"...useless effusion of blood."

Appomattox Court House after the surrender.

Monday, April 10, 1865, Appomattox Court House.

It has certainly been a day. It was a bit strange to be encamped so close to the Yankees and not having to stand to arms. Each side could easily open fire on the other but neither has. This is a very comforting situation that we have never experienced in this war. No one is shooting at us. This is a good thing.

The talk all day long has been in the attempt to answer the question, "What happens now?" Earlier today, the speculations were wild. Some said that we are all going into a prison camp. This is a bit hard to swallow as we, or most of us, have retained our arms. Any attempt to corral us would be met with a fresh rebellion.

Some have said that we should break out and join Johnston. That cannot happen. We are surrounded by many times our number. Any such attempt would result in a useless effusion of blood. I am sure that small parties of us have slipped away either to continue the fight or return home.

Besides, the Yankees are our sole source of sustenance.  They are not about to give us three days rations so we can resume the fight. Even if we won, we would be starving by Thursday.

It would be sinful and disgraceful to do anything that would be counter to General Lee's wishes. He has surrendered us and surrendered we remain. To do otherwise would bring ever-lasting shame upon us and our great commander.

General Robert E. Lee.

By this afternoon, it was explained to us by our officers that we would not be sent north to a prison camp. In a day or two, we would go to some designated place and stack arms. Each of us would have a parole issued to us so we could return to our homes unmolested.  All of us hope that the Yankees will see fit to fill our haversacks before the journey south.

What now for our cause? Our country? There are still Confederate armies in the field. Joe Johnston may yet best Sherman. Forrest, that superb cavalryman, is operating somewhere. General Taylor has his army. The entire Trans-Mississippi still flies the Stainless Banner. There is still a great deal of the Confederacy left to subjugate.

General Joseph E. Johnston, commander of the Confederate Army of Tennessee.

Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest, commander of all Confederate cavalry in the western theatre.

Lieutenant General Richard Taylor, commander of all Confederate forces in Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana.

Lieutenant General E. Kirby Smith, commander of all Confederate forces west of the Mississippi.

The Stainless Banner refers to this flag, so called for all of the white being displayed.

This flag officially replaced the one above on the grounds that if their was no breeze, it would hang linp and resemble a surrender flag. The red stripe down the fly was supposed to correct this. It was adopted in March of 1865. It is debatable if any of this type were issued to troops in the field.

This flag, the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, has come to be identified with the entire Confederate cause. It is often misidentified as the Stars and Bars.

This is the true Stars and Bars. Some versions had more stars. Some had patriotic mottos or artistic embellishments.  One such version of this flag had 17 stars. It was flown on the Fourth of July, 1861 at the St. George Hotel at the corner of 4th and J Streets in, of all places, the city of Sacramento, California. The flag is currently in the State Capitol collection.

The St. George Hotel, long after the war.

This could all be just wishful thinking. The best the nation could offer was our Lee and is people. Now that we are out of the picture, how long before the rest lose heart and surrender?

Yesterday, there was a largely unrestricted flow of the opposing sides back and forth, visiting, trading trinkets and buttons. Today, there are guards in place to ensure that this does not happen again. Even so, the lines are like a sieve. A clever soldier can find his way to the other side if he wants to. We have seen it all day long.

The Yankees brought over rations for our own Commissary officers to issue to us, just as if they had been our own rations all along. Some of these were still marked as being of Confederate origin. They are probably some more of the rations captured at Appomattox Station. We do not care. We are full and that has not happened in some time.

There was sugar and coffee of all things. I prefer tea but after drinking a quart or three of coffee, I just might switch my loyalties to the bean. There was even some wheat flour which made up some fine cakes cooked on our ramrods.

We can now afford the time to spend thinking about our future. It was largely useless to spend much time thinking about something a year or two away when a minie ball can take it all away in three seconds.

I suppose that I shall return to Beaufort and see if I might pick up things where I had left off. If not, there is always Texas.


I Send You These Few Lines


Most Americans believe that Lee's surrender means that the war is over. Far from it. The fighting and the killing will continued for at least another two months. The war is now over for some but for others, there's still time to die.

The Union forces were quite hungry themselves. In their pursuit of the Confederates, many units outran their supply wagons.

In other developments, Jefferson Davis' party of governmental fugitive has left Danville, Virginia for Greensboro, North Carolina.

Jefferson Davis, President of a shrinking country.