April 9, 1865
THERE
Betsy and Lucy were also there to witness the pitiful picture of the Confederate soldiers who passed by Ellen Bryant’s home and the McLean house. “They were almost starved,” she said, and in ragged and tattered clothes with bleeding hands and feet and bare-footed and worn out soldiers.”
THERE
Betsy and Lucy were also there to witness Confederate General Thomas L. Rosser, commander of the “Laurell” Cavalry Brigade arrive at the McLean House on the night of April 8, 1865.
THERE
Betsy and Lucy were there to witness when Confederate Generals John B. Gordon and William Henry Fitzhugh Lee (Robert E. Lee’s son) came to the McLean House at two in the morning on April 9, 1865, to contemplate their final battle with General Rosser.
THERE
Betsy and Lucy were there to witness Colonel Charles Marshall, Lee’s military secretary, riding into to the village under a pristine white Confederate flag. They witnessed Marshall inspecting Wilmer McLean’s parlor.
THERE
Betsy and Lucy were there to be ordered on April 9 to prepare the house and grounds for one of the most momentous events in the United States’ history.
THERE
Betsy and Lucy were there to witness General Robert E. Lee dismount his horse, Traveller, in front of the McLean house at one o’clock in the evening and may have watched the “silver fox” fall fast asleep in his sick and starving state, though eloquently dressed.
THERE
Betsy and Lucy were there to witness General Ulysses S. Grant dismount his horse, Cincinnati, in front of the McLean house at 1:30 pm.
THERE
Betsy and Lucy were there to witness fifteen Union officers lining up to enter the McLean parlor for the surrender conference.
Major Generals
- Edward O.C. Ord
- Philip Henry Sheridan
Lieutenant Colonels
- Ely S. Parker
- Frederick Tracy Dent
- Adam Badeau
- Theodore S. Bowers
- Horace Porter
- Orville E. Babcock
Brevet Major Generals
- Rufus Ingellis
Brigadier Generals
- Williams
- John Aaron Rawlins
- John G. Barnard
- Tal. P. Shaffer Esq – Only Civilian present
Captain
- Lincoln
THERE
Betsy and Lucy were there to witness their owner Wilmer McLean being so excited about the surrender conference that some Union officers described his behavior as follows: “Mr. McLean was out there, too, but was so excited by his appreciation of passing events that he did not know where his pump was, or if he had any, and if not could not tell us where there was a spring.”
THERE
Betsy and Lucy were there to witness General Robert E. Lee leaving the McLean house. They witnessed all the Federal officers lift their hands to salute. They witnessed Lee mounting Traveller to inform his army that they had been surrendered and were now prisoners of war.
THERE
Betsy and Lucy were there to witness the indignation and dismay of their former master, Wilmer McLean, because the Union soldiers had carried off all his fence rails for firewood and abused his property. They witnessed General Ord leaving the McLean House with Wilmer’s table (used by Lee to sign the Articles of Capitulation) after leaving forty-dollars on the floor because Wilmer refused to accept the money for a table that was not for sale. They witnessed General Sheridan departing their former master’s house with the table used by Grant, his payment of twenty-dollars for the table, and ten-dollars for two candle stands also finding a place on the floor as Wilmer protested their purchased theft. Betsy and Lucy witnessed the upholstery of the chairs and sofas being cut into strips to create souvenir ribbons. They witnessed Lula McLean weeping for her doll, coined the “silent witness,” which was also taken along with the cane bottom seats that Lee and Grant had sat in.
THERE
Betsy and Lucy were there to be ordered to clean up the parlor after the surrender conference. Mud, dirt, and dust from the boots and uniforms of fifteen Union generals, colonels, a captain, and a Union lawyer. They swept up all the horse hair from the dismantled sofas before preparing the evening meal for their former master.
THERE
Betsy and Lucy were there to witness Union troops go wild with joy when they knew the fighting was over. They saw muskets, knapsacks, haversacks, canteens, dippers, everything that a man could get his hands on go into the air. They saw Union soldiers laughing, shouting, shaking hands, hugging each other, and even crying. They heard the Fifth Corps play the national airs.
THERE
Betsy and Lucy were there to witness some of the United States Colored Troops near the Court House become so excited that they decided to fire an exultant volley. They heard Union bands playing Hail Columbia and The Star-Spangled Banner instead of “Dixie”, which they had heard for four years.
THERE
Betsy and Lucy were there to witness General Sheridan and his army pitching their tents around their slave quarters on the night of April 9, 1865.
THERE
Betsy and Lucy were there to witness General Ulysses S. Grant returning to the McLean House on the morning of April 10, 1865, after a horseback meeting with General Robert E. Lee. They were there to see Confederate Generals Longstreet, Gordon, Pickett, and Heth gather in the McLean parlor for a social hour with Grant and his Union generals.
THERE
Betsy and Lucy were there to witness General Ulysses S. Grant mounting Cincinnati to leave the McLean House and Appomattox for the last time on the morning of April 10, 1865.
THERE
Betsy and Lucy were there to witness the unimaginable event of 6,000 United States colored troops marching through the village
THERE
Betsy and Lucy were there to witness the commissioners, appointed by Grant and Lee to work out the final details of the surrender, move their headquarters from the Clover Hill Tavern to the McLean House on the morning of April 10. They were there to see Union Generals John Gibbon, Charles Griffin, and Wesley Merritt making their way to the parlor of the surrendered house to meet with Confederate Generals James Longstreet, J.B. Gordon, and W.N. Pendleton. They witnessed the commission of generals leaving the McLean House after they signed the final papers at 8:30 pm on April 10.
THERE
Betsy and Lucy were there to witness Union General John Gibbon making his headquarters at the McLean House. They were there to witness Confederate General William Henry Fitzhugh Lee returning to Appomattox Court House after escaping to Lynchburg on April 9 where he “slept like a baby” on the McLean floor.
THERE
Betsy and Lucy were there to witness the April 12 stacking of arms and flags by the 18,000 soldiers of the defeated Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under the charge of Union General Joshua Chamberlain.
THERE
Betsy and Lucy were there to witness the surplus wagons, gear, spades, picks, shovels, iron, trace chains, and a great amount of many other useful things, besides broken-down horses and mules, that Grant had directed General Gibbon to leave at the Court House for the county people to pick up. Betsy and Lucy were likely to have been ordered by their former master to help him collect a hefty share of the spoils of war.