The midland journal., 1915-05-28

r. V<N
| event. One OF them is the fact that
Grants soldiers and Lees soldiers be-
gan to fraternize as soon as possible
after the surrender.
For nearly four years they had
made it their business to kill, MAIN
and capture as many as possible Of
| each other
Look at them now, at Appomattox.
at the end Of the awful struggle. The
one dining and trying to minimize the
embarrassment and humiliation Of the
other.
They had marched thousands of
miles hunting for or trying to get away
from each other-they had met on
the plains of Bull Run. at Antietam,
| Fredericksburg, Charlottesville, Get
| tysburg, in the Wilderness. at Spott-
sylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg
and on q score or more OF other
battlefelds, and there they were at
Appomattox, ON friendly terms. re-
specting each other, the Yankee with
the delight he did not try to express.
lest he wound his brother In diff
ferent uniform, and th , Johnny in the
| gloom of defeat, but making the best
of it, and his fellow soldier in blue
helping him to make the best OF it.
| Here is another happening at Ap-
pomattox which it is well for us to
remember-for all classes: The broad
humanity and timely generosity ex-
hibited by our silent but great brave
| old leader, Grant. He who had been
| by far the most successful of the
Union commanders, who had inflicted
the severest blows the Confederacy
had received, and had won the Unions
crowning victory by compelling the
| surrender of the South's best general
and its most powerful army. showed
himself to be statesman of unusual
| wisdom and penetration. and at the
same time a man of great heart--the
very best type of manhood | do
not feel that / can do justice to the
| painting, hence recall an interview
| Chaplain George w. Pepper had with
General Lee In 1865. in which the Con-
federate commander pictured the old
| commander who died on Mount Nc
Gregor in 1885 in way that touches
the hearts of all who served under
Grant The chaplain said:
'Lee adverted to the character Of
Grant, of whom he spoke at length
| in the most enthusiastic terms. He
ascribed to him the possession of the
4 nk& - Fao
hood and said that he Possessed the
military talents requisite for the or
| ganization of armies. In the generous
terms accorded to the impoverished
| South, of which he spoke several
| times, Grant had won for himself i'm
| perishable renown.
st wishss said Lee, to do simple
Justice to General Grant. when say
that his action toward my army is
without parallel in the annals OF ma
tions. When my poor soldiers. with
| famished faces having neither food
nor raiment, hungry and footsores came
| before him in the hour of surrender.
| 1t was then that General Grant I'M
| mediately issued the humane order
that 10000 rations should be given
| them. And that was not all. 1 was
giving orders to one Of my subordi-
nate officers, who was making out the
list of things to be surrendered.
| told him to include the horses. At
| that very moment General Grant, who
seemed to be paying no attention to
what was going on, quickly rose from
| the camD stool and said: "No, no,
General Lee, no surrender OF horses.
Not. one, not one. Keep them all.
| Your poor people will need them for
the spring crops" It was a scene
never to be forgotten
'sAs Lee spoke he paced the room.
and with tears streaming down his
cheeks repeated two or three times
the incident of the surrender.
Il asked him whom he thought to
ba the greatest OF federal soldiers. In
deed. sir. judged by Napolecn's test OF
Who did that?" General Grant is the
greatest Of living American or Euro
peah soldiers"
Nearly twenty years ago, in story
for the Chicago Times-Herald. ex-
pressed the hope that some day there
would be a peace monument at Apo
mattox with four figures suitably dis
played, thosefof General Grant and
General Lee, and soldier in blue and
another in gray; and hope the ma
tion will not wait nearly one hundred
| years. as in the case of Yorktown.
whore another war ended.