Appomattox: Victory, Defeat, and Freedom at the End of the Civil War

The Spirit Of Appomattox

There are few more iconic moments in American history than the April 9, 1865 surrender of Robert E. Lee to Ulysses Grant at the McClean house in Appomattox, Virginia. Although armies remained in the field, the surrender, for practical purposes, ended the Civil War. In her new book, "Appomattox: Victory, Defeat, and Freedom at the End of the C... ivil War" (2013) Elizabeth Varon examines the events leading to Appomattox, the surrender conference itself, and the aftermath of Appomattox through the assassination of Lincoln and continuing into the Reconstruction Era. Varon argues that the pictures many Americans hold of the Appomattox surrender is "largely a myth" because it masks disagreements over the nature of the Civil War and the subsequent peace that remained unresolved well after the end of the conflict. The Longbourne M. Williams Professor of American History at the University of Virginia, Varon has written extensively on the Civil War.

Varon maintains that Union supporters and Confederate supporters had differing understandings of Appomattox. These differences were personified in the two commanders, Grant and Lee. Grant saw the Union victory as the triumph of "right over wrong". He believed that the magnaminous surrender terms he offered were ways of vindicating the Union war effort and of encouraging the Confederates to return peacefully to the Union. Grant looked forward, Varon argues, to a United States which would puruse moral and material growth.

Varon further argues that Lee viewed the surrender as the triumph of "might over right". The South lost the war due to the North's superiority in men and resources rather than due to any deficiency in the valor of the soldiers or to moral fault in the cause for which they fought. The South had to accept defeat but, Lee believed, had little cause for repentance of guilt. Lee looked towards the past, Varon maintains, towards the restoration of the southern ruling elite that had governed prior to the War and to the relationship between the races, without slavery, that had prevailed before the war. Varon finds a source of Lee's position and of the subsequent "Lost Cause" view of the Civil War in the Farewell Address that Lee delivered to his Army upon the surrender.

In her study, Varon describes how these conflicting visions of Appomattox played out. In the first part of the book, she offers a good military portrayal of the Appomattox Campaign. This was a more difficult, closely-fought campaign than sometimes realized. Among other events, Varon discusses the role of African American troops (USCT) in repelling Lee's final attempt at a break-out on the morning of April 9. Varon concentrates on the events leading to the surrender, including the exchange of notes between Grant and Lee, the surrender document itself, and Lee's Farewell Address. For all the criticism of mythologizing the event, Varon's portrayal of the surrender conference exhibits the high degree of solemnity appropriate to an iconic moment.

Varon examines how Americans viewed Appomattox in its immediate aftermath through a discussion of Newspaper and other accounts. The supporters of the Union war effort supported Grant's lenient surrender terms on grounds that they would unite the country and allow for the protection of African-American rights. Northern sympathizers with the South, and most southerners saw the surrender as validating their bravery and allowing them to return to their homes with control of their own internal affairs. They did not see in the War or its aftermath a reason to revise their beliefs or social structures about the political rights of African Americans.

Varon carries the competing visions of Appomattox through Lincoln's assassination and Andrew Johnson's presidency. She personifies the competing views with her emphasis of the activities of Grant and Lee during this time. When President Johnson showed himself unwilling to protect the rights of the Freedpeople, Grant gradually distanced himself and became a supporter of the Radical Republican policy for a military Reconstruction to protect the persons and rights of African Americans. During this period, Lee, while acting with peace and restraint, signaled his support for the former southern elite and for a restoration of the Union and of southern society as it stood in the pre-war years. Grant and Lee remained, in essence, enemies in peace as they had been in war. Varon concludes with a discussion of a northern reformer, Ellen Watkins Harper, who toured the South in 1867. "The work goes bravely on", Harper wrote. Varon adds: "For those in the postwar world determined to seize the promise of freedom, this was the true meaning of Appomattox."

Varon has written an eloquent history of Appomattox and its aftermath. In my view, she does not show that the received picture of the Appomattox surrender is a "myth". Rather the momement is properly iconic and self-contained, in the way a photograph is self-contained. More importantly, the icon was an ideal that held forth through all the tumult of its attempted realization that Varon describes. There may also be more space that Varon suggests, in places, for reconciling the two polar views of Appomattox that she develops in her study. The book is well documented but lacks a bibliography. This book will interest readers who want to think about the Civil War and its continuing impact on American history.

Robin Friedman   Read more