penetrate the lines established by Lee north of Richmond, he had
crossed the James River south of Richmond and had set up camp on
the outskirts of Petersburg. On June 15, 1864, Confederate General
Beauregard held the forces under Grant back for three days until
reenforcements under Lee arrived. Fighting continued between these
two groups until April of the following year. During this siege,
the Union forces decided to make a tunnel under the Confederate
defenses which surrounded the city of Petersburg and to blow up
the fortifications via a mine blast. Some Pennsylvania coal miners
in one Union regiment were assigned the task of making the tunnel
and laying the mine. On July 30, 1864 the mine was exploded, and
the shape of the area after the explosion resembled a huge crater
of a volcano. For this reason, this action is often referred to as
the Battle of the Crater. Two hundred Confederate soldiers lost
their lives due to the explosion. However, as the Union soldiers
were ordered to charge up the sides of the recently carved crater,
they found them too steep and while they were struggling to get out
of the crater, about 4,000 Unionists lost their lives. The Union
men could not see from behind the lines and continued to advance
according to their orders into the crater until the crater was
practically filled with struggling Union soldiers. The remaining
Unionists were driven at the point of bayonets out of the crater
back to their own lines.
While the Petersburg siege was taking place, Lynchburg became
the next objective of the Union forces. When General Jubal Early
reached Charlottesville on his mission to block Union General
Hunter, he learned that Hunter was heading for Lynchburg, the
chief center of supplies of the Army of Northern Virginia and its
center of communications. Early's forces in this battle consisted
of two extremes in age: very young men cadets from the Virginia
Military Institute and older men whose hair locks were so white
that they were nicknamed "Silver grays." The fighting lasted from
the afternoon of the 17th to the end of the next day when Hunter
withdrew unexpectedly to the west. Early pursued him down the
Shenandoah Valley and across the Potomac River to the outskirts of
the Federal capital. Since Early, however, was not prepared for a
fight on Washington, D. C., he returned to Winchester.
At approximately noon, on September 19, 1864, General Early
survived a surprise attack by General Sheridan and his forces near
Winchester. Early, in a victorious mood, even turned the tables
on the attackers and attacked them. Much to his surprise at three
o'clock of the same day, Sheridan returned and badly defeated Early,
driving him back to Winchester and eventually to a retreat up the
Shenandoah Valley. Sheridan, whose forces had been savagely attacked
by some Confederate guerilla bands, now retaliated by destroying
houses, barns and foodstuffs and by capturing or killing livestock.
The valley was completely devastated by his destructive campaign.
One month later, however, Early made a surprise crossing of a branch
of the Shenandoah River and drove the forces of Sheridan northward
from Cedar Creek in Frederick County. As Sheridan and his forces
were fleeing, Union reenforcements arrived under the leadership of
General Horatio Wright. The combined forces of Sheridan and Wright
attacked the troops of Early and drove them from the area in great
chaos. This victory was the shortest victory in the War between the
States.
During the war, several attempts had been made by the Union
forces in the Shenandoah Valley to capture and destroy the Salt
Works at Saltville, located in southwestern Virginia. In 1864,
the Confederate General John H. Morgan with a small cavalry
force successfully repulsed a Union force under General William
Averell. On December 18, 1864, however, the salt mines and the
Salt Works were destroyed by a small detachment of Union forces
who were ordered to Saltville while the Confederates were engaged
in severe fighting with the major Union troops at nearby Marion.
The destruction of the Salt Works was significant because this
location had furnished the principal source of salt supply for the
Confederacy.
In spite of the many Unionist casualties at the Crater in 1864,
Grant continued to keep his army near Petersburg. Finally, both
sides made their camp there for the winter. General William Mahone
was the Confederate general in charge of the Petersburg defense at
this time. While the winter passed, the Union forces kept receiving
enforcements while the Confederate forces had no reenforcements. As
the Union forces were increased over a large area, the Confederates
were forced to station their meager forces farther apart. There
was a scarcity of food and clothing for the Confederates; the cold
climate was most uncomfortable and demoralizing for them. On April
2, General Grant succeeded in breaking through the Confederate
lines. Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, was informed
while attending services at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond
that Petersburg could be held no longer by the Confederate forces.
