CAMP # 1722
SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS
FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA
~ SURRENDER OF THE CONFEDERATE ARMIES ~
"GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE"
Sunday, 9 April 1865... After Arranged A Turce And Sent Notes To Lieutenant General U.S. Grant Requesting A Meeting, Confederate General Robert Edward Lee Awaited His Response. Shortly After Noon On 9 April 1865 Grant's Reply Came And General Lee Rode Into The Village Of Appomattox, Virginia To Prepare For Grant's Arrival. General Lee's Aide Selected The Home Of Wilmer Mclean, Who Sought Refuge Of His Previous Residence In Manassas, Virginia After The First Battle Of Manassas On 21 July 1861. General Lee Awaited In The Parlor Until About 1:30 p.m. When Lieutenant General Grant Arrived With His Staff. The Two Generals Exchanged Greeting And Small Talk Until General Lee Brought Up The Object Of Their Meeting. Grant Wrot Out The Surrender Terms Himself In An Order Book And Handed It To General Lee To Review.
The Terms, Proposed In An Exchange Of Notes The Previous Day, Were Honorable: Surrendered Officers And Their Troops Were To BE Paroled And Prohibited From Taking Up Arms Until Properly Exchanged, And Arms And Supplies Were To Be Given Over As Captured Property. After General Lee Had Read The Terms And Added An Omitted Word, He Ordered His Aide To Write A Letter Of Acceptance. This Done, At About
3:45 p.m., The Generals Exchanged Documents. Riding Back To His Lines, General Robert Edward Lee Was Swarmed By His Adorning Troops, Many Nearly Hysterical With Grief. Trying To Soothe Them With Quiet Phrases -- "You Have Done All Your Duty. Leave The Results To God..." -- He Rode Slowly On Followed By Many Who Wept And Implored Him To Say That They Should Fight On. The Next Day - Monday, 10 April 1865 - General Lee Issued His Eloquent Farewell To His Beloved "Army Of Northern Virginia."
"GENERAL JOSEPH EGGLESTON JOHNSTON"
Wedensday, 26 April 1865... Following the strategic defeat at Bentonville, North Carolina on 21 March 1865, General Joseph Eggleston Johnston's Army was reduced to 30,000 effective, less than half in size of Union General Sherman's command. Though the Confederates had fought well at Bentonville, North Carolina, their leader had no illusions about stopping his adversary's inexorable march through North Carolina. When General Schofield's force, joining General Sherman at Goldsborough on 24 March 1865, swelled the union ranks to 80,000, General Joseph Eggleston Johnston saw the end approaching. Dutifull, however, he followed Sherman's resumed march northward on 10 April 1865. En route the Confederate Commander learned of the evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia and of General Robert Edward Lee's surender at Appomattox, Virginia. This ended his long held hope of Joining General Rovert Edward Lee to oppose the invaders of the Carolinas.
Arriving near Raleigh, North Carolina, General Joseph Eggleston Johnston first attempted to have North Carolina Governor Zebulon Baird Vance broach surrender terms to Sherman. On 12 April 1865 General Jospeh Eggleston Johnston went to Greensboroubh to meet with Confederate States President Jefferson Finis Davis, whom he persuaded to authorize a peace initiative. Sherman was immediately receptive to peace negotiations, and on 17 April 1865, under a flag of truce near Durham Station, North Carolina, met with General Joseph Eggleston Johnston for the first time "althogh we had been interchanging shots constantly since May 1863."
The two day conference at the James Bennett home produced peace terms acceptable to both Generals. But since these introduded on matters of civil policy, (recognition of the existing Southern State Government), Washington quickly rejected the agreement and criticized Sherman's imprudence. Disappointed, Federal leaders informed General Joseph Eggleston Johnston that unless more widely acceptable terms were reached a four day Armistice would end on 26 April 1865. Thad day, the War weary Commanders met again at the James Bennett home and thrashed out an agreement confined to military matters. At once General-in-Chief Grant wired his approval, and on 3 May 1865 General Joseph Eggleston Johnston's still Proud Army laid down its arms, closing hositlitied east of the Mississippi River.
"LIEUTENANT GENERAL RICHARD TAYLOR"
Thursday, 4 May 1865... At the War's end, Confederate Lieutenant General Richard Taylor, son of former United States President Zachary Taylor, ehld Command of the Administrative entity called the Department of Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana, with some 12,000 Troops.
