Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
Part Two
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Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
Background Information
I.
Author
II.
Fort Sumter
III. The Battle of Gettysburg
IV.
Chickamauga Campaign
V.
Appomattox
VI.
Richmond
VII. The Mexican War
VIII.Palm Sunday
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Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
I.
Author
William Zinsser (1922- ), faculty of Graduate
School of Journalism, Columbia University, is a
former newspaper reporter, prolific magazine
writer, editor, teacher and renowned writing
coach. His fifteen books include the classic On
Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing
Nonfiction (now in its 25th anniversary edition),
as well as Writing to Learn, How to Write a
Memoir, Speaking of Journalism, Writing About
Your Life: A Journey to the Past and Inventing
the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir.
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To be continued on the next page.
Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
I.
Author
Quotations on Writing
Writing is thinking on paper.
Writing is a craft not an art.
Examine every word you put on paper. You'll find a
surprising number that don't serve any purpose.
Keep your paragraphs short. Writing is visual—it
catches the eyes before it has a chance to catch the
brain.
Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a
society strangling in unnecessary words, circular
constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon.
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The end of Author.
Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
II.
Fort Sumter
America's most tragic conflict ignited at Fort Sumter
on April 12, 1861, when a chain reaction of social, economic
and political events exploded into the Civil War. At the heart
of these events was the issue of states rights versus federal
authority flowing over the underlying issue of slavery.
Fueled by decades of disagreement and confrontation,
South Carolina seceded in protest of Lincoln's election and
the social and economic changes sure to follow. With Fort
Sumter as an unyielding bastion of Federal authority, the
war became inevitable.
A powerful symbol to both the South and the North,
Fort Sumter remains a memorial to all that fought to hold it.
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The end of Fort Sumter.
Fort Sumter
Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
III.
The Battle of Gettysburg
On the gently rolling farmlands surrounding the little town
of Gettysburg, Pa., was fought one of the great decisive
battles of American history. For 3 days, from July 1 to 3,
1863, a gigantic struggle between 75,000 Confederates and
97,000 Union troops raged about the town and left 51,000
casualties in its wake. Heroic deeds were numerous on both
sides, climaxed by the famed Confederate assault on July 3
which has become known throughout the world as Pickett's
Charge. The Union Victory gained on these fields ended the
last Confederate invasion of the North and marked the
beginning of a gradual decline in Southern military power.
Here also, a few months after the battle, Abraham Lincoln
delivered his classic Gettysburg Address at the dedication of
the national cemetery set apart as a burial ground for the
soldiers who died in the conflict.
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The end of The Battle of Gettysburg.
"The Battle of
Gettysburg" (Pickett's
Charge), Peter F.
Rothermel.
Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
IV.
Chickamauga Campaign
In and around strategically important Chattanooga,
Tenn in the autumn of 1863, there occurred some of the
most complex maneuvers and hard fighting of the Civil
War. The Confederate victory at Chickamauga
(September 19—20) gave new hope to the South after
the defeats at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in July of that
year.
Location: Catoosa County and Walker County
Date(s): September 18—20, 1863
Forces Engaged: The Army of the Cumberland (US); Army of
Tennessee (CS)
Estimated Casualties: 34,624 total (US 16,170; CS 18,454)
Result(s): Confederate victory
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The end of Chickamauga Campaign.
Chickamauga Battlefield
Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
V.
Appomattox
• Petersburg
• Sayler’s Creek
• Appomattox Court House
• Clover Hill Tavern
• McLean’s House
• Joshua L. Chamberlain
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Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
V.
Appomattox
Petersburg, Virginia, became the
setting for the longest siege in American
history when General Ulysses S. Grant
failed to capture Richmond in the spring
of 1864. Grant settled in to subdue the
Confederacy by surrounding Petersburg
and cutting off General Robert E. Lee's
supply lines into Petersburg and
Richmond. On April 2, 1865, nine-andone-half months after the siege began,
Lee evacuated Petersburg.
A battle demonstration
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The end of Petersburg.
Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
V.
Appomattox
Look out over the Battlefield of Sayler's
Creek, the last major engagement between
the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army
of the Potomac. Before the sunset on April 6,
Confederate
defensive line at
Sayler's Creek
1865, Lee had lost nearly a fourth of his army,
over 8,000 captured.
As Lee approached the battlefield, he was
met by hundreds of disorganized Confederate
soldiers, many without weapons, streaming
to the rear. "My God!" he said, "Has the army
been dissolved?"
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The end of Sayler’s Creek.
Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
V.
Appomattox
Appomattox Court
House
reconstructed
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On April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee, commanding
general of the Army of Northern Virginia,
surrendered his men to Ulysses S. Grant,
general-in-chief of all United States forces.
Though several Confederate armies under
different commanders remained in the field,
Lee's surrender signaled the end of the
Southern States' attempt to create a separate
nation. Here at Appomattox Court House is
where the nation reunited. Three days later the
men of the Army of Northern Virginia marched
before the Union Army, laid down their flags,
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Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
V.
Appomattox
stacked their weapons, and then began the
journey back to their homes. Originally the
village of Appomattox Court House was
known at Clover Hill. It was a stopping-off point
on the main Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road.
Appomattox Court
House
original
In 1845 when the county of Appomattox was
formed Clover Hill was chosen as the county
seat and the town was renamed Appomattox
Court House. In 1863 Wilmer McLean and his
family left their Manassas, VA home for
business purposes and moved to Appomattox
Court House.
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The end of Appomattox Court House.
Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
V.
Appomattox
Clover Hill Tavern
Clover Hill Tavern
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BUILT: 1819
RESTORED: 1954
Description: 2 stories with full attic, 39'x23'. 4bays with a full-length porch on South elevation.
