Ulysses S. Grant: The ‘Unconditional Surrender Continues

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Grant was ever the pragmatist. He was not afraid to break new ground in setting terms and even to exceed his authority if he believed the rewards justified it. He fed the hungry soldiers at Fort Donelson and Appomattox, paroled the defeated garrison of Vicksburg and the remnants of Lee’s army at Appomattox, allowed the rank and file to take their horses home after Appomattox and promised there would be no reprisals or show trials of members of the Army of Northern Virginia while he was calling the shots. These were things that no victorious American general had ever done before.

Finally, Grant always kept one eye on the future when negotiating the surrender of an enemy force. He looked toward the postwar era and eventual reconciliation, and thus he was able to begin healing the wounds of war even while the war was still raging. Among American military commanders, Ulysses S. Grant was truly one of a kind in his instinctive understanding of the art of surrender. Porter Alexander’s comment about Appomattox might well be applied equally to Vicksburg and Fort Donelson: “For all time it will be a good thing for the whole United States that, of all the Federal generals, it fell to Grant to receive the surrender of Lee.”

This article was written by Richard F. Selcer and originally published in the January 2007 issue of Civil War Times Magazine. Part 1 of this article appeared in the January 2007 issue. For more great articles, be sure to subscribe to Civil War Times magazine today!

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Tags: American Civil War, Civil War Times, Historical Conflicts, Historical Figures

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