The Virginians knew that, if and when Petersburg fell, Richmond
would fall next because Petersburg was the key to Richmond. The
next day, April 3, Richmond fell. As General Richard S. Ewell and
his Confederate troops evacuated the city, they burned bridges and
large tobacco and cotton warehouses to prevent the Union forces from
receiving beneficial goods. However, a surprising wind spread the
flames rapidly and resulted in approximately thirty million dollars
worth of damage to the City of Richmond.
Three days later, the final battle of the Army of Northern Virginia
occurred at Sailor's Creek near Farmville. The rearguard of Lee's
Army on the way to Lynchburg was completely surrounded and attacked
by Unionists. The Confederates lacked equipment, especially cannon,
and were quickly overpowered by artillery fire. In the mass
surrender which resulted, two generals were captured: R. S. Ewell
and Custis Lee, son of General Robert E. Lee.
While the rearguard of Lee's army was retreating toward Lynchburg,
the rest of his army was retreating from Petersburg. On April 8,
1865, two Confederate corps consisting of starved, poorly equipped
soldiers under General John B. Gordon and General James Longstreet
arrived at a village called Appomattox Court House. When General
Lee arrived, he noticed that his men were actually surrounded and
far outnumbered by General Grant's Army of the Potomac. He had been
corresponding with Grant concerning a surrender ever since the fall
of Petersburg. Lee, realizing the futility of the comparatively
small group of poorly equipped troops which he now commanded against
Grant's large army, asked for an official meeting at Appomattox
Court House. The meeting took place at noon on April 9, 1865, on
Palm Sunday in the parlor of Wilmer McLean's House. General Lee and
Colonel Charles Marshall, one of Lee's staff members and a most
distinguished officer, represented the Army of Northern Virginia
at the meeting while General Grant and fourteen federal officers
including General George A. Custer and Major General Philip H.
Sheridan constituted the remaining membership of the famous meeting.
The contrasting appearance of the two leaders was very noticeable:
Grant, the victor, appeared straight from the battlefield in a
dusty, fatigue uniform of a private without side arms and Lee,
the vanquished, appeared in a new dress uniform of a Confederate
general--the only one he owned after his personal effects had been
burned in a wagon raid during an earlier retreat. Although the
two leaders had had only casual meetings in their earlier years,
their previous acquaintance seemed to lighten the tenseness of
the situation. After an exchange of formal greetings and general
conversation, the talks gradually shifted to a discussion of peace
terms of surrender.
The terms have been described as most fair and generous and they
included the following: parole was given to the Confederate officers
and soldiers with the understanding that they were not to take
up arms against the United States during the period of exchange,
military weapons were to be relinquished to Union military officers
with the exception of the side-arms belonging to the Confederate
officers and baggage and privately-owned animals were to be kept
for the spring plowing. Thus, after four years of brave fighting,
General Robert E. Lee, in the name of the Army of Northern
Virginia, graciously accepted with dignity the surrender terms of
General Ulysses S. Grant and stated that the terms "will do much
toward the conciliation of our people." General Grant then proceeded
to furnish food for the starving Confederate forces. The formal
surrender took place the next day. When the Union forces began to
cheer during the surrendering of Confederate arms, Grant immediately
ordered the cheers to cease with the remark: "The war is over; the
rebels are our countrymen again." Thus, Virginia, where the first
blood of the War between the States was shed, was also the scene
where the final negotiations for the conclusion of the war were made.
From April 3 to April 10, 1865, Danville was the capital of the
Confederacy. As the evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond took
place, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, and his
cabinet moved to Danville. The present Danville Public Library
occupies the building known as the Confederate Memorial Mansion
where Jefferson Davis held his last cabinet meeting, making Danville
the Confederate capital for a few days. At the time of the meeting,
this beautiful building was the home of Major W. T. Sutherlin.
