The herald., 1896-08-02
THE VERY IMPORTANT PART
It Played In Captain Sims Hands Sus'
pending Hostilities
General Whitaker's Description Of the Thrill
lingiy Dramatic Scene-The Flower OF
Two Armies-0en. Ord's Infantry

other distinguished men, the gallant
General e. w. Whitaker, who was CEN
eral Clusters chief Of staff, read very
important paper on the reception OF the
valuable contribution to history.
ION the 8th of April" he said, our
command, General Clusters Third cav
airy division, had captured the railway
supply trains, and in night battle had
captured twenty-five pieces of artillery
and planted line of battle facing TO-
ward the rebel line, cutting off its retreat
toward Lynchburg.
ION the morning of the 9th of April,
1865, our division was the first to sadole,
having been relieved by cavalry and in
fantry brought up during the night. d!
was directed to find the right nank OF
our infantry, and the best route to take
with the column, to engage in the battle
which had commenced. / succeeded in
finding a crossing of ravine east of the
station, and gained the crest of the hill
at the extreme right of our infantry line.
"a brigade of colored troops then under
fire of the rebel infantry on the plain to-
ward the court house. AS fast as our
command could be got across the ra-
vine it was formed on this crest, large
open field, in column by squadrons, with
colors flying and sabers drawn, ready
for the command to charge.
"Our division was composed Of three
brigades of cavalry and a battery of
light artillery to each brigade Under.
standing that we were to be supported
by the entire cavalry under General
Merritt we pressed down upon the enc
my and received the fire from battery
after battery of artillery without stop
ping to return it, General Custer, rid
ing at the head of his column, was look
ing for favorable opening for a charge.
Our movement along the flank Of the
rebel army was slow at first but the fire
of the rebel batteries had nettled our
horses into half trot, when suddenly an
officer came out of the rebel line waving
a large towel in his hand. He said he
was Captain Sims of Longstreet's staff,
and came by direction of General Lee.
who asked for suspension Of HOSTILE
ties.
"In an instant General Custer said to
me: Whitaker, take this truce, go with
this officer to General Lee with my COM
pliments, say l cannot stop this charge,
as | am not sole In command on this field,
unless he announces an unconditional
surrender l took the towel and asked
Sims to show me the shortest cut to
where he had left Lee. He had reached
our head of column on the left flank, but
in returning we went straight ahead in
the direction our column was moving.
remember vigorously swinging the old
towel and the great relief l felt on en-
tering the rebel line without being fired
at.
"-At the point we entered, only a short
distance from where we had left General
Custer, a battery of rebel artillery was
posted, and as we passed the guns saw
the pyramid Of shells piled high on the
ground in the rear of each gun, and ev.
cry gunner in position to give us warm
reception at the command Fire. On
reaching the road, columns of rebel in
fantry were moving in perfect order,
and I recall hearing a soldier shout.
What is that Yankee doing here with
arms on?' I had folded the towel out of
sight as soon as reached the rebel line.
When we reached the place where Sims
had left General Lee we found only Gen.
erals Gordon and Longstreet, who ex-
planned that Lee had galloped off in the
rear to find General Grant Immediately
after Sims had started out with the truce
TO get suspension of hostilties and
had le1t them in command. stated to
them the message from Custer to Lee
and that I must have immediate reply
Tney said there was no doubt of surren
der, as we had cut off their lire of re-
treat the night before, and that thew
were personally satisfied with the hope
lessness of further resistance. ey
pressed regret that so many good men
had been killed the night before and that
morning, when they said that General
Lee would not believe that the infantry
were across the Lynchburg pike until
the repulse of Gordon's charge. which
had been made that morning by his or
der.
While we were talking firing was
heard to the east of where had left
General Custer, and at my suggestion
an officer was sent to the South Carolina
colonel with orders to stop firing
noticed that the guns that were moving
past us as we talked had smoke coming
from their mouths, indicating that they
were the same that had been used so Wig
orously on our column a short time be-
fore. l protested against the moving of
tnese guns, and was assured that the
object was to water the horses, which
was being done in a creek near by. I
saw this with my own yes, but noticing
that the guns We're gaining an elevated
position on the opposite side, wanted
more evidnece of good faith before I
took an announcement of surrender
back to General Custer
AT this moment General Ori's in
fantry line of battle was seen closing in
on us from the west, and was begged
10 announce surrender of the army to
that line. / hesitated moment and then
said: I will make the announcement
II the rebel officer will go with me-
Until few years ago supposed it was
sims who went with me, but he wrote
'Aii ms 'itiiiC III soOutl SdTOllnd ina
captain Brown of Gordon's staff went
with me. There was no time to lose, 1
pulled out the old white towel and rode
out to the union infantry line, and said
to General j. l.. Chamberlain of Maine
that Lees army had surrendered nm
conditionally. The line halted at once
and shout went UP along the line from
right to left that words fail to describe.
| left the rebel Captain Brown with
Chamberlain and then galloped back
across the field to General Custer to
make the same announcement of Lees
surrender. 1t was in this way that the
infantry historians claimed that sur
render was first made to them.
Some of the writer's have stated that
single rebel officer took the announce
ment. a natural error when it is remem-
bered that I instantly galloped back
across the field to report what had done
to General Custer. He had become very
impatient over my delay in returning
and took a pocket handkerchief as a
truce and tried to find me. All this oc
Cured before Q o'clock in the morning.
General Lee some time later reached
the union infantry under Meade. several
miles in his rear, and asked there Il
suppose or am informed) a suspension
of hostilities to enable him to find Cen
eral Grant and get terms the best he
could. He did not find Grant in four
hours; he (Grant) had followed General
| Sheridan's circuitous route to the south
Of the court house which he did NOT