On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia (the largest part of the Confederate Army) surrendered. This was a major event leading to the conclusion of the Civil War. Lee met the Union’s Commanding General, Ulysses S. Grant, at the McLean House in Appomattox, Virginia. There the two generals discussed the terms.
One of the men who witnessed the scene was a general in the Union Army. His words show some of the most striking differences between the two men. What can you tell about the characters of the two generals from reading the passage?
“The contrast between the two commanders was striking and could not fail to attract marked attention as they sat ten feet apart facing each other. General Grant, then nearly forty-three years of age, was five feet eight inches in height, with shoulders slightly stooped. His hair and full beard were a nutbrown, without a trace of gray in them. He had on a…blouse…unbuttoned in front….He wore an ordinary pair of top-boots….The boots and portions of his clothes were spattered with mud….His felt “sugar-loaf” stiff-brimmed hat was thrown on the table beside him. He had no sword, and a pair of shoulder straps was all there was about him to designate his rank….
Lee, on the other hand, was fully six feet in height, and quite erect for one of his age, for he was Grant’s senior by sixteen years. His hair and full beard were a silver-gray, and quite thick, except that the hair had become a little thin in front. He wore a new uniform of Confederate gray, buttoned up to the throat, and at his side he carried a long sword of exceedingly fine workmanship, the hilt studded with jewels….His boots were comparatively new, and seemed to have on them some ornamental stitching of red silk. Like his uniform, they were singularly clean….”
From “The Surrender at Appomattox Court House” by Horace Porter, Brevet Brigadier General, U.S.A.