Governor William Smith of Virginia also evacuated from Richmond to
Lynchburg where the state archives had been sent earlier.
After the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, Jefferson
Davis and his cabinet fled to Greensboro, North Carolina, and
eventually, to Washington, Georgia, where they finally dispersed.
Davis was later confined for two years at Fort Monroe, Old Point
Comfort, Virginia, from May 10, 1865 to May 15, 1867. He was finally
released on bail furnished surprisingly by Horace Greeley and other
individuals who had strongly opposed Davis and his Confederate ideas
a few years previously.
All the remaining Confederate troops had surrendered by the first
week of June, and the War between the States had ended. Since a
majority of the battles had been fought in Virginia, tremendous
damage had been inflicted upon Virginia during the war. The state
had been a constant battleground. Virginia troops, however, had
distinguished themselves in their excellent fighting tactics,
and the most brilliant military leaders of the Confederacy were
Virginia-born.
Not only from a military viewpoint had the Confederacy welcomed
the addition of Virginia within its membership, but also from an
economic viewpoint. War munitions had been manufactured in huge
quantities for the Confederate forces by the Tredegar Iron Works
of Richmond. Richmond was also the home of the country's largest
flour mills at that time. Because of its plentiful farm products,
particularly wheat and corn, the Shenandoah Valley was called the
"Granary of the Confederacy."
Even in defeat, the courageous spirit of the Virginians continued.
The rôle of women in Virginia as well as in the entire South cannot
be overemphasized. They had suffered physically, emotionally and
economically during the war. They made military uniforms by hand,
stood by helplessly as their homes and, often, life fortunes were
burned to the ground, experienced certain types of deprivation
such as a lack of proper food (particularly sugar, salt and meat),
clothing, shelter and medicinal needs and performed numerous
physical household tasks previously done by the Negro slaves
although many of these women were unaccustomed to such hard labor.
Individual examples of bravery and courage, far too numerous to
mention, were common throughout the entire war. A most unusual
contribution of the women was their continuous experimentation
in the discovery of food substitutes: the use of blackberry and
sassafras leaves for tea; parched wheat, rye and corn for coffee
beans; sea water for salt; and corncob ashes for cooking soda. A
lack of processed candles and kerosene oil left only grease and wax
to be utilized for making handmade candles. Wood was frequently
substituted for leather and seeds for buttons. Formal education, of
necessity, was almost non-existent; with a few exceptions, like the
Virginia Military Institute, education became solely one of family
training.
An incident of special interest was the activity of Sally Tompkins
of Gloucester who was eventually commissioned by President Jefferson
Davis as a Captain in the Confederate Army. She had charge of
Robertson Hospital located in Richmond after she had previously
used her own money and efforts to get this hospital established
because of the urgent need for a hospital in the Richmond area.
She influenced Judge Robertson to lend his house as a hospital
headquarters. Later, after the government of the Confederacy assumed
control of all the hospitals in the Confederacy, President Davis
appointed an army officer as a director for each one. Recognizing
the conscientious efforts of Sally Tompkins in establishing this
hospital at Richmond, President Davis commissioned her as Captain,
the only woman to be commissioned by the Confederate government.
At the end of the war, Virginia was in a devastated condition:
private property as well as public property had in many cases been
completely destroyed by fire or by ammunition. Practically all the
livestock had been carried away. Family members had been decreased
in number, and disease and starvation conditions were common
throughout the state. Politically, economically, geographically,
historically and socially, the South had been affected: Virginia, in
the heart of the most severe battleground area, seemed to base its
existence for the future upon the "survival of the fittest" theory.
_The Reconstruction Period and Its Aftermath_
Returning Virginia soldiers found some houses completely destroyed
and large sections of land completely laid to waste. With little, if
any, livestock left and with farm tools missing, the serious problem
of reconstruction and rehabilitation can be easily understood.
