General Robert E. Lee's Farewell Address To His Soldiers

"We Still Love You, General Lee!" By artist Mort Kunstler

Headquarters, Army of Northern Virginia, 10th April 1865.

General Order No. 9

After four years of arduous service marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources.

I need not tell the survivors of so many hard fought battles, who have remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented to the result from no distrust of them.

But feeling that valour and devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the loss that must have attended the continuance of the contest, I have determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen.

By the terms of the agreement, officers and men can return to their homes and remain until exchanged. You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully performed, and I earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend to you his blessing and protection.

With an unceasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your Country, and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous consideration for myself, I bid you an affectionate farewell.

R. E. Lee, General

On Monday, April 10, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee issued his Farewell Address (also known as General Order No. 9) to the surviving remnants of the Army of Northern Virginia the day after he surrendered the army to Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. 

The text of the order, which were written and drafted by Lee's aide Colonel Charles Marshall, were edited and finalized by Lee the night before, then delivered to the army the next morning.

Private Thomas S. Burgess -- Confederate Sharpshooter

 

Approximately 157 years ago, around 9 A.M. on the morning of Tuesday, May 9, 1864 during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, a Union officer dismounted from his horse and walked among men manning an artillery battery aimed at hastily erected Confederate earthworks just over 1,000 yards distance.

The commander of the Army of the Potomac's VI Corps, Major General John Sedgwick, known affectionately as "Uncle John" by his men, was directing the placement of the artillery battery against the left flank of the Confederate earthworks. In the distance, single shots rang out from Confederate sharpshooters sitting in trees and hiding behind the earthworks.

One of these sharpshooters was a 35 year old Confederate private from Jonesville, South Carolina named Thomas S. Burgess. He was among the skirmishers trading shots with members of the invading Union army's VI Corps along with the rest of Company F, 15th S.C. Infantry Regiment.

As a sharpshooter, his primary targets in combat were Yankee officers, easily identifiable by the rank insignia on the shoulders of their dark blue uniforms.

Most of the sharpshooters in the Army of Northern Virginia carried the new British-made Whitworth Rifle, one of the world's first real sniper weapons, equipped with a long brass telescopic scope for long range targets. Shots from the Whitworth rifles, easily identifiable due to the shrill whistling noises their hexagonal bullets made in flight, flew all around the artillery battery, causing members of Sedgwick's staff and nearby artillerymen to duck for cover.

Union Major General John Sedgwick.
Photo courtesy of the U.S. Library of Congress.

In both a show to contempt for the Southern "rebels" and an attempt to boost the morale of his men, Sedgwick strode around in the open. He reportedly looked down at an artillery sergeant who ducked behind his cannon and, with a good-natured laugh, was quoted as saying what would probably become one of the best examples of cruel irony in the war, "What? Men dodging this way for single bullets? What will you do when they open fire along the whole line? I am ashamed of you! They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance!"

A second later came the shrill sound of a Whitworth bullet in flight, followed by the sickening sound of a bullet finding its mark and "Uncle John" Sedgwick fell forward with a bullet just under his left eye and never regained consciousness.

The death of General Sedgwick made him, along with Major Generals James Birdseye McPherson, Joseph K. Mansfield, and John F. Reynolds, among the highest-ranking Union officers to be killed in the war. Of the four men mentioned Sedgwick was the most senior in rank in terms of commission.

Although five different (surviving) Confederate sharpshooters were claimed to have been responsible for killing Sedgwick, it has never been officially confirmed who actually took the most famous shot ever fired from a Whitworth rifle during the war.

The death of John Sedgwick at the Battle of Spotsylvania,
Tuesday, May 9, 1864.
Artwork courtesy of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS).

Of all the candidates who likely took the shot, Private Thomas Burgess was the only one who didn't brag about his actions during the battle. If he did in fact fire the shot that ended Sedgwick's life, the reasons he would not talk about it probably fell under several possibilities.

The main one being that most Civil War combat was blind with soldiers in massed groups firing wildly through a smoke-covered battlefield never truly being sure if they actually hit their target. This was not always true, of course, but for the most part a soldier will fire in the general direction of a target but never get confirmation they actually hit another enemy soldier.

