A Stillness at Appomattox (164 page)

Yet
there
was
always
one
striking
point
to
remember.
Confederate
soldiers
might
be
deserting
in
increasing
numbers, but
up
to
the
moment
of
desertion
they
fought
just
as
hard as
ever.
A
VI
Corps
officer
admitted
that
"the
Army
of Northern
Virginia
was
still
a
most
formidable
foe,"
and
when he
studied
the
battle
front
he
found
that
"their
forts,
with five
lines
of
abatis
in
front,
looked
as
if
they
could
defy
any attack."
As
the
winter
wore
away
the
tension
actually
increased.
Men
felt
that
Lee
would
find
some
way
to
strike a
blow
before
desertions
crippled
him,
and
it
was
agreed that
when
the
blow
fell
it
would
come
with
savage
force.
²⁸

At
the
end
of
January
there
was
an
odd,
revealing
incident.

Over
the
Rebel
parapet
near
the
old
mine
crater
came
a white
flag,
with
a
bugler
to
blow
a
parley,
and
a
message came
over
for
General
Grant.
As
it
happened,
Grant
was away
just
then,
and
there
was
a
twenty-four-hour
delay
before the
message
reached
him.
During
the
delay,
by
the
mysterious army
grapevine,
word
went
up
and
down
the
rival
lines:
the Confederacy
was
sending
a
peace
commission
to
meet
Lincoln
and
Seward
to
see
whether
they
could
not
agree
on terms
to
end
the
war.

The
peace
comm
issioners
were
men
of
note.
One
was
John A.
Campbell,
former
justice
of
the
United
States
Supreme Court,
now
the
Confederacy's
Assistant
Secretary
of
War. Another
was
Senator
R.
M.
T.
Hunter,
former
Confederate Secretary
of
State.
The
third
was
the
Vice-President
of
the Confederacy,
wizened
Alexander
Stephens,
who
had
been
in Congress
with
Lincoln
and
who,
in
1848,
made
a
speech which
caused
Lincoln
to
write
to
his
law
partner,
Herndon, that
"a
little,
slim,
pale-faced
consumptive
man"
had
just made
the
best
speech
he
had
ever
heard,
a
speech
which moved
him
to
tears.
He
and
Stephens
had
been
drawn
to each
other,
somehow.
Members
of
the
Whig
party,
they
had worked
together
in
1848
to
help
nominate
Zachary
Taylor.

Jefferson
Davis
once
had
used
words
of
poetry
to
refer
to Stephens
as
"the
little
pale
star
from
Georgia."
He
would
not use
such
tender
language
about
him
now,
for
he
and Stephens
had
drifted
far
apart.
Davis
considered
Stephens a
defeatist,
and
Stephens
considered
Davis
a
despot,
and said
so
in
public;
and
now,
against
his
will,
Stephens
was head
of
a
mission
sent
to
confer
with
Lincoln
"for
the
purpose
of
securing
peace
to
the
two
countries."

By
the
time
Grant
got
the
message,
consulted
Washington, and
made
arrangements
to
get
the
commissioners
through the
lines,
it
was
the
afternoon
of
January
31.
Both
armies knew
what
was
up,
and
when
the
carriages
came
out
the Jerusalem
Plank
Road
from
Petersburg,
bearing
the
three dignitaries
and
any
number
of
anxious
private
citizens,
the parapets
of
Union
and
Confederate
trenches
were
jammed with
soldiers
as
far
as
the
eye
could
see.

There
was
an
expectant
hush.
The
commissioners'
carriage turned
and
made
for
an
opening
in
the
Confederate
lines— and
suddenly
all
of
the
soldiers
who
could
see
it,
blue
and gray
alike,
swung
their
hats
and
raised
a
tremendous
cheer. A
gunner
who
looked
on
remembered:
"Cheer
upon
cheer was
given,
extending
for
some
distance
to
the
right
and
left of
the
lines,
each
side
trying
to
cheer
the
loudest.
'Peace
on the
brain'
appeared
now
to
have
spread
like
a
contagion.
Officers
of
all
grades,
from
lieutenants
to
major
generals,
were to
be
seen
flying
in
all
directions
to
catch
a
glimpse
of
the gentlemen
who
were
apparentl
y
to
bring
peace
so
unexpectedly,"

Slowly
the
carriage
came
through,
jolting
over
the
uneven ground.
The
cheering
died
down.
Having
yelled,
the
men seemed
to
be
holding
their
breath
in
nervous
anticipation. The
Federal
soldiers
now
saw
something
which
they
had never
seen
before,
or
dreamed
of
seeing—a
large
number
of ladies,
dressed
in
their
frilly
best,
standing
on
the
Confed
erate
parapet.

The
carriage
stopped
and
the
commissioners
got
out,
tiny Stephens
weighed
down
and
made
almost
helpless
with
am enormous
overcoat.
The
Confederates
began
to
cheer
again, and
the
three
civilians
walked
across
no
mans
land
to
the place
where
Grant
had
ambulances
waiting
for
them.
As they
reached
these
a
couple
of
soldiers
helped
Stephens climb
in,
and
the
Northern
troops
cheered.
The
ambulances drove
away,
and
as
they
passed
from
sight
a
Confederate picket
sprang
out,
turned
to
face
his
comrades,
and
proposed three
cheers
for
the
Yankee
army.
These
were
given,
after which
a
Union
man
led
his
side
in
three
cheers
for
the
Confederates.
When
this
shouting
died
down
somebody
proposed three
cheers
for
the
ladies
of
Petersburg
and
both
sides joined
in,
and
the
ladies
fluttered
their
handkerchiefs
prettily.
²⁴
Then
the
winter
day
ended,
and
the
ladies
went
back to
town,
and
the
men
climbed
down
from
the
parapets,
and there
was
a
quiet
buzz
of
talk
all
up
and
down
the
lines.
No soldier
on
either
side
seems
to
have
asked
what
sort
of
peace terms
were
apt
to
come
out
of
the
conference.
On
this
one afternoon,
nobody
was
thinking
of
victory
or
defeat.
It
was enough
to
think
that
perhaps
the
war
could
end
with
no more
killing.

For
anti-climax,
the
conference
came
to
nothing.
One
side insisted
on
an
independent
Confederacy
and
the
other
side insisted
on
a
restored
Union,
and
the
conferees
presently were
reduced
to
nothing
much
more
than
an
interchange
of expressions
of
personal
good
will.
It
developed
that
Stephens's
nephew,
a
Confederate
officer,
had
for
twenty months
been
a
prisoner
of
war
on
Johnson's
Island,
in
Sandusky
Bay.
Lincoln
made
a
note
of
it,
and
a
few
days
later that
surprised
young
officer
found
himself
called
out
of
prison and
sent
down
to
Washington,
where
he
was
taken
to
the White
House
for
a
chat
with
President
Lincoln;
after
which he
was
sent
through
the
lines
to
Richmond.
The
Confederates returned
the
favor,
picking
at
random
a
Union
officer
of
the same
rank,
and
so
the
13th
New
Hampshire
presently
welcomed
the
return
of
its
Lieutenant
Murray,
who
was
de° lighted
and
surprised
by
the
whole
business.