Railroad tracks and bridges had been demolished; transportation
facilities in some areas were almost non-existent. Even fences, so
important to livestock raising, had been entirely demolished in most
instances. So hopeless did a recovery appear to many Virginians that
a few men proposed migration to Mexico rather than to start anew
with such poor living conditions.
General Robert E. Lee still showed his leadership qualities when
he beseeched several Virginians, including Matthew Fontaine Maury,
the brilliant marine cartographer, not to abandon Virginia when the
state needed all her sons so badly. Maury was so impressed by the
plea of Robert E. Lee that he rejected offers of employment from
foreign countries which were familiar with his broad, oceanographic
knowledge. Instead, he accepted the chairmanship of the Meteorology
Department of the Virginia Military Institute. Robert E. Lee,
himself, had been offered various employment opportunities but the
honor which he deemed the highest of all was the position offered to
him as President of Washington College at Lexington. Lee's financial
gain from this position was to be a sum of $1500 per year plus a
house and a garden. He humbly accepted the position and was allowed
to keep his faithful horse, "Traveler," with him in a stable built
adjacent to the President's house. From September 1865 until October
1870, Robert E. Lee served as President of Washington College.
Lee had two objectives which he hoped personally to achieve: (1) the
lessening of the hatred which then existed between the North and the
South so that all Americans might work together in unity for peace
and progress, and (2) the education of youth in such a manner as to
make them capable of living as successful citizens of the United
States. With his deep idealism, Lee was also a practical man. When
he recognized the interest of many young men in writing, editing
and publishing newspapers, he included a course in journalism at
Washington College. This was the first college journalism class
offered in the United States. He was also responsible for the
origin of the honor system whereby a student is on his personal
honor to refrain from cheating and is also honor-bound to report
any individual seen violating such code; this system is now used in
numerous institutions of learning. Many of the current attributes
of this college are traceable to the administration of Robert E.
Lee. In 1871, the name of the college was changed to Washington
and Lee University in honor of two Virginians who made numerous
contributions to American culture.
After the war had ended, a most unusual situation existed in
Virginia. The "Restored Government" under Governor Francis Harrison
Pierpont claimed to be the official government of Virginia although
he and his cohorts were responsible for dividing the State of
Virginia and actually had set up an illegal Unionist Virginia
government at Wheeling. President Lincoln, however, had at one time
stated that "The government that took Virginia out of the Union is
the government that should bring her back." He suggested that the
present Governor of Virginia at that time, William Smith, should be
present to ratify such procedure. However, U. S. Secretary of War
Edwin Stanton persuaded Lincoln to withdraw this offer. Lincoln's
untimely death on April 14, 1865, when he was assassinated by John
Wilkes Booth at the Ford Theater in Washington, was a real blow to
the South in general because he was much more conciliatory toward
the South than the majority members of the Congress who were radical
about their military victory over the South. It is interesting to
note that, fifteen days later, John Wilkes Booth was shot to death
in a burning barn on the Garrett Farm near Port Royal, Virginia.
On May 9, 1865, President Andrew Johnson officially recognized
the "Restored Government" of Virginia, which had relocated in
Alexandria, and also recognized Pierpont as the Provisional Governor.
On June 15, 1865, a Freedman's Bureau headed by General Orlando
Brown was established in Virginia. The Bureau was supported by the
United States Government and had charge of the interests, aid,
protection and guidance of the Negroes. This bureau distributed
food rations and clothing to the Negroes and provided educational
opportunities for them. Originally founded to help newly freed
Negroes, the Freedmen's Bureau soon became overshadowed with
political activities and severe radicalism with strong racial
prejudices resulted.
From June 19 to June 23, 1865, Governor Pierpont had changed
his headquarters from Alexandria to Richmond and his "General
Assembly" of twelve representatives held meetings there. They
endorsed Lincoln's plan of reconstruction and were rejoicing at
the comparatively easy way in which Virginia was going to be
restored to the Union. In the meantime, the radical Congress in
Washington believed that the Confederate States had left the Union
voluntarily and should not be allowed to return until they had
fulfilled specific conditions. When the State of Virginia sent her
officially-elected representatives to Congress, they were refused
admission. Nevertheless, Congress did allow the Virginia General
Assembly to meet in regular session, and one of the measures passed
by this group consisted of a formal appeal to West Virginia to
reunite with the original State of Virginia.
