careful and systematic search for and remove the torpedoes, with which the channel was known to be strewn. This work went on all night. The United States torpedo boat SpuytenDuyvil was employed to blow up the vessels sunk at Deep Bottom, and at eight o’clock in the morning of April 4th the channel was reported as clear and safe. The Admiral sent me word that he was going up to Richmond and would take the President along, and that the Bat could follow. At about 10 A.M., the Malvern leading, followed by the RiverQueen , with the President, who had returned to her that morning, passed me very near, the Admiral hailing me and telling me to “come on.” Mr. Lincoln was standing on the upper deck of the Queen , and one can imagine his interest in the passing scenes. He waved his hat in answer to my salute as he passed so close that I could see the expression of his face.
We got our anchor up at once, and followed, passed first through the drawbridge of the pontoon, and then through the gap cleared in the obstructions, which we slightly touched and were delayed for a few moments, during which
Library of Congress
LANDING
LINCOLN STEPPED ASHORE FROM THE STEAMSHIP
PRESIDENT ABRAHAM STEAMSHIP MALVERN , APRIL 1865.
LINCOLN IN RICHMOND
THIS MARBLE COLUMNED HOUSE, BUILT IN 1818, SERVED AS THE EXECUTIVE RESIDENCE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS FROM AUGUST 1861 UNTIL APRIL 1865. AFTER FEDERAL FORCES OCCUPIED RICHMOND, THE BUILDING BECAME THE HEADQUARTERS FOR GENERAL WEITZEL'S XVIII CORPS.
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the Malvernand the Queen , under the guidance of a skillful pilot, got well ahead. The boats from the fleet, still at work searching for torpedoes, had already found many, and had cut the wires of the electric and dragged to the banks many of the floating and submerged mines. Still, I could not avoid a feeling of anxiety for the Malvern and the Queen , as they pushed ahead rapidly, lest some undiscovered mines should be touched and the vessels blown to pieces.
Anumber of vessels had pushed through the obstructions, making quite a display with flags flying from each mast, and finally the Malvernran hard and fast aground several miles below the city. I came up to her and close to the RiverQueen and anchored. Richmond appeared to be in flames, dense masses of smoke resting over the city. I found that the Admiral had taken Mr. Lincoln in his barge, and was then pulling under oars toward the city. Manning the gig, I pulled after them as fast as the men could row against a strong current, but Mr. Lincoln was well ahead and the barge finally made a landing on the edge of the town, at a place called Rockett’s, sometime before I reached the spot; and when I got ashore Mr. Lincoln was, with the Admiral and a few sailors, armed with carbines, several hundred yards ahead of me, surrounded by a dense mass of men, women, and children, mostly negroes. Although General Weitzel had been in possession of Richmond since early morning or late the evening before, not a sign of it was in evidence, not a soldier was to be seen, and the street along the riverside in which we were, at first free from people, became densely thronged, and every moment became more and more packed with them. With one of my officers, the surgeon, I pushed my way through the crowd endeavoring to reach the side of the President, whose tall form and high beaver hat towered above the crowd. In vain I struggled to get nearer to him. In some way they had learned
“ THE CONFEDERATE WHITE HOUSE WAS A MODEST AND UNPRETENTIOUS BUILDING, BROWN IN COLOR, WITH SMALL WINDOWS AND DOORS.
that the man in the high hat was President Lincoln, and the constantly increasing crowd, particularly the negroes, became frantic with excitement.
I confess that I was much alarmed at the situation and the exposure of the President to assault or even assassination. I did not know of Admiral Porter’s destination, or where the route pursued by him would lead us. He had supposed, as I did, that General Weitzel had full possession of the city, and that, upon landing, communication would at once be made with him, and proper escort provided. Nothing could have been easier than the destruction
LINCOLN IN RICHMOND
of the entire party. I cannot say what were the President’s or the Admiral’s reflections, but the situation was very alarming to me. I saw that they were pushed, hustled, and elbowed along without any regard to their persons, while I was packed closely, and simply drifted along in their general direction. This state of things lasted a half hour or more. The day was very warm, and as we progressed the street became thick with dust and smoke from the smoldering ruins about us. At last, when the conditions had become almost unendurable, a cavalryman was found standing at a street corner, and word was sent by him to the nearest post that President Lincoln wished for assistance. He galloped off and in a few minutes a small squadron of mounted men made its appearance. They quickly cleared the street, and joining Mr. Lincoln and the Admiral, we were escorted to General Weitzel’s headquarters, which he had established in the Confederacy White House close to the Capitol grounds. It was a modest and unpretentious building, brown in color, with small windows and doors.