By the end of April 1865 Mobile, Alabama had fallen and news had reached Lieutenant General Richard Taylor of the meeting between General Joseph Eggleston Johnston and General Sherman. Lieutenant General Richard Taylor agreed to meet with General Canby for a conference a few miles north of Mobile, Alabama. On 30 April 1865, the 2 Officers established a turce, terminable after 48 hours' notice by either party, then partook of a "bountiful luncheon... with joyous poppings of Champagne corks... the first agreeable explosive sounds," Lieutenant General Richard Taylor wrote, "I had heard for years." A Band played "Hail Columbia" and a few bars of "Dixie."
The party separated: Union General Canby went to Mobile, Alabama and Confederate Lieutenant General Richard Taylor to his Headquarters in Meridian, Mississippi. Two days later Lieutanant General Richard Taylor elected to surrender, which he did on 4 May 1865 at Citronelle, Alabama, some 40 miles north of Mobile, Alabama. "At the time, no doubts as to the propriety of my course entered my mind," Lieutenant General Richard Taylor later asserted, "but such have since crept in." He grew to regret not having tried a last ditch guerrilla struggle.
Under the terms, Officers retained their sidearms, mounted men retained their horses. All property and equipment was to be turned over to the Federals, but receipts were issued. The men were then paroled. Lieutenant General Richard Taylor retained control fo the railway and river steamers to transport the Troops as near as possible to their homes. He stayed with several Confederate Staff Officers at Meridian, Mississippi until the last man was gone, then went to Mobile, Alabama joining Union General Canby, who took Lieutenant General Richard Taylor by boat to his home in New Orleans, Louisiana.
"LIEUTENANT GENERAL EDMUND KIRBY SMITH"
Friday, 26 May 1865... From 1862 t the War's end, Confederate Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith Commanded the Trans Mississippi Department. By early May 1865, no regular Confederate forces remained east of the Mississippi River. Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith received official proposals that the surrender of his Department be negotiated.
The Federals intimated that therms could be loose, but Lieutenant Genreal Edmund Kirby Smith's demands were unrealistic. Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith then began planning to continue to fight. General Grant took preliminary steps to prepare a force to invade West Texas should that prove necessary, althogh it did not. The War's last land fight occured on 12 - 13 May 1865 at Palmitto Ranch, where 350 Confederates under Colonel John S. "Rest In Peace" Ford scored a vistory over 800 overconfident Federals under the command of Colonel Theodore H. Barrett. But afterwards the Confederates learned that Richmond had fallen and General Robert Edward Lee had surrendered more than a month earlier. The news devastated their morale, and they abandoned their lines.
The same decay in morale occurred all over the Department. On 18 May Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith left by stagecoach for huston with plans to rally the remnants of the Department's Troops. While he traveled, the last of the Department's Army dissolved. On 26 May 1865, New Orleans, Louisiana Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner, acting in Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith's name, surrendered the Department. Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith reached Huston on 27 May 1865 and learned that he had not Troops.
Not all of the Trans Mississippi Confederate Troops went home, as some 2,000 fled into Mexico; most of them went alone or in Squad sized groups, but one body numbered a total of 300. With them, mounted on a mule, wearing a calico shirt and silk kerchief, sporting a revolver strapped to his hip and a shotgun on his saddle was... Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith.
"BRIGADIER GENERAL STAND WATIE"
Friday, 23 June 1865... When the leaders of the Confederate Indians learned that the Government in Richmond, Virginia had fallen and the Eastern ARmies had been surrendered, they, too, began making their plans to seek peace with the Federal Government. The Chiefs convened the Grand Council on 15 June 1865 and passed resolutions calling for the Indian Commander to lay down their arms and for emissaries to approach Federal authorities for peace terms.
The largest force in Indian Territory was Commanded by Confederate Grigadier General Stand Waite, who was also a Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Dedicated to the Confederate Cause and unwilling to admit defeat, Brigadier General Stand Waite kept his Troops in the field for nearly a month after Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith surrendered the Trans Mississippi on 26 May 1865. Finally accepting the futility of continued resistance, on 23 June 1865 Brigaider General Stand Waite rode into Doaksville, near Fort Towson in Indian Territory and surrendered his Battalion of Creek, Seminole, Cherokee and Osage Indians to Lieutenant Colonel Asa C. Matthews, appointed a few weeks earlier to negotiate peace with the Indians. Brigadier General Stand Waite was the last Confederate General Officer to surrender his Command.
Deo Vindice... God Is Our Vindicator
Sic Semper Tyrannis... Thus Unto Tyrants
RAMSr - 2001 ~ 2002
Fredericksburg, Virginia