by Tim Rowland
The union infantry attacked, but not really. The human spectacle playing in front of them was too heartbreaking, too pathetic, to be a force worthy of actual malice. Chamberlain watched as they struggled in the muddy stream bank and later wrote of what he saw:
Around its edges, now trodden to mire, swarms an indescribable crowd; a worn out soldier struggling to the front; demoralized citizen and denizen … following Lee’s army (and) suddenly confronted by terrible Yankees pictured to them as demon-shaped and bent; animals too, of all forms and grades; vehicles of every description and nondescription—public or domestic, four-wheeled or two or one—heading and moving in every direction, a swarming mass of chaotic confusion.
Chamberlain and his men moved in for the kill, at once excited and reserved. “Had one the heart to strike at beings so helpless” with full fury, the river would have run red with blood, he said. Instead, both sides acted out their parts in this final scene, “wild work that looks like fighting, but not much killing, or even hurting. The disheartened enemy take it easy; our men take them easier.”
One of Chamberlain’s orderlies, a boy really, asked if he could join the fray. Permission granted, he waved his sword with a flourish and bounded away—returning a short time later with four captured swords clutched to his breast and a proud but mildly puzzled look on his face. He’d have a story to tell the folks back home for sure, but the enemy had surrendered so willingly.
Then, perhaps a mile distant, two riders caught the eyes of Chamberlain and his aides. The horsemen were in between the lines, which was odd. They appeared to be heading toward Chamberlain’s command, but dropped down into a hollow and were lost to sight. Then another rider appeared, closer this time. Chamberlain observed the scene, and felt his chest catch as he grasped what was happening:
[It was] a soldierly young figure, a Confederate staff officer undoubtedly. Now I see the white flag, earnestly borne, and its possible purport sweeps before my inner vision like a wraith of morning mist. He comes steadily on, the mysterious form in gray, my mood so whimsically sensitive that I could even smile at the material of the flag—wondering where in either army was found a towel, and one so white.
The Northern men watched. They saw the rider. Bit by bit the shooting died down and then stopped as the two riders whom Chamberlain had seen earlier emerged to announce Lee’s unconditional surrender. One last, unfortunate cannon shot took the life of a nearby Union man after announcement of the truce, one last, cruel symbol of a cruel war.
Having no authority in madders of surrender, Chamberlain sent the heralds up the chain of command, and remained unsure of what to do next. His men had no such reservations. At once, there was a mass push to the front. Everyone wanted to see the end of such a long, arduous journey. They climbed trees, buildings, chimneys, fences, and haystacks. Thousands of hats went airborne, and the men seemed to want to climb the air currents after them. An old Union general, who somehow hadn’t gotten the message, bustled up to Chamberlain to ask the meaning of all this deviation from standard discipline. “Only that Lee wants to surrender,” was the answer, to which the old man bellowed “Glory to God,” and gave Chamberlain a round clamp on the back that “nearly unhorsed us both.”
There was relief and some fashion of joy on the Southern side as well, helped by their first taste of a meal in who knew how long. Gen. James Longstreet has approached Union lines “with unwonted moisture on his martial cheek” and said, “Gentlemen, I must speak plainly; we are starving over there.” Even though they were short themselves the Union men rustled up some grub and sent it across enemy lines—an act of compassion that was only slightly mitigated by the fact that Sheridan had captured this food from a Southern supply train the night before.
The Southerners wanted to leave their guns in the field and walk away, but Grant felt something a bit more formal was required and the honor was given to Chamberlain to accept the Confederate colors and arms. That morning, Union and Confederate men mingled in one mass of humanity, to talk and to trade mementos for food, tobacco, knives, and shoes. There was deep curiosity to see and speak to the men that they’d been shooting at for the past four years, and before long Appomattox had gained the atmosphere of a country fair, much to the chagrin officers trying to maintain proper decorum.
Chamberlain mused briefly about how he had come to be selected for the honor of accepting the surrender of arms and colors. It was, he believed, because of his studied neutrality. Unlike many generals, he did not hang out with his superiors, he did not try to become anyone’s pet, he did not spend a lot of time talking to the press in hope of a positive write-up and he did not play favorites or belittle other officers behind their backs. For this, Grant perhaps had faith that Chamberlain guaranteed him the one attribute that, sadly, a number of officers lacked: dignity.
Grant was certainly mindful of the moment and contemplative of the future when the nation would again stand as one. It was early April. Planting time was passing by. He permitted Southerners to keep their horses and anything else that might help them get in a crop, and offered to help the soldiers find a quick ride home.
