The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1892-12-21
LEES SURRENDER.
General Grants First Demand for It.
atlanta Constitution.

General Grants First Demand for 1t.
atlanta Constitution.
The story of General Lees surrender
must ever have sad interest for those
who admire the brave.
While much has been written about
that event, still there is lacking that
inside information of the incidents which
led up to it.
A most interesting paper read before
the Confederate Veterans Association of
Atlanta spreads much Light upon the
subject. 1t is from the pen of Colonel
Herman b. Perry, now of Waynesboro,
Ga, who was assistant adjutant general
on the staff of General Sorrell.
Colonel Perry was himself the officer
who received from the hands of General
Grants messenger the written demand
upon General Lee that he should sur
render.
The letter of Colonel Perry is address,
ed to Hon. Robert l.. Rodgers, of West
End, aud is by him made public:
DEAR SIR: 1 received your favor to-
day, with request to send to you an
account of the transactions of my receiv-
ing the first demand for the surrender of
General Lees army before reaching Ap-
pomattox. / remember having written
to you last year that I would write it for
your use as matter of history. I did it
in pencil at the time, and laid it away,
and have not referred to it since. I have
now disinterred it from a lot of old papers
in my Office, and send it without any
further polish or correction. I wish you
would read it to Captain j. W. English
aud see if his memory and mine agree
about it. 1 have been often importuned
to write this before, but hava refrained
from doiBg it because so many "heroes"
have appeared since the war ended who
never handled sword or gun then, and
have been so ipjudiciously lauded by the
press, that did not care to have the ap
pearance of being on the list. But let us
refer, now, to the scenes which were the
closing acts of the glorious Southern
Confederacy, as the closing history of the
times.
1t was the night, April T, 1865. We
had crossed the river, near Farmville,
and bad taken up position about, as
near as remember, q mile from the
crossing. which the Confederates had
attempted to burn, but unsuccessfnlly.
General Miles, commanding Federal
brigade, made mad attempt to throw
the Confederates into confusion on their
left by a fsnk movement (perhaps that
was his purpose,) but it was very un-
fortunate move, for his lines were in
few minutes nearly cut to pieces and his
brigade placed hOrs de combat a furi-
Gus picket firing and sharp shooting be.
gan on both sides, while tho wounded
aud dead Federals lay between the two
lines
Mahone's division was now the rear
guard ct this point of General Lees
army. General Lees forces were reduc-
ed now to their minimum strength, but
6ercer, more determined bndy of men
never lived. They simply waited for
General Lees o,ders.
About 5 o'clock p. m. flag of truce
appeared in front of General SoIrell's
brigade General Wright's old brigade,
of which the writer of this account was
the Adjutsnt General. A courier was
sent to division headquarters to announce
it. Colonel Taylor, splendid young
Virginian, had been assigned temporarily
to the command of General Sorrell's
brigade, General Sorrell having been
almost nortally wounded near Peters.
burg. In short while Colonel Taylor
was ordered to send staff officer to
snswer to the flag of truce.
The writer was assigned to this duty,
at the Confederate front lines As the
top of the esrthworks was reached
number of Federal sharp shooters fired
at me, aud two balls passed through the
Uniform coat I wore and one ball wound
ed Confederate soldier in the hand,
who had risen up with others from behind
the works, out of curiosity to see what
was going to take place. That ended the
truce business for that afternoon. After
nightfall and after everything on both
sides had lapsed into silence pickets were
put in front of our lines about one hun
dred yards. Captain James w. English,
one of the brsvest, coolest most faithful,
and vigilant officers in the Confederate
army, was in charge of the line in front
of our brigade. had selected him for
the reason that knew that he would not
fail me if depended on his courage and
faith. Colonel Taylor knew nothing of
our command or its officers, and the re-
sponsibility rested on me to select the
right men in the crisis there was now on
as. We spprehended night attack.
About O'Clock at night, as the moon
was about to rise, Captain English report.
ed that flag of truce was again offered
on the Federal line on our front. 1t was
reported again at ou. division beadquar-
ters and l was again sent cut TO answer
it as before. put On en army revolver,
put aside my sword, and advanced about
fifty yards from our pickets, halted and
called for the flag. Where / stood there
we're scattered around several Federal
dead and wounded.
One of the latter asked me to do come
thing for bim. ! told him would very
soon, making this promise only TO en-
courage him, for I could really do moth