The President entered by the front door that opened into a small square hall with steps leading to the second story. He was then led into the room on the right, which had been Mr. Davis’s reception room and office. It was plainly but comfortably furnished a large desk on one side, a table or two against the walls, a few chairs , and one large leather - covered arm or easy chair . The walls were decorated with prints and photographs, one or two of Confederate ironclads one of the Sumter, that excited my covetousness. Mr. Lincoln walked across the room to the easy chair and sank down in it. He was pale and haggard, and seemed utterly worn out with fatigue and the excitement of the past hour. A few of us were gathered about the
door; little was said by anyone. It was a supreme moment - the home of the fleeing President of the Confederacy invaded by his opponents after years of bloody contests for its possession and now occupied by the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, seated in the chair almost warm from the pressure of the body of Jefferson Davis! What thoughts were coursing through the mind of this great man no one can tell. He did not live to relate his own impressions; what he said remains fixed in my memory - the first expression of a natural one - “I wonder if I could get a drink of water.” He did not appeal to any particular person for it I can see the tired look out of those kind blue eyes over which the lids half drooped; his voice was gentle and soft. There was no triumph in his gesture or attitude. He lay back in the chair like a tired man whose nerves had carried him beyond his strength. All he wanted was rest and a drink of water.
Very soon a large squadron of cavalry came clattering to the door. General Weitzel and General Shepley came in, and general conversation ensued. Congratulations were exchanged. In a few minutes a luncheon was served, procured by the General - a soldier’s luncheon, simple and frugal.
Carriages were then sent for, and under military escort Mr. Lincoln was driven to places of interest about the city. After looking with curiosity about the house, I saw from the door a lot of soldiers and people around the Capitol, and walked over to it. It was a scene of indescribable confusion. Confederate bonds of the denomination of $ 1,000 were scattered about on the grass, bundles of public papers and documents littered the floors, chairs and desks were upset, with every evidence of hasty
abandonment access to all permitted, been posted. now General secured a rickety and back to and returned Mr. Lincoln Malvern in
THE LAST PHOTOGRAPH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS TAKEN BY ALEXANDER GARDNER IN HIS WASHINGTON, D.C. STUDIO ON FEBRUARY 5, 1865. LINCOLN'S VISIT TO RICHMOND WAS A MONTH LATER.
I PUSHED MY WAY THROUGH THE CROWD ENDEAVORING TO REACH THE SIDE THE PRESIDENT, WHOSE TALL FORM AND HIGH BEAVER HAT TOWERED ABOVE
Library of Congress
THE CROWD.
abandonment and subsequent looting. Free all parts of the building was seemingly permitted, but at the State Library a sentry had posted. I returned to Mr. Davis’s house, General Weitzel’s headquarters, and finally rickety wagon, drove around the town to the landing, where I found my boat returned to the Bat. Lincoln soon after came down to the in a tug and remained on the flagship
LINCOLN IN RICHMOND
that night. On the following day he had an interview with Judge Campbell, former Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and one of the most prominent citizens of Richmond, who came with General Weitzel. Conferences took place which have passed into the history of the war. I was told that other late Confederates called also, but I was not present at any of the meetings. With Admiral Porter’s permission, I got under way and returned to City Point early in the forenoon. The Malvern came down later in the day.
Mrs. Lincoln had arrived that day also, coming from Washington with a large party, including Mr. Seward, Secretary of State , Senator Sumner, Mr. Colfax, and many others. Mr. Lincoln returned to the RiverQueen . I saw him but for a moment, when he told me that he would return to Washington within the next two days.
Mrs. Lincoln and her party went to Richmond the next day, the 7th, returning early in the afternoon. The President did not accompany them. That day came the news of Sheridan’s victory over Lee’s army and the proposals for surrender. The war was practically over.
Notwithstanding the situation at Richmond and the impending surrender of General Lee there were plots to seize the ferry-boat at Havre de Grace, and other predatory expeditions were afoot in the Chesapeake Bay, so that some anxiety was yet felt for Mr. Lincoln’s safety on the River Queen . Admiral Porter, somewhat conscience-stricken at the danger to which he had unintentionally or unexpectedly exposed the President on the trip to Richmond, now became full of concern lest some mishap should occur during Mr. Lincoln’s trip back to Washington, for which he or the Navy might be held responsible. My orders from the department were explicit that I should accompany the RiverQueen to City Point and thence to the national capital.
BUILT IN WILMINGTON DELAWARE IN 1860 BY HOLLINGSWORTH, THE USSMALVERNTRANSPORTED LINCOLN TO RICHMOND IN APRIL 1865.
BY HARLAND AND TRANSPORTED PRESIDENT
LINCOLN IN RICHMOND
If possible, he would have had the Queen convoyed by additional vessels and with more ceremony, but the Queen was fast; Mr. Lincoln was in haste to reach Washington, and there was no vessel in the squadron that could begin to keep pace with her except the Bat.
Before leaving City Point the Admiral summoned me to the Malvern , and talked over the precautions to be taken during the trip, and for him exhibited great uneasiness and solicitude for the President’s safe conduct. As a result I caused to be domiciled on the Queen two officers, acting ensigns, with a guard of sailors, with minute instructions for guarding the President’s person day and night. The crew of the River Queen were examined and their records taken.
We left City Point on the morning of April 8th, the Queen leading under direction of a river pilot, the Bat following closely, pushed to her utmost speed. I remained on the Queen until our arrival at Fortress Monroe, where a brief stop was made for mails and to send and receive telegrams.
The President was more than kind in his manner and bearing toward me and so endeared himself to me that the affection I felt for him became veneration. Mrs. Lincoln was indisposed, and I did not meet her. It was clear that her illness gave the President grave concern.
