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The Century Magazine between 1884 and 1887. The magazine’s editors then included it in their 1887 compilation, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. We have reproduced most of it here, lightly edited for clarity and length.

A little before noon on the 7th of April, 1865, General Grant, with his staff, rode into the little village of Farmville, on the south side of the Appomattox River, a town that will be memorable in history as the place where he opened the correspondence with Lee which led to the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. He drew up in front of the village hotel, dismounted, and established headquarters on its broad piazza….

[Major General Edward O.C.] Ord and [Major General John] Gibbon had visited the general at the hotel, and he had spoken with them as well as with [Major General Horatio G.] Wright about sending some communications to Lee that might pave the way to the stopping of further bloodshed. Dr. Smith, formerly of the regular army, a native of Virginia and a relative of [Confederate Lieutenant] General [Richard S.] Ewell, now one of our prisoners, had told General Grant the night before that Ewell had said in conversation that their cause was lost when they crossed the James River, and he considered that it was the duty of the authorities to negotiate for peace then, while they still had a right to claim concession, adding that now they were not in condition to claim anything. He said that for every man killed after this somebody would be responsible, and it would be little better than murder. He could not tell what General Lee would do, but he hoped he would at once surrender his army. This statement, together with the news that had been received from [Union Major General Philip H.] Sheridan saying that he had heard that General Lee’s trains of provisions which had come by rail were at Appomattox, and that he expected to capture them before Lee could reach them, induced the general [Grant] to write the following communication:

Headquarters,
Armies of the U.S.

General R.E. LEE,
Commanding C.S.A:
5 p.m., April 7th, 1865

The results of the last week must convince you of the hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia in this struggle. I feel that it is so, and regard it as my duty to shift from myself the responsibility of any further effusion of blood by asking of you the surrender of that portion of the Confederate States army known as the Army of Northern Virginia.

U.S. Grant,
Lieutenant-General

This he entrusted to [Brigadier] General Seth Williams, adjutant-general, with directions to take it to [Major General Andrew A.] Humphreys’s front, as his corps was close up to the enemy’s rear-guard, and have it sent to Lee’s lines. The general decided to remain all night at Farmville and await the reply from Lee, and he was shown to a room in the hotel in which, he was told, Lee had slept the night before. Lee wrote the following reply within an hour after he received General Grant’s letter, but it was brought in by rather a circuitous route and did not reach its destination till after midnight:

April 7th, 1865.

General: I have received your note of this date. Though not entertaining the opinion you express of the hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia, I reciprocate your desire to avoid useless effusion of blood, and therefore, before considering your proposition, ask the terms you will offer on condition of its surrender.

R.E. Lee, General

The next morning before leaving Farmville the following reply was given to General Williams, who again went to Humphreys’s front to have it transmitted to Lee:

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