The porch is supported on brick foundation
piers. Served travelers & stage line on the
Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road. After Lee's
surrender, paroles for Confederates were
printed in the downstairs rooms. Bar & dining
room additions once flanked the tavern.
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The end of Clover Hill Tavern.
Parole signed April 9,
1865 by Robert E. Lee
and his staff,
Library of Congress
Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
V.
Appomattox
The McLean home in the village of
Appomattox Court House, Virginia was
used on April 9th, 1865 for the surrender
meeting between General Robert E. Lee,
McLean house
C.S.A. and Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant,
U.S.A. It was the only one with a parlor
large enough to hold the meetings.
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Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
V.
Appomattox
Wilmer McLean's house
was also used on April 10th
for the Surrender
Commissioners meeting, and
over the next few days as the
McLean’s house
Headquarters of Major
General John Gibbon, U.S.A.
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The end of McLean’s house.
Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
V.
Appomattox
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was born
Sept. 8, 1828, in Brewer, Maine.
He worked on his father's farm and had some
experience of teaching school.
Entering Bowdoin College in Brunswick in 1848,
Chamberlain studied the traditional classical
curriculum and showed particular skill at languages.
At First Parish Church, he met Fannie Adams, the
adopted daughter of the minister; they were to
marry in 1855.
Turning down the opportunity to become a minister
or missionary, he accepted a position at Bowdoin
teaching rhetoric and modern languages.
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Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
V.
Appomattox
When the sectional crisis led to the Civil War in 1861,
Chamberlain felt a strong urge to fight to save the
union. Offered a year's travel with pay in Europe in
1862 to study languages, he instead volunteered his
military services to Maine's governor. He was soon
made lieutenant colonel of the 20th Maine Volunteer
Infantry Regiment.
From Antietam in 1862 to the triumphal grand
review of the armies in May of 1865, Chamberlain
saw much of the war in the East, including 24 battles
and numerous skirmishes. He was wounded six
times—once, almost fatally—and had six horses shot
from under him.
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Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
V.
Appomattox
He is best remembered for two great events: the
action at Little Round Top, on the second day of
Gettysburg (July 2, 1863), when then-Colonel
Chamberlain and the 20th Maine held the
extreme left flank of the Union line against a
fierce rebel attack, and the surrender of Lee's
Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox, when
Grant chose Chamberlain to receive the formal
surrender of weapons and colors (April 12, 1865).
Always a chivalrous man, Chamberlain had his
men salute the defeated Confederates as they
marched by, evidence of his admiration of their
valor and of Grant's wish to encourage the rebel
armies still in the field to accept the peace.
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Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
V.
Appomattox
Chamberlain returned briefly to his academic
duties at Bowdoin, but was soon elected as a
popular war hero to four terms as governor of
Maine—helping establish a century of domination
of Maine politics by the Republican Party.
Throughout the 1870s and 1880s, he continued
to write, teach, lecture, and participate actively in
the G.A.R. and other veterans' groups.
In 1900 Chamberlain was appointed Surveyor of
the Port of Portland, where he lived until his
death in 1914 at age 85.
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The end of Chamberlain.
Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
VI. Richmond
When the Civil War broke out Richmond was named
the capital of the Confederacy, despite the fact that
Virginia had voted two-to-one against secession
from the Union just a month before. The massive
Tredegar Iron Works, now a dedicated visitor
center-cum-museum, became the main engine of
the Confederate war machine. For four years the
city was the focus of Southern defenses and Union
attacks, but despite an almost constant state of
siege—General McClellan came within six miles as
early as 1862, and General Grant steamrolled
remorselessly towards it through the last months of
the war—it held on until the very end. It was less
than a week after the fall of Richmond, on April 3,
1865, that General Lee surrendered to General
Grant at Appomattox, a hundred miles west.
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Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
VI.
Ruins of Richmond,
National Archives
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Richmond
After the war, Richmond was devastated. Much of its
downtown was burned, allegedly by fleeing
Confederates who wanted to keep its stores of
weapons, and its warehouses full of tobacco, out of
the victors' hands. Rebuilding, however, was quick,
and the city's economy has remained among the
strongest in the South. Today's Richmond is a
remarkably elegant city, with an extensive inventory
of architecturally significant older buildings alongside
its modern office towers. Tobacco is still a major
industry—machine-rolled cigarettes were invented
here in the 1870s, and Marlboro-maker Phillip Morris
runs a huge manufacturing plant just south of
downtown. Richmond is also a leading banking
center.
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The end of Richmond.
Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
VII.
The Mexican War
The Mexican War (1846—1848) between the
United States and Mexico began with a Mexican
attack on American troops along the southern
border of Texas on Apr. 25, 1846. Fighting ended
when U.S. Gen. Winfield Scott occupied Mexico
City on Sept. 14, 1847; a few months later a
peace treaty was signed (Feb. 2, 1848) at
Guadalupe Hidalgo. In addition to recognizing the
U.S. annexation of Texas defeated Mexico ceded
California and, New Mexico (including all the
present-day states of the Southwest) to the
United States.
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The end of the Mexican War.
General Scott’s
entrance into Mexico
City
Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
VIII. Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday occurs on the Sunday before Easter Sunday
in the Western Christian liturgical calendar. It signals the
upcoming end of Lent and the beginning of Holy Week. The
day commemorates the spreading of palms and clothing in
Jesus' path as He entered Jerusalem prior to His crucifixion:
They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and
Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while
others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that
went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of
David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the
highest!" (Matthew 21:7-9)
Many churches re-enact Jesus' return to Jerusalem with a
processional in which participants wave palm branches.
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The end of Palm Sunday.
Lesson 14 – Mercy at Appomattox
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