After getting the mails, telegrams, and dispatches, also a Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River pilot, I bade the President farewell and returned to the Bat , lying close by, not anchored. Mr. Lincoln was kind enough to thank me for the good care taken of him and made some jocular allusions to the comforts of navy men in war times as we parted. It was the last I saw of him. Probably he never again thought of me; but the memory of his warm handclasp and kindly look remained with me and has never left me.
We left Fortress Monroe that afternoon and steamed rapidly up the bay. The Bat’s boilers had a trick of foaming, when changing from salt water to fresh, so that we were hard put to it to keep pace with the Queen , and she slowed down once or twice to enable us to come up to her. After entering the Potomac River, despite our best effort, we fell behind, so that the Queen reached her dock at Washington some hours before us; and on going aboard of her I found that the President had been met by his carriage and had driven at once to the White House. This was on April 10th, the day after General Lee’s formal surrender to General Grant. I reported in person to the Secretary at the Navy Department, saw Mr. Fox for a moment, and was directed verbally to return to Fortress Monroe. After making some slight repairs to the engines at the Navy Yard I started for Hampton Roads on April 11th, stopped at Point Lookout to visit my father, General James Barnes, then in command of the District of St. Mary’s, visited the camp of Confederate prisoners established there, and witnessed their joyful reception of the news of Lee’s surrender and the prospect of the immediate ending of their captivity. The next day I proceeded on my way to Hampton Roads. The weather was thick and stormy and being without a pilot I deemed it prudent to anchor in the dense fog when within twenty-five or thirty miles of the Roads. The fog lifting at last, I went ahead, reaching my anchorage on the 12th, and was informed by Commodore Rockendorf, senior officer, that he had a telegram from Admiral Porter at City Point, directing me to be ready to take him to Washington immediately on his arrival from the former place, and that he would be down the next day. On the 14th he came on the TristramShandy , also a converted blockade runner. I called upon him and found that he had made up his mind to continue on
"mr. lincoln was kind enough to thank me for the good care taken care of him and made some jocular allusions to the comforts of navy men in war times as we parted. it was the last time i saw him."
to Baltimore in the Shandy . He was delighted to know that the President was safe and sound in the White House. General Grant had left for Washington on the 12th, and the Admiral thought he also ought to be there and said that there was now nothing left for the Navy to do but “clear up the decks”; that he should give up the squadron and seek rest and shore duty. He promised to look out for my interests in the same direction. Getting up anchor, he steamed off swiftly, leaving us to twirl our thumbs and wonder what next.
On the early morning of April 15th, I was awakened by the orderly saying that the flagship had hoisted her colors at half-mast and had made signals for me to come on board at once. It was an unusual hour for such a signal of distress and such a peremptory summons, so that I knew that something grave must have given occasion for it. I immediately thought of Admiral Porter and feared that something had happened to the Tristram Shandy . I dressed in haste and, calling away my gig, was soon on the deck of the flagship Minnesota . Commodore Rockendorf received me at the gangway, his countenance showing the greatest consternation. He made no reply to my anxious inquiry, but taking me by the arm, led me to his cabin, and there placed in my hands this telegram from Mr. Welles, Secretary of the Navy:
“President Lincoln was assassinated last night in Ford’s Theater, and is dead."
I read it and reread it. It seemed as though the fact could not impress itself upon my mind. For some moments I could not utter a word, while the Commodore walked away in silence. When at last I took in the meaning of those few words, I am not ashamed to say I sat down and gave way to a bitter grief that was heartfelt and sincere.
THE FOLLOWING EXCERPT OF DR. MORTON'S ACCOUNT IS FROM "JOURNAL OF AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION," PUBLISHED IN 1907 FROM A PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED PAPER WRITTEN BY DR. MORTON.
