Letter Of Surrender Of Property: Fill & Download for Free

Because if the U.S. government had pursued a policy of even judicially murdering one Confederate soldier or leader who had not violated any of the laws of war, the Civil War would not have ended the way it did.Lee surrendered, and all of the other Confederate armies followed suit, because it had been agreed beforehand that the soldiers would not be bothered by U.S. authorities once the conflict was over.Here are the terms that Grant offered and that Lee accepted:Appomattox Court-House, Virginia April 9, 1865.GENERAL:In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the 8th instant, I propose to receive the surrender of the army of Northern Virginia on the following terms, to wit: Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate, one copy to be given to an officer to be designated by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as you may designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the government of the United States until properly exchanged; and each company or regimental commander to sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, artillery, and public property to be parked and stacked, and turned over to the officers appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to his home, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside.U. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General.Note the last sentence of the communication between Grant and Lee. Lee took Grant, who he’d known personally before the war, at his word. Both Grant and Lincoln, who approved these terms, had every intention of honoring it.All of the other Confederates surrendered on the same terms. The issue of whether or not the Confederates were criminals had already been resolved. Technically, they still could have prosecuted the leadership, but if the soldiers were not being treated as criminals, then how could their leaders be?If Grant had not offered honorable terms of surrender that protected Lee’s soldiers from being prosecuted as criminals, Lee would have ordered his men to take to the hills and become bushwhackers, and so would all of the other Confederate commanders. The idea of people like Nathan Bedford Forrest and John S. Mosby having large numbers of bushwhackers under their command wasn’t one the Union leadership wished to contemplate. The U.S. would have faced a terrorist conflict that would have encompassed North as well as South, for decades to come.Better just to let them all go home and for the conflict to end peaceably.

Let me first quote a document:“WE the Delegates of the people of Virginia, duly elected in pursuance of a recommendation from the General Assembly, and now met in Convention, having fully and freely investigated and discussed the proceedings of the Federal Convention, and being prepared as well as the most mature deliberation hath enabled us, to decide thereon, DO in the name and in behalf of the people of Virginia, declare and make known that the powers granted under the Constitution, being derived from the people of the United States may be resumed by them whensoever the same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression, and that every power not granted thereby remains with them and at their will: that therefore no right of any denomination, can be cancelled, abridged, restrained or modified, by the Congress, by the Senate or House of Representatives acting in any capacity, by the President or any department or officer of the United States, except in those instances in which power is given by the Constitution for those purposes: and that among other essential rights, the liberty of conscience and of the press cannot be cancelled, abridged, restrained or modified by any authority of the United States.”This is the first paragraph of Virginia’s ratification of the US Constitution, signed on June 26, 1788. It and the recommendation for a Bill of Rights were not objected to by the Congress which formed under the new Constitution. By this document, Virginia reserved the right to secede from the Union in the opinion of many if not most legal scholars. Note that there were instances prior to the Civil War when various factions in other states, including those of the Northeast, declared that such a right existed. Lee, as a son of a man who had fought under Washington, was fully aware of the conditions under which Virginia entered into the compact.Therefore, in the understanding of most Virginians and many elsewhere, Lee, a citizen of Virginia and no longer a citizen of the United States, owed no further allegiance to the latter and could not be properly accused of treason. So, under what rule would he deserve to be hanged?Let me offer another quote with my emphasis:“In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the 8th inst., I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of N. Va. on the following terms, to wit: Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate. One copy to be given to an officer designated by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as you may designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged, and each company or regimental commander sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, artillery and public property to be parked and stacked, and turned over to the officer appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside.”These terms of surrender (April 9th, 1865) had been discussed with President Lincoln earlier at City Point.So, again, upon what basis would Lee be prosecuted?It must be remembered that most of the Union Army admired and respected Lee, and most of the Confederacy virtually worshiped him. Had he been hanged, it would have been correctly seen as an act of despotism and would have destroyed trust in great measure all across the US, not merely in the South. The victors made the correct choice.

On April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee dressed with special care. He put on his last clean uniform, then strapped on the gilded sword he had been given as a token of honor by the women of Richmond. He was going to meet with General U.S. Grant to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia, and he said he would “rather die a thousand deaths.” But the situation of his army was hopeless, and refusal to surrender would have meant the slaughter of many of the men whose loyalty to him was so great, even now. So he dressed carefully, so as not to look like one seeking pity. And he put on his dress sword to give to General Grant as the traditional token of surrender.Here are the terms he was given, as written out by General Grant himself:In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the 8th inst., I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of N. Va. on the following terms, to wit: Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate. One copy to be given to an officer designated by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as you may designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged, and each company or regimental commander sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, artillery and public property to be parked and stacked, and turned over to the officer appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside. (Bold and italics mine.)The clause in bold, put in without comment and without being previously requested, meant that, among other things, General Lee would not have to turn over his sword, nor would any of his officers. That ultimate personal humiliation of the vanquished would not occur.This was from the man who had told a fellow West Pointer who had loaned him money when he had resigned from the regular army to avoid disgrace, so that he could go home from California, “My only terms are unconditional surrender;” Unconditional Surrender Grant, the nemesis and destroyer of the Confederacy.So, later, when young officers and men came to him with schemes to go into the woods and launch a guerilla war against the U.S., Lee refused. He went back to Richmond and lived quietly, applying to have his citizenship restored (it wasn’t, either through bungling or spite in the bureaucracy), and seeing that education was necessary if the South were to heal, took over the presidency of a small, struggling school, Washington College in Lexington, VA. (Now Washington and Lee University). Whenever he walked with students from his college or VMI (also in Lexington, VA) and he noticed that they were walking in step, he would deliberately break the rhythm.Lee was a fierce and proud man. It is impossible to say whether, if he had been humiliated by having to surrender his sword, or even more humiliated by having it returned, he would have turned guerilla—he was also 59 years old and suffering from several health problems, including undiagnosed heart disease. But even if he did not go himself, he could have encouraged others. Had he done so, there is no doubt that the Civil War, instead of coming to a fairly neat end, would have dragged out in years of violence and instability, weakening to the United Stated, and ruinous to the south.This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers: A short, simply clause in the middle of a longer paragraph about much more “important” things. With that one clause, US Grant probably did his country a greater service than all the battles he won.(I am paraphrasing an idea presented by Bruce Catton in A Stillness at Appomattox.)