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Text A Mercy at Appomattox
I'm not a Civil War buff. I've never heard the old battlefields like Gettysburg and Chickamauga calling to me to walk over them and re-enact what happened there. The story is just too sad.
But one Civil War site did keep beckoning1 to me — not one where the armies fought but the one where they stopped fighting: Appomattox.
To see it I flew to Richmond and drove west across southern Virginia, choosing a route that would take me over terrain2 that Gen. Robert E. Lee covered with his Confederate army in its last week.
For nine months Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had been dug in near Petersburg, south of Richmond. On April 2nd, his railroad lifeline cut by the North, Lee retreated. But Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was in close pursuit, and by April 6th it was all over. Union troops routed almost a fifth of Lee's army at Sayler's Creek3 and took some 7000 prisoners. Hearing the news, Lee said, "My God! Has the army been dissolved?" It largely had. Hungry and exhausted4, huge numbers of soldiers had dropped out, and the army was down to 30,000 men when Lee, hurrying west, received a note from Grant calling on him to surrender.
Outnumbered and almost encircled, Lee considered his dwindling5 options. One officer suggested that the troops could disperse6 and carry on as guerrillas. Lee refused; further fighting, he explained, would only inflict7 needless pain on regions of the South that had been spared the havoc8 of war. "There is nothing left me but to go and see General Grant," he said, "and I would rather die a thousand deaths." On April 9th, Lee sent his aide, Lt. Col. Charles Marshall, into the nearby village of Appomattox Court House to find a suitable place for the two men to meet.
My schoolboy memory was that Grant and Lee actually met in a courthouse. They didn't, as I learned on my visit; in 19th-century southern Virginia, certain towns that served as the county seat had the words Court House appended to their name. But in fact, when Colonel Marshall rode into town it was Palm Sunday and the courthouse was closed. Almost nothing was stirring. Only about 100 people — half of them slaves — lived in the village, and many white homeowners, hearing the rumble9 of armies, had left. One who remained, a merchant named Wilmer McLean, was persuaded by Colonel Marshall to allow his home to be used for the surrender.
Lee arrived first, wearing full dress uniform, with a sash and a presentation sword. Grant, who had outraced his baggage wagon10, was in his customary field uniform, with muddy trousers tucked into muddy boots. Seated in McLean's parlor11, the two men chatted amiably12 about their Army days in the Mexican War. Finally, Lee brought up "the object of our present meeting." Grant took out a pencil, rapidly wrote out the terms of surrender, and handed the paper to Lee.
"This will have a very happy effect on my army," Lee said after reading the terms, which, far from hounding the enemy with reprisals13, simply let them all go home. Lee mentioned that many of his men owned their horses and asked if those horses could be kept. Grant agreed. He said he assumed that most of the men were small farmers, and without their horses he doubted that they would be able to put in a crop to get through the next winter.
"This will do much toward conciliating our people," Lee replied. In parting, he told Grant that he would be returning some Union prisoners because he didn't have any provisions for them — or, in fact, for his own men. Grant said he would send 25,000 rations14 to Lee's army.
When word of the surrender reached the nearby Union headquarters it touched off a spree of cannon15 firing. Grant put an end to it. "The war is over — the rebels are our countrymen again," he told his staff. He felt that he couldn't exult16 in the downfall of a foe17 who had fought so long and valiantly18. Catching19 the clemency20 of the moment, the Union troops decided21 not to wait for the official delivery of food to the defeated enemy. They went to the Confederate camps and emptied their haversacks of the beef, bacon, sugar and other delicacies22 that the rebels had long gone without.
On April 12, four years to the day after the attack on Fort Sumter which started the war, Lee's Confederate troops marched into the village and stacked their arms. Here the final act of healing that runs through the whole Appomattox story took place, set in motion by another remarkable23 figure — Joshua L. Chamberlain, the Union general designated to receive the surrender. A Bowdoin College professor who left to enlist24 in the army, Chamberlain won a battlefield commission for repeated acts of bravery and was wounded six times, once so severely25 that an army doctor gave him up for dead.
Now, with his soldiers standing26 at attention, General Chamberlain watched the first ragged27 Confederate soldiers coming up the road, led by Gen. John B. Gordon.
"The momentous28 meaning of this occasion impressed me deeply," Chamberlain later wrote. "I resolved to mark it by some token of recognition: which could be no other than a salute29 of arms. I was well aware of the criticisms that would follow. My main reason, however, was one for which I sought no authority nor asked forgiveness. Before us in proud humiliation30 stood the embodiment of manhood: men whom neither toils31 and sufferings, nor the fact of death, nor disaster, nor hopelessness could bend from their resolve; standing there before us, thin, worn and famished32, but erect33, and with eyes looking level into ours, waking memories that bound us together as no other bond. Was not such manhood to be welcomed back into a Union so tested and assured?"
Responding to his command, "instantly our whole line, regiment34 by regiment, gave the soldier's salutation, from the 'order arms' to the old 'carry'— the marching salute. Gordon, at the head of the column, riding with heavy spirit and downcast face, caught the sound of shifting arms, looked up and, taking the meaning, wheeled superbly, making with himself and with his horse one uplifted figure, with profound salutation as he dropped the point of his sword to the boot toe; then facing to his own command, he gave word for his successive brigades to pass us with the same position .., honor answering honor. On our part, not a sound of trumpet35 more, nor roll of drum; not a cheer, nor word nor whisper of vain-glorying, but an awed36 stillness rather, and breath-holding, as if it were the passing of the dead!"
From early morning until late afternoon the saluting37 soldiers of the South marched past the saluting Union soldiers, stacked their rifles and tattered38 Confederate flags and started for home. Counting the Union troops, almost 100,000 men had been in Appomattox Court House. A few days later they were all gone.