AND THERE TO ADMINISTER THE PAIN
DESTROYING
"ON PREVIOUS OCCASSIONS IT HAD BEEN MY PRIVILEGE BATTLEFIELDS,
which it pleased God to make me the human agent to introduce the benefit of suffering humanity. when originally experimenting with the properties of sulpheric ether on my own person, that I should to hundreds in one day, and thus prevent an amount of agony fearful to contemplate. ¶ When the news Battle of the Wilderness reached Washington, the surgeon general at once said that there would be volunteer surgeons as could be obtained. Previously notified that a requisition would be made for "minute man," and left with the first party, taking for the landing - place called Belle Plain. ¶ I was clatter of hoofs and rattling of wheels. Peeping out from under my blanket I saw a four-horse ambulance, orderly: "We have brought down General Getty, badly wounded, and must go back to Fredericksburg thought I, and springing to my feet, I sought the medical director, who cheerfully gave me an order to left before my professional associates were awake. ¶ Fredericksburg is nine miles distant from Belle Plain, two main roads, and just now by a score or so of avenues, constructed for existing emergencies. The country, points, is stripped entirely bare of fences, stock and products of whatever description, and, in the entire to have seen more than six houses. Immediately back of the landing at Belle Plain a range of hills stretches precipitous angles, with deep ravines ribbing their sides, through which roads have been constructed, climb with difficult ascent, often overturning, sometimes breaking down, utterly. On the summit of this of low timber, while the slopes are strewn with patches of thicket -- mostly of pines and scrub oak. and desolate, and the only living bengs visible were teamsters, wounded soldiers and mounted patrols. four men from behind us, and rode past at a brisk trot, two on each side. As they wore the Federal myself mistrusted them, until, as if by magic, two each seized one of our leading horses, while the other
BELLE PLAIN, VIRGINIA, AS IT APPEARED TO DR. MORTON AT THE BEGINNING OF GRANT’S OVERLAND CAMPAIGN OF 1864. THE FORMER STEAMBOAT LANDING SERVED AS A MAIN SUPPLY DEPOT DURING THE CAMPAIGN. (LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)
PRIVILEGE TO VISIT DESTROYING AGENT
humanity. How little did I think, however, should ever successfully administer it news of the commencement of the be work for his corps, and for such my professional services, I was a awakened about daybreak by the ambulance, and heard the driver say to an Fredericksburg right away. " "Now is my chance," go back in the ambulance, so that I Plain, with which it is connected by country, all the way between these entire distance, I do not remember stretches away to the east in abrupt, constructed, along which the immense trains this range of hills are thick growths oak. The place is inexpressibly wild patrols. ¶ In one dreary file up came Federal uniform, neither the driver nor other two cut the reins and traces,
"THE MOST SICKENING SIGHT OF THE WAR"
BY DR. WILLIAM T.G. MORTON
A
PIONEER
IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ETHER VOLUNTEERS HIS SERVICES DURING THE OVERLAND CAMPAIGN, 1864
THE TWO IMAGES ON THE RIGHT, TAKEN IN MAY 1864, DEPICT THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD
FREDERICKSBURG. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
and away they went. They were a quartette of guerillas, who thus helped themselves to a good pair of Uncle Sam's horses, leaving us to pursue our journey with a single pair instead of fourin-hand. The audacity of the rebel guerillas is astonishing, although they invariably seek unarmed or wounded subjects for plunder and keep a wide distance from our patrols.
At last, we rattled over a pontoon bridge and entered the remains of the war-desolated city of Fredericksburg, once one of the most beautiful and flourishing places in Virginia. It is regularly laid out, the streets are shaded with trees, and although the houses are not noted for their architectural beauty, they are built with an idea of sumpicity and of convenience which can not but charm the beholder. Nearly every house has a large garden, both in the front and rear, filled with all kinds of vines and flower trees.
At first, there was confusion and lack of supplies, causing much suffering and discomfort. But Surgeon Dalton, the efficient medical director, soon had everyone made as comfortable as circumstances would permit, and the Sanitary and Christian Commissions did their share of the noble work. Scores of volunteer nurses, state relief agents and other good Samaritans did what they could to relieve the necessities and alleviate the sufferings of these brave wounded men.
The ambulances could not have brought onetenth part of them, and the rest were brought in wagons, eleven or twelve miles over the remains of a planked road, worn by war travel. In places the larger wagons had to be pried out of the deep holes with trimmed trees. The delays of the entire train from this cause were frequent and long. The depth of these holes, and the instinct and habit of the lead and middle team of mules to trot away from a wagon in a sudden descent, in order to escape the whipple-trees, inflicted on the unfortunate wounded, blows and jars excruciatingly torturing and that wasted their remaining vitality. Over every rod of the way and in the best two-horse spring ambulances,
a jarring motion was communicated by the absence of half the planks on the planked side of the road, and the ruts and holes cut into the clay side dur ing a week's rain by the transportation machinery of an army of a hundred thousand men. On such a highway, and in such a manner, did these poor fellows, who stretch their hands out of these ambulances and army wagons for tin - cupfuls of water, painfully travel - some with arms off at the shoulder, some with legs off above the knee, some with an arm and leg both off, hundreds shot through the leg or arm or the breast, some with horrible wounds of the faceeven to the loss of the jaw and the destruction of speech - all presenting, in the aggregate, every the aggregate, every possible variety of gunshot wound.
Having been assigned quarters in a fine old mansion. I commenced going the rounds of the buildings used as hospitals, to administer anesthetics. There was at first a lack of supplies, and many of the wounded, who had been jolted over hard roads some eight and forty hours, were in a bad condition. Several hundred, packed into a church or hall, without change of clothing or washing, made the atmosphere unbearable almost, and gangrene and erysipelas began to make their appearance, but this was soon remedied.
One of the principal hospitals was the Baptist Church, which was literally packed with wounded. The tank intended for immersion was used as a bathing tub, and the operations were performed in the pastor's small study, back of the pulpit.
The Freemason's Hall was also filled with wounded, and there remains much of the paraphernalia of the lodge in which Washington received his degrees. I found one poor fellow who was a member of the fraternity, and at his request had his bed moved to the platform once occupied by the master's chair, where he lay and gazed upward at the mystic letter " G, " as if secure under its protection.
It was a noteworthy fact that, although each of the great armies which met in the Battle of the
Wilderness had at least 250 pieces of artillery, there were not in the hospitals at Fredericksburg a dozen men wounded by cannon shot or shell. Out of the 3,000 reported as wounded in Hancock's command, not one had received a shot or shell wound from artillery. It was also noticed that many of the wounds received were caused by balls which had glanced from trees or rocks, inflicting comparatively slight injuries. I was informed by a division surgeon that out of about 1,000 wounded under his charge, not over thirty were permanently disabled.
