Item #3715 Villager Extra. Glorious News!! Lee and His Army Surrendered!!! Terms of Capitulation. The End of the War at Hand.
Villager Extra. Glorious News!! Lee and His Army Surrendered!!! Terms of Capitulation. The End of the War at Hand.
Villager Extra. Glorious News!! Lee and His Army Surrendered!!! Terms of Capitulation. The End of the War at Hand.

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Villager Extra. Glorious News!! Lee and His Army Surrendered!!! Terms of Capitulation. The End of the War at Hand.

[Amesbury, Mass., Currier & Gerrish, 1865]. Broadside, 18” x 4.75” plus margins; title above text in two columns divided by single rule.

A unrecorded broadside announcing the surrender of the Confederate army in April of 1865, printing the text of General Grant’s dispatch to the Secretary of War announcing the surrender, and the related exchange of letters between Generals Grant and Lee, dated April 7th through April 9th, that led up to formal surrender.

The order of the correspondence is altered for dramatic effect and to get right to the heart of the matter, beginning with Lee’s letter requesting an interview “in accordance with the offer contained in your letter of yesterday.” Grant replies that he is, at the moment, “about four miles west of Walter’s church, and will push forward to the front for the purpose of meeting” Lee. This is followed by another letter from Grant, written at Appomattox Court House, proposing terms of surrender:

Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate, one copy to be given to an officer designated by me, the other to be retained by such officers as you may designate; officers to give their individual parole, not to take up arms against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged and each company or regimental commander signs a like parole for the men of their commands. The artillery and public property to be paraded and stacked and turned over to the officer appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side arms of the officers nor their private horses or baggage. This done each officer and man will be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by the United States authorities so long as they observe the parole, and the laws in force where they may reside.

The correspondence preceding these climactic letters follows, including Grant’s initial letter of April 7th and Lee’s reply:

Gen. R. E. Lee, Commander C. S. Army—April 7, 1865: General–The result of last week must convince you of the hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the army of Northern Virginia in this struggle. I feel that it is so, and regard it as my duty to shift from myself the responsibility for any further effusion of blood, by asking of you the surrender of that portion of the Confederate States Army known as the Army of Northern Virginia. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, U. S. Grant, Lieut. Gen.

April 7, 1865. General—I have received your note of this date. Though not entirely of the opinion you express of the hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the army of Northern Virginia, I reciprocate your desire to avoid useless effusion of blood.—Therefore before considering your proposition I ask the terms you will offer on condition of surrender. R. E. Lee, General.

The only newspaper of the Civil War era entitled the Villager that we have been able to identify was published by Currier & Gerrish in Amesbury, Mass. This unrecorded broadside was almost certainly published by them, as it was recently acquired in that region. Not in OCLC.

CONDITION: Good, old folds, a few old pencil notes, minor stains, creases and tears.

Item #3715

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