Grant pursued him with such energy that he
did not even allow himself the pleasure of entering the captured
rebel capital. The chase continued six days. On the evening of
April 8 the Union army succeeded in planting itself squarely
across Lee's line of retreat; and the marching and fighting of
his army were over for ever. On the next morning the two generals
met in a house on the edge of the village of Appomattox,
Virginia, Lee resplendent in a new uniform and handsome sword,
Grant in the travel-stained garments in which he had made the
campaign--the blouse of a private soldier, with the
shoulderstraps of a Lieutenant-General. Here the surrender took
place. Grant, as courteous in victory as he was energetic in war,
offered Lee terms that were liberal in the extreme; and on
learning that the Confederate soldiers were actually suffering
with hunger, ordered that rations be issued to them at once.
Fire and destruction attended the flight of the Confederates from
Richmond. Jefferson Davis and his cabinet, carrying with them
their more important state papers, left the doomed city on one of
the crowded and overloaded railroad trains on the night of April
2, beginning a southward flight that ended only with Mr. Davis's
capture about a month later. The legislature of Virginia and the
governor of the State departed hurriedly on a canal-boat in the
direction of Lynchburg, while every possible carriage or vehicle
was pressed into service by the inhabitants, all frantic to get
away before their city was "desecrated" by the presence of the
Yankees.
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