By Thursday, May 12, the wounded at Fredericksburg were all well cared for. Surgeons and nurses had arrived. The Sanitary and the Christian Commissions were actively at work. All those patients who could bear transportation were being sent away, and I was beginning to think of making a visit to the front, when a summons came requesting me to hasten [there]. There had been fearful fighting, as General Grant had swung around his army out of the bloody Wilderness, and he now faced Spottsylvania Court House.
Leaving Fredericksburg in company with an officer of my acquaintance, we started for headquarters. Just out of the town we passed some four or five hundred army wagons, each one with its four or six horses or mules ready for service, yet near the supplies of forage.
There were also large droves of cattle, brought from the western states for the use of the Army, and killed as they were needed. The road, if road it may be called, was wretched indeed, the horses often sinking in mudholes to the saddle girths. Through this ambulances and wagons were floundering along, carrying the wounded to Fredericksburg, while others, only slightly injured, plodded along on foot. Occasionally we passed an impromptu camp, where these slightly wounded men. had stopped to rest, and several newly made graves showed where some poor fellows had made their last halt.
THE FREDERICKSBURG BAPTIST CHURCH AS IT APPEARED IN THE SPRING OF 1864. IT WAS USED AS A HOSPITAL DURING THE 1864 CAMPAIGN AND SUSTAINED DAMAGE DURING THE UNION BOMBARDMENT OF DECEMBER 11, 1862. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
It is the most sickening sight of the war, this tide of the wounded flowing back. One has a shattered arm, and the sling in which he carries it is the same bloody rag the surgeon gave him the day of battle; another has his head seamed and bandaged so you can scarcely see it, and he weaves like a drunken man as he drags along through the hot sun; another has his shoe cut off, and a great roll of rags wound around his foot, and he leans heavily on a rough cane broken from a pine tree; another breathes painfully and holds his hand to his side, where you see a ragged rent in his blouse; another sits by a puddle, dipping water on a wounded leg, which, for want of dressing since the battles, has become badly inflamed; another lies on a plat of grass by the road side, with his browned face turned full to the sun, and he sleeps. So I passed hundreds, in riding a few miles. They move along silently, making no complaints, asking no questions and no favors of the passerby. Such heroic bravery and fortitude are only surpassed by their valor on the field of battle.
The appearance of the country along our way is calculated to make the scene all the more impressive. The two hostile armies which have occupied this part of the Old Dominion ever since the war begun, have fought over nearly every acre of this ground. Although there were fine farms and luxurious old Virginia homes along this road, not a house, not even a rail, is to be seen. Desolation seems to have marked it for her own. At long intervals the blackened walls, ruins of Virginia, stand as a ghostly record of rebellion. The plains are already grown up with wild bushes, and are fast taking the appearance of the old battlefields to which we used to make long pilgrimages with curious interest.
On reaching the top of an eminence, I at last saw our line, in the shape of a horseshoe, somewhat straightened out, with troops all around, in readiness for instant attack, while beyond them, crouched in rifle-pits, were our pickets. Riding through regiments and batteries I reached a house which had been pointed out to me as General Grant's headquarters,
but found on my arrival that he had moved so that the building might be used as a hospital. Just then several wounded rebels were brought up on stretchers, and the surgeon in charge, who had known me after Burnside's attack on Chancellorsville, invited me to administer anesthetics, which I did. All of them had limbs amputated, and seemed very grateful afterward for the kind treatment which they received. When these wounded Confederates had been attended to, the surgeon sent an orderly with me to the headquarters of the medical director of the Army of the Potomac, to whom I reported for duty, and then, as there was no need for my services, I went on until I reached the headquarters of the Army. These occupied a group of about twenty tents, pitched along the border of a piece of woodland. In front of one of these tents, the fly of which was converted into an awning, sat the lieutenant general with several officers and Mr. Dana, the assistant secretary of war.
Ihad been introduced to General Grant at Washington, and he at once remembered me and gave me a kindly welcome. Had I not previously known him, I should never have dreamed that so unpretending a person was the commander of so mighty a host. He is rather undersized, compactly built, and evidently able to endure great fatigue. His sandy hair is thick and bushy, as yet not marked with gray. The barber has had nothing to do about his face since the war commenced, wherefore much of the native expression of his countenance is lost under moustache and beard. A dry, straight-cut mouth and clear gray eyes are about all that are visible. On his forehead the skin, well tanned and browned by exposure, is drawn over the frontal bone tight and smooth as a drumhead. It is said that not a wrinkle or a frown is ever seen there. It is the expression of immovable calmness. His forehead is higher and better than it appears to be, for it is concealed by coarse, bushy hair. Incessant, close and rapid thought is going on there, however quiet the external signs
"In the garden of one house used as a hospital I noticed over twenty lifeless and mangled forms, bloody and ghastlymen without heads, heads without bodies, hands wanting arms ."
may be.
The general says but few words, yet he is not morose or repulsive. This reticence is not the result of misanthropy or ill-nature, for no trial of temper ruffles the calmness of his mind. No officer is more approachable. There is no general commander so ready to dispense with ceremony or the show of rank, to listen carefully and to reply plainly to the point.
