151 years ago, on April 10, 1865, Lee and Grant meet for a second time at Appomattox.

On this knoll, Lee and Grant held the second of their two meetings at Appomattox Court House. They met here on the morning of April 10. Grant hoped to enlist Lee’s support in urging the surrender of other Confederate armies, and Lee was intent on working out the final details of surrender.

Lee refused Grant’s request to exert his influence with other armies. But the two officers did resolve details of the surrender. Grant agreed to provide the Confederates with individual parole passes to safeguard their journey home. He would also allow surrendered soldiers to pass free on all government transportation on their way home.

April 7, 1865, Confederate General Henry Wise met up with Robert E. Lee. 

Wise, who helmed a division in Lee’s army, implored his commander: “my poor brave men are lying on yonder hill more dead than alive. For more than a week they have been fighting day and night, without food, and, by God sir, they shall not move another step until somebody gives them something to eat.”

To this, Lee assured him that they would soon have something to eat. When Wise was more or less pacified, Lee asked him for his thoughts on their situation. 

“Situation?” spat Wise, “There is no situation. Nothing remains, General Lee, but to put your poor men on your poor mules and send them home in time for the spring ploughing. This army is hopelessly whipped, and is fast becoming demoralized. These men have already endured more than I believed flesh and blood could stand, and I say to you, sir, emphatically, that to prolong the struggle is murder, and the blood of ‘every man who is killed from this time forth is on your head, General Lee.”

“Oh, General,” Lee replied with anger, “do not talk so wildly! My burdens are heavy enough! What would the country think of me, if I did what you suggest?”

“Country be damned,” snapped Wise. “There is no country. There has been no country, General, for a year or more. You are the country to these men. They have fought for you. They have shivered through a long winter for you. Without pay or clothes or care of any sort, their devotion to you and faith in you have been the only things that have held this army together. If you demand the sacrifice, there are still left thousands of us who will die for you. You know the game is desperate beyond redemption, and that, if you so announce, no man, or government, or people, will gainsay your decision. That is why I repeat that the blood of any man killed hereafter is on your head.”

Lee, by the word of Wise’s son, made no reply.

From Civil War Daily Gazette

General Lee and his Confederate officers in their first meeting since Appomattox, taken at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, in August 1869, where they met to discuss “the orphaned children of the Lost Cause”. Left to right standing: General James Conner, General Martin Witherspoon Gary, General John B. Magruder, General Robert D. Lilley, General P. G. T. Beauregard, General Alexander Lawton, General Henry A. Wise, General Joseph Lancaster Brent Left to right seated: Blacque Bey (Turkish Minister to the United States), General Robert E. Lee, Philanthropist George Peabody, Philanthropist William Wilson Corcoran, James Lyons (Virginia)

From: http://civilwartalk.com/threads/new-robert-e-lee-and-generals-in-1869.88536/

Robert E. Lee, age 38, poses with his son, William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, 8, around the year 1845. At the time, Lee was twenty years into his military career having entered West Point in 1825, graduated second in his class, and earned a place in the Corps of Engineers. Historian Emory M. Thomas has suggested that “Lee is quite the fashion plate” in this image.

• "His long, large sideburns, striped trousers, counter–striped vest, and hand–in–coat pose all seem a bit more pretentious than Lee usually was.” Thomas’s desire to judge Lee’s dress in the context of his character fits into a long tradition that includes Lost Cause biographers who saw his crisp Civil War–era attire as a reflection of “his modest humility, simplicity, and gentleness.”

Lee’s son, for a time nicknamed Rooney, ended the Civil War as second in command of the Confederate cavalry. He later served in the Senate of Virginia (1875–1878) and the United States House of Representatives (1887–1891).

Source: Encyclopedia Virgina

From The Civil War Parlor on Tumblr

The United States flag flew at half-mast when Robert E. Lee died!

Barely a month after his army's defeat at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee offered to resign 150 years ago this week in the Civil War. Lee, whose military leadership was being questioned after the heavy casualties at Gettysburg, was under the spotlight of trenchant criticism in Southern newspapers.

Lee only recently had said he alone shouldered any blame for the defeat — that in a letter days earlier to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. On Aug. 8, 1863, Lee again wrote Davis, this time offering to resign. "I have been prompted by these reflections more than once since my return from Pennsylvania to propose to Your Excellency the propriety of selecting another commander for this army. I have seen and heard of expression of discontent in the public journals at the result of the expedition. I do not know how far this feeling extends in the army ... I, therefore, in all sincerity, request Your Excellency to take measures to supply my place."

Davis declined to accept the offer. In fact, Davis responded that he could find no other "more fit to command" and a general who also had the confidence of his troops.

From The Associated Press and ABC News Go

“During the few times Lee traveled extensively after the war, he was often confronted by crowds of admirers and on lookers. As was the respectful custom, he would raise is hat above his head to salute the crowd. Returning from one such trip, the celebrity kidded with his daughter: ‘They would make too much fuss over the old rebel.’ 

“A few days after he came home, one of his daughter remonstrated with him about the hat he was wearing. He replied: ‘You don’t like this hat? Why, I have seen a whole cityful come out to admire it.’”


Source: Robert E. Lee's Lighter Side: The Marble Man's Sense of Humor, edited by Thomas Forehand, 2006.
Photo: http://civilwartalk.com/threads/the-famous-slouch-hat.73382/#post-477552

Records of District Courts of the United States National Archives Identifier: 279088

This inventory, dated August 29, 1863, lists items confiscated by Union soldiers from Arlington House, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s home. The courts eventually ruled that Arlington House and its property had been seized illegally.

From: The Natioanl Archives

Charlottesville officials say they’re not sure who vandalized a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee with a message related to the Occupy Charlottesville movement, but they are asking anyone with knowledge of the incident to contact police immediately.

On Sunday afternoon, the words “Occupy will rise again!” could be seen painted on the base of the Lee statue in black letters large enough to be legible to vehicular traffic on Market Street. City police say they’re not sure exactly when the vandalism occurred, but a caller alerted them to the situation around 3 p.m. Sunday.