The morning of April 12 was cold and gray and bittersweet. Once proud units on both sides had been cut to pieces and reformed, joined up with the tattered remnants of other units that had been similarly decimated. Brigades now were patchwork affairs. So many men were gone. The Federals watched as the soldiers on the opposite stream bank carefully folded their tents for the last time and slowly, dispiritedly broke camp. Chamberlain did not see Confederates; he saw Americans.
And now they move … Before us in proud humiliation stood the embodiment of manhood: men whom neither toils nor sufferings, nor the fact of death, nor disaster, nor hopelessness could bend from their resolve; standing before us now, thin, worn and famished, but erect, and with eyes looking level into ours, walking memories that bound us together as no other bond—was not such manhood to be welcomed back into a Union so tested and assured?
Chamberlain had no authority to do what he was about to do. It would shower criticism upon his head, sure, but it didn’t matter to him, and he made no apology for it. Confederate Lt. Gen. John Gordon led the first Southern column toward the Union ranks, where his men were to turn in their rifles and tattered, blood-spattered battle flags. The general’s head was slumped as he rode his horse dully past the Federal ranks.
Instead of watching passively and perhaps basking in the South’s humiliation as so many might have done, Chamberlain instead stood at attention and snapped the order for his men to “carry arms,” the universal salute of honor. The gallant men of the North were paying their respects to the gallant men of the South. Gordon started in his saddle, and for a split second failed to grasp the meaning of what had just taken place.
[He] catches the sound of shifting arms, looks up and, taking the meaning, wheels superbly, making with himself and his horse one uplifted figure, with profound salutation as he drops the point of the sword to the boot toe; then, facing to his own command, gives word for his successive brigades to pass us with the same position of the manual—honor answering honor.
The Confederates dressed their lines as best they could, exausted and half-starved as they were. Sometimes decorum held, sometimes not as the men gave up their flags, clutching them one last time to their breasts or adding the stain of tears to the battered fabric. The Union troops watched in silence—no catcalls, no taunts. Not even a cheer or outward sign of bravado.
“What visions thronged as we looked into each other’s eyes!” Chamberlain wrote. They recognized the men they had seen across the smoky lines of the Cornfield and Bloody Lane at Antietam; Jackson’s men who crushed the Union right at Chancellorsville; the Georgia boys who held the stone wall at Fredericksburg; and the few survivors of Quaker Road, their only shortcoming being “too fierce for their own good.” A. P. Hill’s old corps passed, but A. P. Hill was gone. The new faces in some brigades were unfamiliar—all those old, recognizable faces that once populated the
ir ranks were gone too.
The men of both sides watched each other, lost in their own personal reflections. Arms were stacked, and colors grudgingly surrendered. The proud Confederate army turned to go, in the shadow of a fluttering red, white, and blue flag that was once again theirs.
Selected Bibliography
Books
Ayers, Edward L. In the Presence of Mine Enemies. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003.
Blackwell, Sarah Ellen. A Military Genius: Life of Anna Ella Carroll of Maryland. Washington, D.C.: Judd & Detweiler; 1891.
Brown, A. K. The Story of the Kearsarge and Alabama. San Francisco: Henry Payot & Co., 1868.
Carman, Ezra, ed., Thomas G. Clemens. The Maryland Campaign of September 1862, Vol. 1, South Mountain. New York: Savas Beatie, 2010.
Carroll, Anna Ella. The Relation of The National Government to the Revolted States Defined. Pamphlet available through the Library of Congress at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
Castel, Albert E. Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1992.
Chamberlain, Joshua. The Passing of the Armies. New York: Bantam Books, 1993.
Davis, Burke. Jeb Stuart: The Last Cavalier. New York: Rinehart & Company, Inc., 1957.
De Peyster, John Watts. Personal and Military History of Philip Kearny, Major-General United States Volunteers. New York: Palmer & Co., 1870.
Donaldson, Alfred L. History of the Adirondacks. Fleischmanns, N.Y.: Purple Mountain Press, 1921.
Doubleday, Abner. Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1876.
Edge, Frederick Milnes. The Alabama and the Kearsarge. Philadelphia: King & Baird, 1868.
Edmonds, S. Emma. Nurse and Spy in the Union Army: The Adventures and Experiences of a Woman in Hospitals, Camps and Battle-Fields. Hartford, Conn.: W.S. Williams & Co., 1865.
Eggleston, George Cary. A Rebel’s Recollections. New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1875.
Ferguson, Niall. The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World. New York: The Penguin Press, 2008.