On March 2, 1867, Congress under the Reconstruction Act of 1867,
divided the ex-Confederate states (with the exception of Tennessee
which had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment providing citizenship
for the Negroes) into five military districts, each of which was
under the command of a Major-General of the United States Army.
Later, on March 23, the Commonwealth of Virginia became Military
District No. 1, and General John M. Schofield became the first
military Governor of District No. 1 in 1867. Since Pierpont had been
reelected Governor of Virginia in 1864 for a four-year term, he
was accepted as the civilian Governor by the radical Congress, but
subject to the authority of the military commander.
On December 3, 1867, a convention was held in Richmond for the
purpose of writing a state constitution which would be accepted
by the Federal Congress. A large majority of the representatives
attending were radicals. Membership included twenty-five Negroes,
individuals of foreign birth who had drifted into the State of
Virginia after the War between the States, many northerners who had
come South to enter politics and a few eligible white men who had
changed to Republicanism. White men of the South who had held high
public office before the War between the States and those who had
helped or participated in the Confederacy in any way were barred
from voting or taking part in the Constitutional Convention. Since
the chairman or president of this convention was Federal Judge
John C. Underwood, the convention is sometimes referred to as the
Underwood Convention. The measures passed by these members were so
radical that even General Schofield himself appeared personally
before the convention and pleaded with the members to repeal a
clause, drafted by the convention delegates, which disfranchised
approximately 95% of the male white population of Virginia and
disqualified them from holding office and from serving on juries.
His plea, however, was ignored.
At this time, a Committee of Nine Virginians was formed at the
suggestion of Alexander H. Stuart. The chief objectives of this
committee were to observe political developments in Virginia and to
determine the appropriate time to report to Washington on the state
of events in order to obtain a more favorable method for Virginia
to re-enter the Union. They bluntly stated that the Virginians
were definitely opposed to full Negro suffrage and declared that
many states other than the southern states, such as Kansas, Ohio,
Minnesota, Michigan and Connecticut, had refused to enfranchise the
Negro.
General Schofield prevented the planned election of the Underwood
Convention from taking place in June by refusing to appropriate
money for election expenses. Such postponement gave the Committee
of Nine an opportunity to obtain public opinion backing before
the Senate voted for the Underwood Constitution. The House of
Representatives had already voted in favor of it immediately before
the Christmas recess occurred. A representative of the Committee
of Nine stated before Congress that the Committee advocated the
acceptance of full Negro suffrage as inevitable in order that
constitutional representative government might be restored at once.
Chairman Stuart had already successfully achieved the support of the
Boston "Advertiser," the Chicago "Tribune," the New York "Times"
and the New York "Tribune." President Grant, who had succeeded
President Johnson, suggested that, when the election took place in
Virginia, the Underwood Constitution be voted upon first and then
the test oath. As a result of the test oath, only individuals who
had never taken arms against the Union and had never given aid or
comfort to the Confederacy would be eligible to vote or to hold
office. Likewise, it was suggested that the extension of the white
disfranchisement be voted separately. When the election took place
on July 6, 1869, the Underwood Constitution was adopted, but the two
separate items mentioned above were defeated.
Gilbert C. Walker, a conservative Republican from New York and
Pennsylvania, was appointed on September 21, 1869 as Governor of
Virginia by General Canby, a successor of General Schofield. On
October 8, 1869 the newly-elected General Assembly ratified the
Fourteenth Amendment--"All persons born or naturalized in the United
States are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein
they reside ..." and the Fifteenth Amendment--"The right of citizens
of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the
United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous
condition of servitude." Congress then approved the new state
constitution, and Virginia was officially re-admitted into the Union
on January 26, 1870.