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“This will doubtless appear in history as the most memorable day of this sanguinary struggle. Today the “Army of Northern Virginia”, the best army we Southerners have, was surrendered by Gen. R.E. Lee to Grant, the Commander of the U.S. Armies. Who would have dared to think this the fate of our largest army! Who would have ventured to prophesy this two years, aye, twelve or six or three or even one month ago! Oh! But it is a bitter, bitter humiliation. All our hopes of independence blasted! All that a generous people value, gone at one fell blow! Worse than all, more keenly humiliated [sic] than all, is the fact these worthless fellows whom we have so often whipped, whose cowardly backs we have so often seen, have at last by sheer force of numbers, numbers swelled by contributions from almost every race and color on the face of the globe, have compelled us to come to this, can now lord it over us and ours, can pass, with the airs of conquerors, through our camps, and hereafter, throughout our whole country. Oh! God, how can we bear this! Will not some terrible retribution yet, even in the mad intoxication of the hour, come upon this motley crew who have waged upon us so unjust, so barbarous a warfare! Upon this soldiery who have burned our houses, desecrated our altars, plundered our wealth, waged unrelenting warfare upon the aged, the weak and the helpless, insulted and dishonored our lovely women! Upon that heartless and fanatical people who have by every means in their power, by money, by chicanery, by fraud, by passion, by superstition, by a fanatical religion, by the hope of immense rewards and by the blandishments of beauty, urged on these hell-hounds in their fiendish work! Can it be? can it be? that after so noble a struggle, after so many deeds of heroism and valour, after the shedding of so much precious blood, after so much sorrow and suffering, borne, too, with such Spartan fortitude, can it be that after all this, we are to be subjugated! And by such people! Oh, God! Our burden is almost too heavy to bear.”
The diary of Captain Henry A. Chambers, 49th North Carolina Infantry
I received several letters from you last night, several of them complaining of my short letters and my want of enthusiasm for Lee's surrender. To tell the truth, we none of us realize even yet that he has actually surrendered. I had a sort of impression that we should fight him all our lives. He was like a ghost to children, something that haunted us so long that we could not realize that he and his army were really out of existence to us. It will take me some months to be conscious of this fact.
The calamity which has fallen upon us in the total destruction of our government is of a character so overwhelming that I am as yet unable to comprehend it. I am as one walking in a dream, and expecting to awake. I cannot see its consequences nor shape my own course, but am just moving along until I can see my way at some future day. It is marvelous that a people that a month ago had money, armies, and the attributes of a nation should today be no more, and that we live, breathe, move, talk as before - will it be so when the soul leaves the body behind it?
Hi Bill: Your posts really show the impact of Lee's surrender on both sides. Seems that everyone had a difficult time believing it. Thanks for posting them.
Terry
I too thank you for them, next weekend I will be at the surrender site and reencating that very moment. It helps "get me in the mood". It's also the first event of the season, actual ground and all, cant wait
Thursday the 13th came the dreadful tidings of the surrender of Lee and his army on the 9th. Everybody cried, but I would not, satisfied that God will still save us, even though all should apparently be lost. Followed at intervals of two or three hours by the announcement of the capture of Richmond, Selma, Mobile, and Johnston's army, even the stanchest Southerners were hopeless. Every one proclaimed Peace, and the only matter under consideration was whether Jeff Davis, all politicians, every man above the rank of Captain in the army and above that of Lieutenant in the navy, should be hanged immediately, or some graciously pardoned. Henry Ward Beecher humanely pleaded mercy for us, supported by a small minority. Davis and all leading men must be executed; the blood of the others would serve to irrigate the country. Under this lively prospect, Peace, blessed Peace! was the cry. I whispered, "Never! Let a great earthquake swallow us up first! Let us leave our land and emigrate to any desert spot of the earth, rather than return to the Union, even as it Was!"
".....every man above the rank of captain"? I don't believe that this was ever taken seriously, was it? Lee was at one point threatened with a charge of treason (sometime after the surrender), but Grant put his foot down.
Although the original McLean house no longer stands, it is such a chilling feeling to be there.
Anyone who visits the place should take the path that skirts the areas where the troops were bivouaced (sp?).
I read the "Civil War Diary of a Southern Woman" last summer and thoroughly enjoyed it. Sarah was such a beautiful, complex and intelligent young girl...wise and eloquent beyond her years.
you said "Anyone who visits the place should take the path that skirts the areas where the troops were bivouaced (sp?)." can you please be more specific as to locations? I will be there Friday and will be lucky enough to be part of the 140th surrender reenactment so I would love to see what you are refering to.
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Contemporary reactions to Appomattox 
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