With snipers, particularly those armed with a rifle with a scope, they usually get to bear witness to the results of their actions all too well. Like many other Southern-born men in the 19th century, Burgess was fighting because he felt it was his duty, but likely regarded this method of warfare as murder, and the idea of bragging about killing another man simply sickened him.

Or it could have been he feared some sort of retaliation after the war. Being responsible for killing one of the highest ranking Union officers of the war might have made him famous among fellow Confederate Veterans, but might also earn him scrutiny from other quarters he would have rather avoided.

Or perhaps he simply didn't want to talk about it because the memories were haunting to him, as they are to many veterans of warfare. There are many former soldiers and service-persons who will never speak of what they saw or did in war, probably for very good reasons given what we know today of PTSD.

For whatever reason, if Thomas Burgess was in fact the man who fired the shot that fell the Yankee general, he kept that detail to himself till the day he died.

Thomas Burgess survived the war, formally surrendering along with 161 other surviving members of the 15th South Carolina Infantry on Wednesday, April 26, 1865 at Bennett Place near Greensboro, North Carolina. He would return home to Union County, South Carolina where he would later marry his wife, Rachael Ward Burgess and have three sons: James, Hughes, and Oscar.

Burgess died on Saturday, April 4, 1908 (aged 79 years) and is buried in the graveyard at Gilead Baptist Church in Jonesville, South Carolina.

The grave of Private Thomas S. Burgess, Confederate sharpshooter,
Co. F, 15th SC Infantry Regiment at Gilead Baptist Church in Jonesville, SC.
Photo taken by C.W. Roden.

Accounts Of The Surrender Of The Army Of Northern Virginia

On the afternoon of Sunday, April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia meets Union Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant at the home of Wilmer McLean in the village of Appomattox Court House. 

It was there in the parlor of the McLean home that Lee and Grant discussed terms for the surrender of the Confederate army. The terms provided by Grant were extremely generous ones, even allowing the officers to keep their personal sidearms and swords and the Confederate cavalry to keep their horses. The Union army would even provide food for the now starving Confederate army from captured Confederate supply trains. Grant even refused to take Lee's dress sword. He just wanted the whole sorry mess over with, as did his defeated but still dignified opponent. Lee signed the hastily written terms and both men shook hands. 

In the distance cannons could be heard firing still. Grant is informed that the men were firing them in celebration of the surrender. Grant orders that the cannons cease firing, feeling no desire to rejoice in the downfall of fellow Americans.

Lee would return to his soldiers and inform them of the surrender of the army. Some soldiers would desert and attempt to get to North Carolina and the Army of Tennessee still fighting against Sherman's forces. Others, who were just as tired of the war, of the death and destruction, wanted to return to the homes they'd been fighting to defend and resume their lives and learn if their families were safe. 

Three days later, on Wednesday, April 12th, exactly four years to the day that the first shots of the War Between The States took place in Charleston Harbor, Union General Joshua L. Chamberlain assembles the Union Fifth Corps along the main street of Appomattox Court House as part of the formal surrender ceremony. Around 12,000 men of the Army of Northern Virginia under Confederate General John B. Gordon march past their Union counterparts and stack their arms and furled battle flags. Chamberlain and the Union men reportedly saluted the passing Confederates, who saluted back. 

The following are two accounts of that moment written by General Chamberlain:

The Last Salute Of The Army Of Northern Virginia.
From the Boston Journal, May, 1901
Details of the Surrender of General Lee at Appomattox Courthouse, April 9th, 1865.
LENIENT TERMS OF GENERAL GRANT.

