Retell: The End of the Civil War
Far too many civil wars throughout history end quite badly. But our civil war didn’t end as badly. Why? In April 1865, I saw the Civil War with the comfort of 136 years or 140 years of hindsight to bring richness of history alive.
Robert E. Lee was the moral conscience of the South and the country to the Southerners.
City Point which is in Virginia was actually an armed command post for the Northern Army as they were encircling Lee’s army in Petersburg and in Richmond. Lincoln and Grant met here on March 24. Lincoln spoke about his fear of guerrilla warfare and he did something quite unique. He said,”When the war is over, there must be no hangings, there must be no bloody work.” And Grant would carry it out brilliantly at Appomattox during the surrender, where rather than treating Lee like a defeated, dishonored foe, he treated him with great dignity and grace.
Just think about it, the morning that Lee had made this fateful decision that he’s going to surrender. Lee, that morning, was actually quite nervous. He was speaking in mumbled half sentences. He didn’t know what to expect. Grant would treat him with such tenderness and dignity. Grant was carrying out Lincoln’s vision at City Point of no bloody work, no hangings. Inside Wilmer McLean’s house, rather than talk about the surrender, they talked about the old days. They continued on and on, and it was eventually Lee who said,” I suppose we must discuss the object at hand, the surrender.”
On April 9, Robert E. Lee surrendered to U.S. Grant—that dignified, honorable surrender. Five days later, Lincoln was killed on April 14 at 10:14 at night. And William Seward, the Union’s Secretary of State, was stabbed five times. Only Andrew Johnson escaped unscathed. Had he been assassinated that night, there would have been a complete decapitation of the Union government.
In fact the picture was far murkier and far more complex in April 1865. The founders didn’t intend for the vice president to become president. They only intend for him to temporarily act as president until there was an election. Edwin Stanton was basically running things. After the assassination of Lincoln, there would be such turmoil, such chaos and anarchy gripping the Union Capital.
What took place in the Bennett House in the North Carolina was the final surrender of the other principal army of the Confederacy, which was commanded by Joe Johnson. The negotiations lasted ten days. Sherman gave very generous terms to the Confederates. But he was sharply rebuked by the Union Cabinet.
Johnston followed Lee’s example and he, too, surrendered, in this act of basic insubordination. In doing so, it really paved the way for this country to become like America today.
饶丽
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