Surrender of the Artillery

Along the stage road and in the field before you, the artillery of the Army of Northern Virginia was surrendered. In all, 61 cannons with limbers and 13 caissons, one-fifth of the number Lee began the retreat with, were surrendered. A total of 2,576 artillerymen were paroled. Confederate General E. P. Alexander recalled arranging all the guns on the road early on Tuesday morning, forming more than half a mile of column, and leaving them to the Federals amid dead horses and what he called a pitiable sight. A Federal soldier saw the remnants of 15 or 16 batteries, often with too few caissons and ammunition sometimes carried in gun-limbers, and observed that not a third of the artillery the Confederates had when they left their trenches was surrendered at Appomattox because the rest had been captured, destroyed, or abandoned in the fighting from Gravelly Run to Appomattox. Brigadier General Pendleton, chief of artillery for the Army of Northern Virginia, reported beginning the Appomattox Campaign with 250 cannons. Of the 180 Lee had at his disposal on the morning of April 8, 1865, 15 were abandoned to the pursuing Army of the Potomac, 25 were captured at Appomattox Station by Custer, 54 were recovered from Red Oak Church, most having been buried, 21 escaped to Lynchburg, and 65 were surrendered or dismantled in camp. That night Federal troops celebrated with improvised fireworks by shooting Confederate artillery fuses from their muskets with small charges of powder, creating an effect Colonel Charles Wainwright found beautiful with the campfires. Lee chose one-armed Major Haskell, age 23, of Columbia, South Carolina, to supervise the surrender of the Confederate artillery, while his brother Alexander oversaw the cavalry surrender. Haskell, one of seven brothers in service, had served on the staffs of Generals Johnston, Smith, Longstreet and Beauregard and eventually commanded artillery in Longstreet's corps. His Federal counterpart, 30-year-old Brevet Major General Bartlett, had originally led the 27th New York Infantry, risen to division command in the Sixth Corps, and later been transferred to the Fifth Corps. The two first met at the commissioners meeting at the McLean House on April 10, and Haskell later recalled that during two days of making out lists and turning over guns and supplies, he and Bartlett became very friendly and Bartlett tried kindly to help him.

Appomattox, Virginia · United States