By General J. L. Chamberlain

"Having thus formed, the brigades standing at 'order arms,' the head of the Confederate column, General Gordon in command, and the old 'Stonewall' Jackson Brigade leading, started down into the valley which lay between us, and approached our lines. With my staff I was on the extreme right of the line, mounted on horseback, and in a position nearest the Rebel solders who were approaching our right.
"Ah, but it was a most impressive sight, a most striking picture, to see that whole army in motion to lay down the symbols of war and strife, that army which had fought for four terrible years after a fashion but infrequently known in war.
"At such a time and under such conditions I thought it eminently fitting to show some token of our feeling, and I therefore instructed my subordinate officers to come to the position of 'salute' in the manual of arms as each body of the Confederates passed before us.
"It was not a 'present arms,' however, not a 'present,' which then as now was the highest possible honor to be paid even to a president. It was the 'carry arms,' as it was then known, with musket held by the right hand and perpendicular to the shoulder. I may best describe it as a marching salute in review.
"When General Gordon came opposite me I had the bugle blown and the entire line came to 'attention,' preparatory to executing this movement of the manual successively and by regiments as Gordon's columns should pass before our front, each in turn.
"The General was riding in advance of his troops, his chin drooped to his breast, downhearted and dejected in appearance almost beyond description. At the sound of that machine like snap of arms, however, General Gordon started, caught in a moment its significance, and instantly assumed the finest attitude of a soldier. He wheeled his horse facing me, touching him gently with the spur, so that the animal slightly reared, and as he wheeled, horse and rider made one motion, the horse's head swung down with a graceful bow, and General Gordon dropped his swordpoint to his toe in salutation.
"By word of mouth General Gordon sent back orders to the rear that his own troops take the same position of the manual in the march past as did our line. That was done, and a truly imposing sight was the mutual salutation and farewell.
"At a distance of possibly twelve feet from our line, the Confederates halted and turned face towards us. Their lines were formed with the greatest care, with every officer in his appointed position, and thereupon began the formality of surrender.
"Bayonets were affixed to muskets, arms stacked, and cartridge boxes unslung and hung upon the stacks. Then, slowly and with a reluctance that was appealingly pathetic, the torn and tattered battleflags were either leaned against the stacks or laid upon the ground. The emotion of the conquered soldiery was really sad to witness. Some of the men who had carried and followed those ragged standards through the four long years of strife, rushed, regardless of all discipline, from the ranks, bent about their old flags, and pressed them to their lips with burning tears.
"And it can well be imagined, too, that there was no lack of emotion on our side, but the Union men were held steady in their lines, without the least show of demonstration by word or by motion. There was, though, a twitching of the muscles of their faces, and, be it said, their battle-bronzed cheeks were not altogether dry. Our men felt the import of the occasion, and realized fully how they would have been affected if defeat and surrender had been their lot after such a fearful struggle.
"Nearly an entire day was necessary for that vast parade to pass. About 27,000 stands of arms were laid down, with something like a hundred battleflags; cartridges were destroyed, and the arms loaded on cars and sent off to Wilmington.
"Every token of armed hostility was laid aside by the defeated men. No officer surrendered his side arms or horse, if private property, only Confederate property being required, according to the terms of surrender, dated April 9, 1865, and stating that all arms, artillery, and public property were to be packed and stacked and turned over to the officer duly appointed to receive them.
"And right here I wish to correct again that statement so often attributed to me, to the effect that I have said I received from the hands of General Lee on that day his sword. Only recently, at a banquet in Newtown, glass., of the Katahdin Club, composed of sons and daughters of my own beloved State, it was said in press dispatches that a letter had been read front me in which I made the claim that I had received Lee's sword. I never did make that claim even, as I never did receive that sword.
"As I have said, no Confederate officer was required or even asked to surrender his side arms if they were his personal property. As a matter of fact, General Lee never gave up his sword, although, if I am not mistaken, there was some conference between General Grant and some of the members of his staff upon that very subject just before the final surrender. I was not present at that conference, however, and only know of it by hearsay.
"But, as I was saying, every token of armed hostility having been laid aside, and the men having given their words of honor that they would never serve again against the flag, they were free to go whither they would and as best they could. In the meantime our army had been supplying them with rations. On the next morning, however, the morning of the 13th, we could see the men, singly or in squads, making their way slowly into the distance, in whichever direction was nearest home, and by nightfall we were left there at Appomattox Courthouse lonesome and alone."

Source: Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. XXXII, Richmond, Va., January - December. 1904.

From the book: The Passing of the Armies; An Account of the Final Campaign of the Army of the Potomac, Based Upon Personal Reminiscences of the Fifth Army Corps by Joshua L. Chamberlain (pp 260-261): 

