Wilmington journal., 1876-02-11
A.pOmArrox coux. uoUsn.
Minister sas..burne'zs Rem his
cencss OF tE.e Surrender.
LEGATION OF THE UNITED S EATEs.
PARIS Juna II 1874

General Gordon revive many recollec
tious of those eventfui days. L ar
rived at Appomattox Court House on
'fuesdav, the I1til of April, 1865. Gen
eral Grant. after receiving the surren-
der Of General Lee on Sunday, the 9th,
had left the next day with his staff
officers en- route for Washington. L
met hin the next evening at Prospect
station. Desiring to zee the two
armies, the next morring the General
gave me ii company of cavalry as ali
escort to App mattox. Though the
surrender mad been made on Sunday,
yet the details IS 10 the parole aud
many other matters had to be agreed
upon, and the laying down of arms
was to take place at a future day and
as soon as the pre!iminaries could be
arranged. Three commissioners were
appointed on either side for that pIIr
pose-General Gordon, General Pen
dleton G think, aid another gentle
man whose name l do not now recall,
on the side of the Confe3erates. and
General Gibbon, General Merritt an
a third, perhaps General Mack nzia,
on the side of the Union forces Waon
[ arrived at the Court House ncgo-
tiatiOns pour OaTterS were going on
between the C ,mmisslOners at Gen
eral Gibbons headquarters. at the
house of Mr. MoCIean, and L
then saw many OF the general officers
on both sides. From what cne saw
there it could hardly have been con-
celved that these men had been IN
arms against each other through more
than four years of deadly strife. 'rhe
terror of the breach, the fury of the
charge and the fatigue of the march
+eem to have been forgotten, aud these
Grave men came together more as
friends than enemies. In all their talks
there was never suggestion nor a
word from either side that could have
sonnd, d the tenderest susceptibility.
Many of these officers on both sides
had served together ~ the old army,
and it was touching and Interesting to
witness the sympathy between them
which had survived those long years
Of CO fict aud carnage. General
(Jadmu4 Wilcox tO!L with emotion
low hIs Old c',ts., N o.e, Gb5on, accused
him OF having nothing but Confede
rate money, and taking from his pocket
| , rev ani crisp $50 grpenl)ack, thrust
+ upOn ttifn. There was one SENT
| inent among all OF th.se men, which
| seemed 10 crop out in spite of them
| selves and that Was that, after all the
| bloody struggle Of the past, thsy were
still al Anacricaiss. The only punish
ment say inflicted was tnat on some
| large jugs of brandy which had found
| their way to she Union headquarters,
| and nuler the peculiar circumstances
| that Was not taken and deemed as a
'.cl uel and unusual punishment" within
| the meaning of tie constitution.
met on that occasion two gentle
| men in the Confederate service with
whom I had served in Congress: Hon
! Alexander r. BOteler. of Virginia, and
the Hon. ucius Q. @. Lamar, of Mis-
| Sissippi. Lamar was a member of the
| Ummittee Oh Com n cree IN the Thirty
! sixth Congress. OF which I was chair
man, and thoughs we differed on al
political matters as widely as two met
could we'll differ. our personal relations
| had always been pleasant aud agree
able. Though had not much money
with me, l proposed to divide witt
| him, but he declined, saying he cOulG
see his way Gear to g It t. Blleimore
| and when once where Winter Davi'
was he should be all right. l kue0
| what that meant, for the Intimacy anC
frit ndship that existed between those
| two brilliant and gifted men, SO utterl,
| opposed to each other on all of the
| political questions Of the day, wal
well known in Washington circles
They were united together by tit
which binds together scholars, person,
of similar tastes and men Of geniu
! and eloQucnce, aud which even th'
storms of war could not sunder. HaC
| these men lived in France during tn
| 2 eat revolution, Lamar would hav,
rivalled Mi,abeau in the tribune O
| the National Assembly, and Wintei
Davis would have been the peer o
| VerguIaud, the echoes of whose grace
ful but indignant eloquence resuundet
| through all France long after his heat
| had rolled into the basket of the gull
| lotine All his blood ran In the quite.
| of the PiIco de la Revolution.
After remaining two days at Apo
/ mattoX, l WAS ready to start with m,
! e. cort on my return towards Burkviil'
| and Richmond. Gen. Gordon, having
! heard of the sickness of his family a
| Peters burg, was extremely anxious t.
| get away as soon as his mission in con
nection with the surrender should b.
ended, and he sent to Gen. Gibbon tt
| inquire if he thought | would have an,
| objection to his going with my escort
! 1 sent as an anaver that l should b.
! pleased to have him or any of hi
! friends for company on the long horse
| back journey before me. / had hear(
| SO much of Gordon, and knew SO mucl
| of his wonderful career IS a soldier
| that l was very happy to have him 81
+ along with me. Gen. Ca linus Wilcox
an old regular army officer, and wei
| known in military and naval circle
| before the war. and Gen. Alexander, &;
T young graduate of West Point from
I Georgia. also joined Us. With thes
/ generally came many of their staff otfi
GERS, ana therefore by the time we go
started we had quite a large party
Our first days march brought Us t.
! Farmville pretty late in The evening.
took my command" directly to th
T headquarters of the Union Gen
4ral in command, General Cur
| tin, an accomplished young Office
| from Pennsylvania. He received u
with the most cordial hospitality, AN,
Immediately devoted himself to pro
! viding some rations for his half starved
| guests, and to stowlng them away 70
| the night. The latter was a somewha
| difficult matter, for we were in quit
/ Deus OtlDS SCGlCC
I Curtin and Gordon q think it WAS
"turned in" together, which reminded
| me of the incidents so much talked 0
at the time, of Judge Tyler and Johl
NJ. Bolts sleeping together at the Ma
tionaI Hotel at Washington, soon afte
the death of Gen. Harrison, in til,
! spring of 1871. The next day we pur
! sued our journey to Burksville, ant
s from there we took the cars to Peters
burg. We then separated, and
have seen none of the gentlemen since
except Gen. Alexander. whom [ me
| al few days after in Washington. Al
| of these recollections are now ex
| treme!y interesting to me. I had seel
| the elimination of events at Appomat
I tox, and I believe / was the only maj
| there OH either side who was not il
some way connected with the mill
tary service. 1 'enj 'yed my long
horseback ride from Apponlat