Wars end in many different ways. Limited wars often end with negotiated settlements. The American Civil War - involving such vital issues as preserving the Union, freeing the slaves, and struggling for Southern independence - could not be settled that way. It had to be fought to a military conclusion. That conclusion came some 142 years ago this week, on April 9, 1865. After four bloody years of Civil War, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to the United States Army under General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in southern Virginia. General Lee and his troops had capitulated. Even the negotiating table became a prize of war. For General Grant and his President, Abraham Lincoln, their national goal was not negotiation, not even peace, but lasting victory. They achieved that victory at Appomattox.
Yet they understood that for victory to last, it must treat the vanquished with consideration. The surrender terms paroled Southern soldiers on the spot rather than incarcerate them in prisoner-of-war camps. Their officers, moreover, were permitted to retain their side arms, horses, and personal baggage. Allowing such retention “will have a very happy effect upon my army,” General Lee gratefully acknowledged at the time. On learning that Confederate soldiers owned their military horses and mules, General Grant went on to make clear that any soldiers claiming such steeds would be permitted to “take the animals home with them to work their little farms.” “This will have the best possible effect upon the men,” General Lee thankfully responded; “it will be very gratifying and will do much toward conciliating our people.” Thus did two great American commanders, who had clashed on dozens of battlefields over the preceding eleven months, honor each other - and their soldiers - in the course of surrender.
Those soldiers themselves, who had gained a grudging respect for one another in four years of Civil War, also made clear that respect at the very end. On April 12, when the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia made its final march to stack arms and lay down its battle flags, the Federal division designated to receive the surrender did not mock its vanquished foe with taunts and cheers. Instead, the Federal soldiers snapped to attention and stood silent. The Graycoats returned the honor by shifting into formal marching order.
Within three months after Appomattox, the Civil War ended. Reconstruction, readjustment, reconciliation would take decades. Our reunited country now recognizes both General Grant and General Lee, both the Federal Army and Confederate Army, as part of our common heritage. The generous surrender terms of Appomattox were the first steps on that road to reconciliation. So, too, was General Grant’s realization that one of the surest roads to peace is VICTORY.
I have often thought that if President Lincoln had lived the reconciliation of the Union would have been a much smoother process. I don’t believe the South would have suffered the years of reconstruction and punishment under his presidency. He understood the war had been fought to preserve the Union so using the years after the war to alienate the South was counter-productive to the point of the War.
The point is that reconciliation and reconstruction can not take place until both sides are ready to comply and work to that end. In other words, the South had to be completely defeated before the Nation could begin the healing process.
In the same way, we can not begin a healing and moving towards peace in the Middle East until the enemy there is defeated. For Iraq, that means closing the borders so that the endless supply of al-Qaeda and Iranian fighters and weapons can’t continue to re-infest areas that have been ’secured’. It also means that they must be routed out and destroyed within the country. Completely.
It is unconscionable to continue to put American Troops in the position of clearing a neighborhood only to have it re-infested as soon as they move to the next neighborhood. It’s unconscionable to expect our Soldiers to trust and rely on Iraqi Troops shown themselves to be untrustworthy time and again.
Our Soldiers are our best and our brightest and deserve the right to defend themselves and to fight this war in such a way to minimize their own vulnerability.
A lot of lessons should be learned from previous wars. The Civil War in particular is rife with lessons to be learned on how to win peace through victory.
The War for Southern Independence never really ended and states are sovereign - even the 13 Confederate States of America that are included in the 31 Red States of America! Freedom isn’t free and God, Family and Country still matter.
Over one million casualties in a Civil War between the North and the South, between the Blue and the Gray and between Billy Yank and Johnny Reb…One million casualties in a four year period (1861-1865). And a civil class warfare still persists today… GOD continue to bless Dixie!
BSC: Hey Darth
I have to differ with you a little. The states ARE sovereign, but as a result of Civil War the Union was preserved and for the first time started the process of becoming a ‘union’. Prior to the Civil War people identified themselves by their state. Someone from Virginia was a Virginian. Someone from Georgia was a Georgian. After the Civil War we all became Americans.
Forked…
The knowledge that they are being used as dupes by Iran’s ruling elite in a scheme to gain control of Iraq by igniting and controlling the flow and direction of sectarian violence - virtually, to pave a road to Baghdad with the bones of Iraqi men, wom…
God bless Dixie and her way of life! The CSA ’s 13 Southern States are included in the 31 Red States of America and we like it that way. Read the U.S. Constitution and no where does it state that a state can’t leave the Union. As a proud USMC brat and USAF veteran, I’ve lived in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, NC, SC, Fla. TX, Oklahoma and West Germany since 1957. Give me the Dixie heritage and way of life anytime! Yanks and Demliblunatics and Islamomaniacs in the 19 blue states of socialism can continue to burn Old Glory and the British and Israeli flags…but I dare them to do it in Dixie Beth!
Have a great weekend and God bless U.S. all!