. In his magnanimity he even
omitted the customary usage of allowing the victorious troops to pass
through the enemy's lines and witness their surrender. The two great
commanders met with courteous salutation, General Lee being attended by
only one of his aides. General Grant sat down at a table in the barely
furnished room and wrote in lead-pencil the terms of capitulation, to
which Lee dictated an agreement in writing. His secretary, Colonel
Marshall, and Colonel Badeau, the secretary of General Grant, made
copies of the agreement from the same bottle of ink.

* * * * *

"The final situation of the Confederate army before its surrender was
indeed desperate--its environments hopeless. Hemmed in at Appomattox
Court House, on a strip of land between the Appomattox and James rivers,
the Union army nearly surrounded it on all sides. Sheridan was in front,
Meade in the rear, and Ord south of the Court House. Lee had no
alternative other than the wholesale slaughter of his reduced army, or
its surrender to Federal authority. He wisely chose the latter.

"The decisive battle of Five Forks had put his army to rout, and sent it
in rapid retreat towards the junction of the Southside and Danville
railroads at Burkesville. The Union troops pressed forward in pursuit,
and it became a vital question which would reach the junction first.
Between Petersburg, their point of starting, and their destination, at
Burkesville, the distance was fifty-three miles. The roads were bad, and
the troops tired with two days' fighting; but they pushed on with
determination in this race which was destined to decide the fate of two
armies.

* * * * *

"It was Palm Sunday, April the ninth, 1865, when the capitulation was
signed, in the plain frame dwelling near Appomattox Court House.

"One is often struck with the curious coincidences--the apparent
sympathy between nature and important human events. The dying hours of
Cromwell and Napoleon were marked by violent storms. Omens in earth and
sky were the precursors of the death of Julius Caesar and King Duncan. A
great comet heralded the opening of the war, and Palm Sunday--the day
which commemorates the victorious entry of Christ into Jerusalem,
ushered in the welcome reign of peace. The time was auspicious; the
elements were rocked to sleep in a kind of Sunday repose. The two
armies, so long in deadly hostility, were now facing each ot