I found General Meade in excellent spirits, and he gave me the agreeable intelligence of a brilliant success which had been achieved that morning, "before breakfast," as he expressed himself. Before day, General Hancock ordered a slow advance of his line of battle in the direction of the line of intrenchments held by Ewell's corps, who were in his front. Slowly and surely did his men creep forward and the dawn of day found them close on the sleeping and unsuspecting rebels.
The firing amounted to little or nothing; there was no time or necessity for such work. The shelter tents of the enemy, erected near their line of entrenchments, were entered by our troops before the rebels had time to escape from them; they were surrounded, cornered, hemmed in and fairly dumbfounded, and on the command being given to surrender they at once dropped their arms and became passive, resist less prisoners of war.
The artillery had not time to limber up and get away or fire a single volley before our dashing troops were among them. Even their general, whose quarters were somewhat in the rear, could not escape, and he, together with the greater portion of his command, became sub servient to the orders and commands of the redoubtable Hancock. The prisoners taken numbered between six and seven thousand, including two generals, and some thirty pieces of artillery were also captured. This was the first battle of Spotsylvania Court House. After having narrated the morning's work, as he called it, General Grant suggested to me that it would be well to visit the scene of this sanguinary contest.
Although the rain fell in torrents, I followed his advice, and witnessed a scene which was horrible enough to curdle the blood of the coldest. The angle of the works at which Hancock entered, and for the possession of which the savage fight of the day was made, is a perfect Golgotha.
In this angle of death the dead and wounded rebels lie, literally in piles - men in the agonies of death groaning beneath the dead bodies of their comrades. On an area of a few acres in rear of their position lie not less than a thousand corpses, many literally torn to shreds by hundreds of balls, and several with bayonet thrusts through and through their bodies, pierced on the very margins of the parapet, which they were determined to retake or perish in the attempt. The one exclamation of every man who looks on the spectacle is : "God forbid that I should ever gaze on such a sight again."
On Saturday morning, May 14, I was awakened by the booming of cannon, and learned that the enemy were endeavoring to regain their lost position. After a hasty breakfast, I began to visit the field hospitals, to produce anesthesia where capital operations were to be performed. The wounded were brought to these field-hospitals by the newly organized ambulance corps of their respective divisions. When there was any heavy firing heard the ambulance corps, with its attendants, stationed nearest to the scene of action, started for the wounded. The ambulances were halted near by, and the attendants went in with stretchers to bring out the wounded. The rebels did not generally fire on those wearing the ambulance badges.
On the arrival of a train of ambulances at a field hospital the wounds were hastily examined, and those who could bear the journey were sent at once to Fredericksburg. The nature of the operations to be performed on the others was then decided on, and noted on a bit of paper pinned to the pillow or roll of blanket under each patient's head. When this had been done
I prepared the patients for the knife, producing perfect anesthesia in an average time of three minutes, and the operators followed, performing their operations with dexterous skill, while the dressers in their turn bound up the stumps. It was surprising to see with what dexterity and rapidity surgical operations were performed by scores in the same time really taken up with one case in peaceful regions. When I had finished my professional duties at one hospital, I would ride to another, first arranging at what hour I would next return. In the garden of one house
"THE TOUGHEST FIGHT YET": A SKETCH BY THE ARTIST ALFRED WAUD OF THE FIGHTING AROUND THE SALIENT AT THE BATTLE OF SPOTSYLVANIA. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
used as a hospital I noticed over twenty lifeless and mangled forms, bloody and ghastly - men without heads, heads without bodies, hands wanting arms. Some had died with fierce expressions on their faces; others who passed quietly from the stormy shores of time to the realms of eternal peace. The dead are buried where they fall, or near the hospitals in which they die. Their names are carefully written on wooden headboards, and entered into registers. Early on the morning of Wednesday, May 18, the whizzing of shells announced that
the second and great battle of Spottsylvania Court House had been commenced. It was four o'clock a.m. when the Union skirmishers advanced. The rebels were there, armed and vigilant. Both sides opened with cannon. Smoke and mist hung pale, heavy and motionless over the troops. On the right was Gibbon's First Division. The Irish Legion had just joined them. They had seen some service on the Blackwater and Nansemond rivers, near Suffolk, during the investment of that place by Longstreet, but had never known the reality of a battle.
"just then several wounded rebels were brought up on stretchers, and the surgeon in charge invited me to administer anesthetics, which I did.
All of them had limbs amputated, and seemed very grateful which they received. ."
On the right, the Irish Legion charged with a fierce, wild shout. Two hundred yards of clear field had to be traversed before the first line of the enemy's breastworks could be reached; a battery of four brass pieces played on our men incessantly as they advanced on a double quick. All this time the sharpshooters were busy; sufficient light was lacking to enable them to sight their pieces with precision, but many an officer owes his death to their marksmanship. At last the field is crossed. The distance was short - only two hundred yards. Who does not believe it seemed a lifetime to many of those men, who, with bent body and erect bayonet, won their perilous way, foot by foot, through whistling balls, bursting shells, gnawing grape. The rebels fly from the first entrenched line. Our brave fellows clamber over cheerily and capture a few dilatory sharpshooters, who lingered too long at their post. About midway between the first and second parallels, the line of the legion grows confused - their pace waxes slow by degrees, and finally halts, preparatory to breaking - to retreating.
