Ulysses S. Grant: The ‘Unconditional Surrender Continues

Grant on this occasion was not without his famous surrender prop: During the discussion and while the final terms were being drawn up by secretaries, he enjoyed a cigar with his usual composure. Whether he smoked on this occasion out of habit or for effect is impossible to say, but either way it caught the attention of the Southerners present. The Vicksburg newspaper commented on it in its last Confederate edition: “We pardon General Grant for smoking a cigar as he entered the smouldering ruins of the town of Vicksburg. A little stage effect is admirable in great captains.” This, Grant’s second mass surrender, was also easier than Fort Donelson in the details. Being a major general with a full staff allowed him to leave transcribing and proofreading duties to others.

Following the signing of documents, Grant’s next stop was Admiral David Porter’s flagship, sitting in the river below the town, to share the good news. While all around him Union officers celebrated with cheers and toasts, Grant sat calmly lost in his own thoughts.

Later that day, Confederate troops marched out to stack their colors and muskets while Union troops looked on from their own lines. Word had gone out, and the Northern boys were respectful. There was scarcely a cheer heard and no exulting in the shame of their opponents. In fact, an almost reverential silence hung over the battlefield. Grant would not have had it any other way.

At Vicksburg Grant was on top of things from the outset. He did not have to deal with self-serving subordinates as he did at Fort Donelson. But as at Donelson, he first demanded unconditional surrender, then showed that his ultimatum could be very flexible indeed. Again he showed concern for Johnny Reb’s feelings, but he was less comfortable than he had been 17 months earlier with the idea of paroling men who were just a broken promise away from shooting at him again in the near future.

Twenty-one months later at Appomattox, when fate gave him a third chance to dictate peace terms, he had the routine down to an artform: officially, no negotiations; privately, flexibility; compassion for the foe; pragmatism and informality in the details.

By 1865, Grant was war-weary and desirous of bringing the long conflict to a close. He recognized that the Army of Northern Virginia, which virtually was the Confederacy by that point, was on the ropes and looking for an honorable way to surrender. On the afternoon of April 7, Grant told Maj. Gen. Horatio Wright, “I have a great mind to summon Lee to surrender.” He wrote a note to Lee not so much “summoning” as asking the Virginian to capitulate, and he used familiar words, stating his desire to prevent “any further effusion of blood.” He entrusted the note to Lt. Col. Orville Babcock, who went off to find Lee and deliver the message. Lee’s courteous and exquisitely polite response came back a few hours later, agreeing that it would be nice “to avoid the useless effusion of blood,” but without conceding that further Confederate resistance was hopeless. He asked for Grant’s terms, beginning a diplomatic pas de deux that would hopefully end in peace.

As at Donelson and Vicksburg, ties of friendship from prewar days played a role in bringing the principals together. Lee knew Grant only by name and reputation. While awaiting Grant’s reply, Lee confided to his “old warhorse,” Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, that he was concerned Grant might demand “stiff terms.” Longstreet, who had been a year ahead of Grant at West Point and considered himself an intimate friend, believed that the Northerner “would impose only such terms as Lee himself would if the roles were reversed.” This reassurance went a long way toward putting Lee’s mind at ease that Grant was a man he could work with.

Grant’s response the next morning set just one condition: “that the men and officers surrendered shall be disqualified [from] taking up arms again, against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged.” Since Vicksburg, the two sides had terminated the parole cartel that was in place from 1861-63, but an ad hoc revival of that agreement was exactly what Grant was proposing now. He also deviated from his previous opposition to appointing commissioners by telling Lee, “I will meet you or will designate Officers to meet any officers you may name for the same purpose, at any point agreeable to you, for the purpose of arranging definitely the terms upon which the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia will be received.” In this, his last surrender negotiation, most of the detail work was ultimately done by commissioners, who arranged the stacking of arms, the transfer of property and a formal ceremony.