Appomattox
150 years ago today on April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant and the United States military at Appomattox. Today does not mark the anniversary of the official end of the Civil War, as there were several other Confederate armies still in the field at that time, but the end of General Lee’s war signified the beginning of the Confederate States of America’s eventual demise.
Fifty years after the Appomattox Surrender an Indiana veteran put pen to paper and wrote a moving poem about the meaning of the Civil War and how the future of republican governance could have been imperiled had Grant surrendered to Lee. “Corporal” Bob Patterson was a veteran of the 19th and 20th Indiana Infantry Regiments and an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Department of Indiana after the war. He served as the Indiana GAR’s Senior Vice-Commander in 1895-1896 and dedicated this 1915 poem to his friend and fellow Indiana veteran Adelbert B. Crampton. I found this poem during my master’s thesis research on the Indiana GAR and publish it in full here.
“Appomattox”
On the great April day when the weak lines of gray Were confronted by blue in battle array; When the heart of the nation was throbbing with pain For its dead and its dying, and the blood of its slain Was flowing in crimson to the home and the hearth, And vigils were kept by the nations of earth, Could Sages then see what the future would be When the great Grant and Lee met in the shade of the tree If Grant had surrendered to Robert E. Lee?
So steadfast and true when these strong lines of blue Stood in solid phalanx and resplendent review Confronting the gray, and in matchless might Was forcing the struggle for freedom and right, When the hope of the nation in the balance lay And hearts beat fast ‘neath the blue and gray; Could prophets then see what the future would be As these leaders strove the master to be If Grant had surrendered to Robert E. Lee?
In that hour sublime could we know of the time When slavery would blacken the brightest clime? Could we tell of the flow of the nation’s blood In the oncoming rush of secession’s red flood– Of our own country unknown and unworthy to own By subject or serf or monarch or throne? Could philosophers see what the future would be For the flag of the free on the land and the sea If Grant had surrendered to Robert E. Lee?
O, the evils entailed had that moment failed And the flag of the Union at Appomattox trailed! If the shafts of chivalry had shattered the shield Of the great Union chief on this hallowed field And that proud Southern son had there made the terms To emplant the Union with soul-eating germs, God could only then see what the future would be For the land of the free and the home of the brave If Grant had surrendered to Robert E. Lee?
But the victory then sealed on that hallowed field And the halo of glory that moment revealed As the flag of the bold was seen to unfold With the plaudits of nations in the gaze of the world; Be it in shelter of house or shade of a tree; The sages, prophets and philosophers could see The guards of the Nation were there in avant When angels in chorus all joined in the chant While Robert E. Lee made surrender to Grant.
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