to General Lee to the effect that he had no authority to treat for peace and the proposed meeting could therefore do no good. He added that the terms on which peace could be obtained were well understood, that the South must lay down its arms, and by so doing would save thousands of human lives and hundreds of millions of property not yet destroyed.
Immediately after the stoppage of the last charge of the Army of Northern Virginia in the manner previously described, General Grant rode to Sheridan's head-quarters, and while on his way there received a note from General Lee, asking for an interview with reference to the surrender of the army. Hostilities had been suspended, and the interview of the two commanders took place in half an hour after the receipt of the note. It was held at the house of Mr. W. McLean, near the court-house of Appomattox, and was over in a short time, as the business was easily arranged. Officers and men were paroled not to take up arms again until properly exchanged, all public property, arms, and artillery to be parked and stacked, and turned over to the officers appointed to receive them. The officers were allowed to retain their side arms, horses, and personal baggage, and though not mentioned in the official documents, General Grant afterwards permitted the cavalry soldiers to retain their horses, remarking as a reason for his leniency, that they would "be useful in putting in a crop." Twenty-seven thousand men were said to have been included in Lee's capitulation but not more than 10,000 were actually in line of battle with their arms on the morning of the 9th April.
The victory of Five Forks was the prelude to the surrender at Appomattox, and that surrender was practically the end of the war. One after another the remaining armies of the Confederates submitted to the fortune of war and laid down their arms, and in every instance the terms accorded were almost identical with those arranged between