Gage, Matilda Joslyn. Who Planned the Tennessee Campaign of 1862? Pamphlet reproduced at http://www.archive.org/stream/whoplannedthetenn00gagerich#page/n1/mode/2up
Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.
Greenbie, Sydney and Marjorie Latta Barstow Greenbie. Anna Ella Carroll and Abraham Lincoln. Tampa: University of Tampa Press in cooperation with Falmouth Publishing Company, 1952.
Groom, Winston. Shrouds of Glory. New York: Grove Press, 1995.
Hansen, Harry. The Civil War. New York: Signet Classics, 2002.
Hessler, James A. Sickles at Gettysburg. New York: Savas Beatie, 2009.
Johnson, Robert Underwood and Clarence Clough Buel, (ed.). Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. New York: The Century Co., 1887–88. Four-volume set available online from Ohio State online library, http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/books/battles/index.cfm
Keneally, Thomas. American Scoundrel: The Life of the Notorious Civil War General Dan Sickles. New York: Nan A. Talese /Doubleday, 2002.
McClellan, George B., ed., and Frank Moore. The Rebellion Record: Gen. McClellan’s Report. New York: Putnam, 1864.
McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Nelson, John H. Bombard and be Damned: The Effects of Jackson’s Valley Campaign on Hancock, Maryland and Fulton County, Pennsylvania. McConnellsburg, PA: Keystone Printing, 1997.
Oates, Stephen B. To Purge This Land With Blood: A Biography of John Brown. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1984.
Pittenger, Lt. William. Daring and Suffering: A History of the Great American Railroad Adventure. Philadelphia: J. W. Daughaday, 1863.
Schneck, Benjamin Shroder. The Burning of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1864.
Stanley, Henry M. (ed. Dorothy Stanley). The Autobiography of Henry M. Stanley. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1909.
Thomas, Emory M. Bold Dragoon: The Life of J.E.B. Stuart. New York: Random House, 1988.
Twain, Mark. Autobiography of Mark Twain. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.
Wainwright, Charles S., ed., and Allan Nevins. A Diary of Battle: The Personal Journals of Colonel Charles S. Wainwright, 1861–1865. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1962.
Werstein, Irving. Kearny the Magnificent. New York: The John Day Co., 1962.
Wiley, Bell Irvin. The Life of Billy Yank. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1952.
Wiley, Bell Irvin. The Life of Johnny Reb. Baton Rouge: University of Louisiana State Press, 1943.
Magazine and Newspaper Articles
Robbins, Peggy. “The Confederacy’s Bomb Brothers.” Civil War Times, Leesburg, Va., 1997, reprinted in The Journal of Mine Action, April 2002, http://maic.jmu.edu/journal/6.1/notes/robbins/robbins.htm
Stump, Brice. “A Name Long Lost: Anna Ella Carroll.” Delmarva Times, Sept. 26, 2010; Lifestyle.
The (Hagerstown, Md) Herald of Freedom and Torch Light. Vol. 24, No. 10; Sept. 24, 1862. Other editions are searchable at the Historic Newspaper Indexing Project, http://www.washcolibrary.org/localhistory/newsindex.asp
New York Times Archives, http://www.nytimes.com/ref/mem bercenter/nytarchive.html
Websites
Abraham Lincoln and the Border States; Gienapp, William E.; www.historycooperative.org/journals/jala/13/gienapp.html
Antietam on the Web http://antietam.aotw.org/exhibit.php?exhibit_id=3
Carter, Rosalie; Capt. Tod Carter of the Confederate States Army; 1978; http://www.tennessee-scv.org/Camp854/todbio.htm
ExplorePAhistory.com. “Burning of Chambersburg.” http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=730
Hunter, R.M.T. “Origin of the Late War: Southern Historical Society Papers.” William Jones, ed.; http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a2001.05.0001
New York Military Affairs Symposium.“The Tennessee River Campaign.” http://bobrowen.com/nymas/tennesseeriver.html
Office of Coast Survey; Civil War Maps and Charts. http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/staff/news/headline-civilwar-charts.html
Perseus Digital Library; http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/searchresults?q=civil+war
Shotgun’s Home of the American Civil War; http://www.civil warhome.com/
Tennessee Division Document Archive; http://www.tennessee-scv.org/archive.htm
“U.S. History; Strengths and Weaknesses, North vs. South.” http://www.ushistory.org/us/33b.asp
Valley of the Shadow Project. http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/
Washington County Free Library Historic Newspaper Indexing Project. “The Raid.” http://www.washcolibrary.org/local history/articles.asp?aID=1