They did fall back a short distance, but the veterans of the old First and Second divisions were at hand. They took no notice of confusion, and heeded the driving bullets no more than a pelting rain. Through the pines they ran, with fixed bayonets, searching in vain for the rebels. A shout rent the air, and the second line of breastworks was won. The rifle pits in front were those which had been abandoned by us; but they were filled with rebel sharpshooters, who were soon dislodged and driven through a second line and behind a thick and impenetrable abattis, which was of a most formidable character. On examination it was deemed best not to attempt charging through this barrier, and the troops fell back in good order, although exposed to a galling fire of shell and canister from both flanks.
The sun went down red. The smoke of the battle of more than two hundred thousand men destroying each other with villainous saltpeter
through all the long hours of a long day, filled the valleys, and rested on the hills of all this wilderness, hung in lurid haze all around the horizon, and built a dense canopy overhead, beneath which this grand army of freedom was preparing to rest against the morrow.
On Thursday, May 19, I learned confidentially that General Grant intended to swing around toward Richmond, and I determined that I would swing around toward Washington, where imperative business before Congress demanded my presence. Before leaving I rode with a friend along the entire front of the Union line, an undertaking that at any time before would have been attended with too much peril to make the excitement compensate for the personal risk it involved. The life of our soldiers in intrenchments affords a theme on which a chapter might be written. I could with difficulty imagine that a few hundred yards only intervened between them and a foe as impassible as it is unyielding. Here were
groups of officers chatting, writing letters and reading, and all along were privates making and drinking coffee, card playing and talking over the incidents of the late battle through which they had passed thus untouched by rebel bullet or shell, all were ready to spring in an instant to musket or cannon.
From a house used as a signal station, and with the aid of a powerful telescope, I could see the enemy's works, a battery of sixteen guns, commanding the very place where I stood. These were only a small portion of the artillery they had posted and waiting for us. Their first line of works was firmly sodded on the outside, showing that it had been built for some time. At intervals were fox or rifle pits for sharpshooters. The line in our immediate front was a mile and a half long, and formed the arc of a circle. Behind this were two other lines, mainly under cover of woods. A captured rebel officer says that after the battle of Gettysburg from fifteen to twenty thousand men were employed constructing
these works, and others between here and Richmond, to cut off any approaches, in the future, of our army on their capital. The chosen position was on a commanding ridge, and to the right and left densely wooded, leaving an open field in front over which they doubtless hoped General Grant would advance to attack them. But the general chose instead to make a flank movement rather than to lose thousands by an assault. Leaving the front on Friday, May 20, to return to Fredericksburg, I passed train after train of ambulances and wagons laden with the wounded, some groaning and writhing in anguish, but none complaining.
Isaw at Fredericksburg a number of our wounded, left behind in the Battle of the Wilderness, but brought in by a detachment sent after them. Never were
a set of men more rejoiced than were these poor sufferers on seeing our men come to rescue them. They had been left with a few surgeons and attendants, and supplies for a number of days, but some roving squad of rebel cavalry who came in shortly after our departure, helped themselves freely to sugar, salt, hard tack and whatever else they wanted. Had our poor men been left there a day or two longer they must have died of starvation.
Sometime after the arrival of the squad above mentioned, Hampton's Legion of cavalry arrived, and its commanding officer promptly placed a guard over the hospitals and declared nothing more should be taken, yet his men took all the sugar and coffee they could find in the haversacks of dead or wounded. Dr. Armstrong, of the
Eleventh Virginia cavalry, dressed the wounds of our men, and showed them great kindness, for which act of humanity his name deserves honorable mention.
I found Fredericksburg as I had left it - one vast hospital. But during the week of my absence great changes for the better had been made. Wounded men arriving covered with dust and blood, weary and faint, were placed in the hands of the nurses in the wards they were to occupy; their tattered garments, as they often are, removed, the purifying and soothing application of a warm bath made, the wound is examined and ministered to by the surgeon in attendance, and, arrayed in clean and suitable apparel, the patient was placed gently on a hospital couch with bedding well aired and clean. The process was similar in the case of all who were brought in. There is no crowding, no confusion. Each ward had its designated number of occupants,
its number of nurses - one nurse being usually assigned to ten men, while the surgeons had from eighty to a hundred patients assigned as the complement of each. This arrangement secured good and sufficient attention to the patients in all cases where those having charge showed ordinary in telligence and fidelity.
The patients appeared cheerful and patriotically happy. A shot in the arm, or leg, or side, or shoulder, had prostrated many of them. Sometimes a bandaged brow or jaw suggested a tale which told itself, and occasionally a woefully attenuated form spoke of wasting ill ness. But almost every occupant of the long rows of beds was in the very best of spirits, cheerful in the memory of duty done, and exultant in the prospect of that which is to be consummated. What was particularly noticeable in these soldiers was their modesty in speaking of them selves, their generosity in mentioning their
comrades. They could scarcely be brought to dwell on their own exploits and disasters, and reverted with the brave fondness of military devotion to those of the men with whom they had battled side by side. These soldiers of the Union are as enduring on the sick bed as they are valiant in the field. They do not whine nor grumble.