The momentous meaning of this occasion impressed me deeply. I resolved to mark it by some token of recognition, which could be no other than a salute of arms. Well aware of the responsibility assumed, and of the criticisms that would follow, as the sequel proved, nothing of that kind could move me in the least. The act could be defended, if needful, by the suggestion that such a salute was not to the cause for which the flag of the Confederacy stood, but to its going down before the flag of the Union. My main reason, however, was one for which I sought no authority nor asked forgiveness. Before us in proud humiliation stood the embodiment of manhood: men whom neither toils and sufferings, nor the fact of death, nor disaster, nor hopelessness could bend from their resolve; standing before us now, thin, worn, and famished, but erect, and with eyes looking level into ours, waking memories that bound us together as no other bond; -was not such manhood to be welcomed back into a Union so tested and assured? Instructions had been given; and when the head of each division column comes opposite our group, our bugle sounds the signal and instantly our whole line from right to left, regiment by regiment in succession, gives the soldier's salutation, from the "order arms" to the old "carry" -the marching salute. Gordon at the head of the column, riding with heavy spirit and downcast face, catches the sound of shifting arms, looks up, and, taking the meaning, wheels superbly, making with himself and his horse one uplifted figure, with profound salutation as he drops the point of his sword to the boot toe; then facing to his own command, gives word for his successive brigades to pass us with the same position of the manual, - honor answering honor. On our part not a sound of trumpet more, nor roll of drum; not a cheer, nor word nor whisper of vain-glorying, nor motion of man standing again at the order, but an awed stillness rather, and breath-holding, as if it were the passing of the dead!

Source: Chamberlain, Joshua Lawrence (1915). The Passing of the Armies: An Account of the Final Campaign of the Army of the Potomac, Based upon Personal Reminiscences of the Fifth Army Corps. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-553-29992-1.   

"Many are the hearts that are weary tonight,

Wishing for the war to cease;

Many are the hearts looking for the right,

To see the dawn of peace."
~Tenting Tonight On The Old Campground (1863)

Stonewall Jackson's Way -- Poem

Happy Birthday General "Stonewall" Jackson.
(January 21, 1824 - May 10, 1863)

 

Stonewall Jackson's Way

By John W. Palmer

Come, stack arms, men! Pile on the rails,

Stir the camp-fire bright; 

No matter if the canteen fails, 

We'll make a roaring night.

Here Shenandoah brawls along,

There burley Blue Ridge echoes strong,

To swell the brigade's rousing song

Of "Stonewall Jackson's Way."

We see him now-the old slouched hat,

Cocked o'er his eye askew;

The shrewd, dry smile; the speech so pat, 

So calm, so blunt, so true.

The "Blue-Light Elder" knows 'em well:

Says he, "That's Banks-he's fond of shell;

Lord save his soul! we'll give him-" well,

That's "Stonewall Jackson's Way."

Silence! ground arms! kneel all! caps off! 

Old Blue-Light's going to pray.

Strangle the fool that dares to scoff!

Attention! it's his way. 

Appealing from his native sod,

In forma pauperis to God- 

"Lay bare thine arm, stretch forth thy rod!

Amen! That's "Stonewall's Way."

He's in the saddle now. Fall in!

Steady, the whole brigade!

Hill's at the ford, cut off-we'll win

His way out, ball and blade!

What matter if our shoes are worn?

What matter if our feet are torn?

"Quick-step! we're with him before dawn!"

That's "Stonewall Jackson's Way."

The sun's bright lances rout the mists

of morning, and, by George,

Here's Longstreet struggling in the lists,

Hemmed in an ugly gorge.

Pope and his Yankees, whipped before,

"Bay'nets and grape!" here Stonewall roar;

"Charge, Stuart! Pay off Ashby's score!"

Is "Stonewall Jackson's Way."

Ah, Maiden, wait and watch and yearn

For news of Stonewall's band!

Ah, Widow, read with eyes that burn

That ring upon thy hand. 

Ah, Wife, sew on, pray on, hope on!

Thy life shall not be all forlorn.

The foe had better ne'er been born

That gets in "Stonewall's Way." 

Written during the War Between the States in September of 1862 during the Sharpsburg Campaign by John Williamson Palmer (1825-1906) an American poet, physician and journalist. The original lyrics were alleged to have been found in the coat pocket of an anonymous Confederate sergeant killed at the First Battle of Winchester on May 25, 1862, and later rewritten by Palmer who later published the song.

Stonewall Jackson’s Way soon became a widely popular song around the campfires of the Army of Northern Virginia, and among the people of the Confederate States. 

This blog post is written in honor of the birthday and the memory of Lt. General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson CSA, Christian, soldier, father, husband, loyal Southerner and noble America.  

Deo vindice!