"After the surrender the village went right back into its cocoon," I was told by Ron Wilson, historian of Appomattox Court House, which is now a National Park Service site consisting of the reconstructed McLean house and courthouse and more than 20 smaller buildings. He and I were sitting on the porch of the restored Clover Hill Tavern39 where printing presses ordered by Grant had printed 28,231 parole passes for the Confederate soldiers. We were looking across a vista40 of overwhelming stillness. The road that the surrendering rebels took into the village climbed across countryside so recognizable from 19th-century paintings that I almost expected to see them coming down the road again.
Today the site gets roughly 110,000 tourists a year. "They come to Appomattox because they really want to — it's off the usual path," said superintendent41 John B. Montgomery "They're looking for inspiration. The story we try to tell is not the final battle. It's the reconciliation42 of the country and the generous terms offered by Grant. He didn't play the conquering hero."
That theme of forgiveness and reconciliation kept booming in my ears through the stillness at Appomattox. "Grant and Lee had to look far into the future," said Wilson. "They knew that the energies that had been given to divisions for so many years would have to be devoted43 to rebuilding the country. There was no vindictiveness44."
Three people were strongly alive to me there. Two of them, Lee and Grant, continued to radiate powerful qualities that Americans still honor: one, symbolizing45 nobility and the aristocratic tradition of the old South, and the other symbolizing the self-made common man of the new North, Midwest and West.
The third person was the inescapable Lincoln. Appomattox was, finally, his show. I could almost see him standing over the little table in the McLean house where Grant sat scribbling46 his terms. I knew that Lincoln had often spoken of wanting a merciful peace, but I didn't know whether he and Grant had found time to discuss it. Ron Wilson said they had met just two weeks earlier — on the River Queen, in the James River — and had talked at length about the rapidly approaching end of the war and the disarray47 it was bound to bring.
"You just know," Wilson told me, "that Lincoln said, 'Let'em down easy.'
1 beckoning | |
adj.引诱人的,令人心动的v.(用头或手的动作)示意,召唤( beckon的现在分词 ) | |
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2 terrain | |
n.地面,地形,地图 | |
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3 creek | |
n.小溪,小河,小湾 | |
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4 exhausted | |
adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的 | |
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5 dwindling | |
adj.逐渐减少的v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的现在分词 ) | |
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6 disperse | |
vi.使分散;使消失;vt.分散;驱散 | |
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7 inflict | |
vt.(on)把…强加给,使遭受,使承担 | |
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8 havoc | |
n.大破坏,浩劫,大混乱,大杂乱 | |
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9 rumble | |
n.隆隆声;吵嚷;v.隆隆响;低沉地说 | |
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10 wagon | |
n.四轮马车,手推车,面包车;无盖运货列车 | |
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11 parlor | |
n.店铺,营业室;会客室,客厅 | |
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12 amiably | |
adv.和蔼可亲地,亲切地 | |
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13 reprisals | |
n.报复(行为)( reprisal的名词复数 ) | |
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14 rations | |
定量( ration的名词复数 ); 配给量; 正常量; 合理的量 | |
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15 cannon | |
n.大炮,火炮;飞机上的机关炮 | |
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16 exult | |
v.狂喜,欢腾;欢欣鼓舞 | |
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17 foe | |
n.敌人,仇敌 | |
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18 valiantly | |
adv.勇敢地,英勇地;雄赳赳 | |
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19 catching | |
adj.易传染的,有魅力的,迷人的,接住 | |
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20 clemency | |
n.温和,仁慈,宽厚 | |
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21 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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22 delicacies | |
n.棘手( delicacy的名词复数 );精致;精美的食物;周到 | |
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23 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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24 enlist | |
vt.谋取(支持等),赢得;征募;vi.入伍 | |
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25 severely | |
adv.严格地;严厉地;非常恶劣地 | |
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26 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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27 ragged | |
adj.衣衫褴褛的,粗糙的,刺耳的 | |
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28 momentous | |
adj.重要的,重大的 | |
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29 salute | |
vi.行礼,致意,问候,放礼炮;vt.向…致意,迎接,赞扬;n.招呼,敬礼,礼炮 | |
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30 humiliation | |
n.羞辱 | |
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31 toils | |
网 | |
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32 famished | |
adj.饥饿的 | |
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33 erect | |
n./v.树立,建立,使竖立;adj.直立的,垂直的 | |
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34 regiment | |
n.团,多数,管理;v.组织,编成团,统制 | |
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35 trumpet | |
n.喇叭,喇叭声;v.吹喇叭,吹嘘 | |
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36 awed | |
adj.充满敬畏的,表示敬畏的v.使敬畏,使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37 saluting | |
v.欢迎,致敬( salute的现在分词 );赞扬,赞颂 | |
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38 tattered | |
adj.破旧的,衣衫破的 | |
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39 tavern | |
n.小旅馆,客栈;小酒店 | |
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40 vista | |
n.远景,深景,展望,回想 | |
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41 superintendent | |
n.监督人,主管,总监;(英国)警务长 | |
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42 reconciliation | |
n.和解,和谐,一致 | |
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43 devoted | |
adj.忠诚的,忠实的,热心的,献身于...的 | |
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44 vindictiveness | |
恶毒;怀恨在心 | |
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45 symbolizing | |
v.象征,作为…的象征( symbolize的现在分词 ) | |
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46 scribbling | |
n.乱涂[写]胡[乱]写的文章[作品]v.潦草的书写( scribble的现在分词 );乱画;草草地写;匆匆记下 | |
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47 disarray | |
n.混乱,紊乱,凌乱 | |
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