General Grant having decided to evacuate Fredericksburg, the wounded were removed to Washington in steamers. The scene at the Washington wharf was a painfully interesting one. The high bluffs com manding a view of the landing were thronged with women and children, all in attitudes of expectation and anxiety. The entrance to the gangway was similarly beset. The gangway itself was lined with groups inquir ing for friends or relations, or administering to the wants of wounded soldiers. At the end of the wharf long tables were spread with such refreshments as might be required by the suffering men, and ladies and gentlemen in the service of the Sanitary Commission busied themselves in ministering to their wants. As a general rule, the wounded bear their sufferings with almost stoical firmness. Hardly a groan was heard as they were borne along the wharf on stretchers to the ambulances, although the nature of the wounds of many must have ren dered the least movement extremely painful. Time will not enable me to describe the scores of hospitals in and around Washington, where tens of thousands of unflinching heroes have received and are receiving the nation's choicest care. The minister of the gospel, the surgeon, the philanthropist and the devoted loyal women of the metropolis vie with each other in giving their time to these wounded soldiers. The poor fellows receive tender nursing, watchful guardianship by day and by night, and all the kindly ministrations that gratitude and affection can suggest.
The hospital heroes, suffering as they do, do
not lead a blank, complaining life. The invalids arranged along the extensive vistas of the wards, sprinkle with number less jokes the surface of serious conversation. Each, in spirit at least, "shoulders his crutch and shows how fields were won." Some of the wounds reported as slight are fearful enough to make the patient wince and the be holder shudder. The budding spring is too green and pleasant, the air too golden and balmy, to be in com plete accordance with a scene like this. The windows and doors are wide open, and the gentle breeze streams through. The blue of the sky and the green of the mea dow are mutually harmonious in beauty, and it is this which makes us feel there is such a dissonance between the scene without and that within.
As to the hospital fare, concerning which complaints are sometimes made through the papers, perhaps not always without reason, the wants of the invalids are cer tainly provided for, as far as may be, in a wholesome and substantial way. Luxuries and various delicacies are not to be looked for, of course.
Plain vegetables, such as potatoes, turnips, cabbage and onions, are furnished, with good bread, and, if obtainable, good butter, rice, hominy, milk, tea and coffee, fresh beef, soups, bacon, with eggs, chicken, and custard or pudding occasionally for extremely delicate palates. Many hospitals, indeed, have a less varied bill of fare than this, particularly at certain seasons of the year, when several of these articles are scarce and to be procured only at great pains and cost. But most well managed hospitals can point to such a variety as evidence of the liberal provision made by the government for those who have been disabled in its service. In addition to this the ample stores of those grand voluntary agencies, the Sanitary and Christian commissions, are freely opened to the constant applications made by the hospitals in behalf of their inmates. These commissions furnish to the sick a great variety of articles which the government does not
furnish. Jellies, canned fruits, jams, domestic wines, cordials, lemons, may serve as a sample of the various provision flowing to stanch the soldier's wounds and soothe his sorrow, from the inexhaustible fountain of sympathizing hearts at home. Warm garments to cheer him in winter, light, loose garments to promote his ease and comfort in summer, reach the soldier to gladden him, from the same source. Indeed, this love to the poor soldier, gushing forth still buoyant, tireless, irrepressible in these grand benefactions from countless home circles over the land, forms one of the sublimest spectacles of the day. It is a mighty power, too, in this struggle, that is doing more at this moment to strengthen the government and make its trying work successful, than any amount of brute force with all "war's dreadful enginery" to back it. While I have endeavored to describe to you the mighty struggles of the Wilderness and of Spottsylvania Court House, I have also desired to demonstrate that the wounded soldier is well cared for. Countless home circles from which the young, and noble, and tenderly, endeared have gone forth in the cause of an imperiled country, may be relieved from the anguish of feeling that their loved ones, prostrated by bullet or disease, are left unregarded or without proper care and attention, to bleed, languish and die. The government has guarded with anxious vigilance against all this. Its paternal care has taken, all over the land, the form of a beautiful system of means and appliances aiming at the relief, comfort and healing of the maimed and war bruised. And the soldier's kin and friends may feel and know, and take comfort as they do so, that if the fate of war should number their most cherished ones among the hosts whom sickness seizes or bullets pierce, they will find on the hospital couch the ministry of kind and skillful hands to soothe and mitigate their pangs, and, if God will, win them back to health.
For myself, I am repaid for the anxiety and often wretchedness which I have experienced since I first discovered and introduced the
anesthetic qualities of sulphuric ether, by the consciousness that I have thus been the instrument of averting pain from thousands and thousands of maimed and lacerated heroes, who have calmly rested in a state of anesthesia while undergoing surgical operations, which would otherwise have given them intense torture. They are worthy of a nation's gratitude - happy am I to have alleviated their sufferings. For the dead heroes we mourn - but let all the patriotic benevolence, and science, and philanthropy of the republic be brought into requisition for the benefit of the wounded.
