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This story from my hometown newspaper is intriguing. Some of y'all may have insight as to whether they actually have anything here.
Junk 'soaked' in history
Wednesday, December 26, 2007 1:28 PM CST
Terms of surrender between Gen. U.S. Grant and Gen. Robert E. Lee
Document could be rare Civil War find
By DAVID MOORE - The Arab Tribune
A water-spotted document found in a rubbish pile in the Strawberry community depicts one of the most famous orders ever issued and appears to bear an authentic signature by Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Verifying the document's authenticity and tracking down the story behind it has been on Hilda Chapman's to-do list all year. And while her project is not complete, she now has a clearer - albeit incomplete - understanding of the document's possible origin.
The document depicts Lee's farewell address to his Confederate troops. Designated as General Order No. 9 and dated April 10, 1865, it was issued the day after he surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to U.S. Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Va.
The initial question of Chapman, who lives in Arab, was whether the document she has is the original order. Certainly it looks old and authentic. She had nothing to compare it to but a facsimile of a letter from Lee to CSA President Jefferson Davis that her sister had once bought.
Lee's signature on the two documents appears to match, she said. The handwriting in the body of the order and the body of the letter looks similar to each other. They don't match Lee's signature, but Chapman said that in her research she found that Lee and others had aides and clerks that penned their letters and orders, which they then signed.
She said she would be interested in restoring the document if it's an original. Before making such an investment, however, she brought the documents to the newspaper in hopes that the staff or readers could shed some light on them.
Some light can be found in the last of the three volumes of Shelby Foote's comprehensive "The Civil War - A Narrative," which Michael Jones of Arab provided to the Tribune.
Foote goes into detail of Lee and Grant's three and a half-hour meeting on April 9, 1865, in the parlor of the home of Wilmer McLean. In one of history's many interesting coincidences, McClean was at the beginning and the end of the war.
He formerly lived near Manassas Junction along the banks of Bull Run, where the first major land battle of the war was waged. During the fighting a shell crashed through one of his windows, Foote wrote, so McLean moved to the small, isolated town of Appomattox Courthouse in an effort to flee the war.
Although Grant offered extremely generous conditions for surrender, the surrender was still an ordeal for Lee, and followed by the subsequent outcry of affection and devotion by his soldiers, the day left him drained. So, back at camp, Lee wrote a report, talked a while with his advisors and turned in early.
Before doing so, he instructed his aide-de-camp, Charles Marshall to write an order bidding the troops farewell. As another coincidence, Marshall, it turns out, was the grandnephew of Chief Justice John Marshall, for whom Marshall County, Ala., is named.
Though long in Lee's service, Charles Marshall was at a loss for what to say in Lee's farewell and found himself facing writer's block that was nearly as staunch as the Army of the Potomac. The following morning, Marshall had nothing to show, and Lee ordered him to sit in his ambulance and not come out until the piece was written.
Lee placed a sentry at the door to keep anyone from disturbing Marshall with the considerable busy work tied to the surrender. Free to think, Marshall soon gave Lee a draft.
The general deleted a paragraph he thought might "tend to keep alive the feeling existing between the North and South," penciled in a few other changes and had Marshall write out the final version.
Lee signed numerous copies
It's unclear what became of that original, but according to a website for Stratford Hall Plantation, Marshall instructed his clerk, Norman Bell, to write out 12 copies of the order for distribution to key officers with Lee's various units. Bell made a 13th copy for himself, and Lee signed them all.
Bell's "original copy" was given to the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association in 1985, and it can be viewed on the Stratford website.
Unlike the copy Chapman has, Bell's is written on lined paper and there are differences in the handwriting. Also unlike Chapman's copy, Lee's signature could well have been made with the same pen or pencil Bell used.
Foote writes, "In addition to the copies made by Marshall's clerk for normal distribution, others were transcribed and taken to the general for his signature, and these remained for those who had them, the possession they cherished most."
As an example, he cites an infantry captain, Henry Perry, who took one of the 13 original copies (or a copy of one of those) and wrote out his own copy on a piece of Confederate paper using a drum for a desk. Perry carried it to Lee and asked him to sign it.
"There were tears in his eyes when he signed it for me, and when I turned to walk away there were tears in my own eyes," Foote quotes Perry as saying. "He was in all respects the greatest man who ever lived, and as a humble officer of the South, I thank heaven I had the honor of following him."
Perry said that Lee's farewell and his parole papers as an officer were the "best authority" why he never again "raised a soldier's hand for the South."
One man's junk...
Hilda, who has lived in Arab for 30 years, has long been fascinated by the Civil War. One of her sources for information is the Time-Life series of books on the conflict.
It's because of that interest that last January her son, Eddie Chapman, 50, brought her the wet document of General Order No. 9.
"I looked at it and said, 'My Lord!'" Hilda Chapman said.
Her son had found it in a trash dump at a friend's house in the Strawberry area. The friend had been married to a man who bought and sold junk at flea markets and the like, she said.
The junk dealer and his wife separated and about five years ago he moved to Minnesota, Chapman said. About three years ago he called someone and asked him to clean out a shed at his ex-wife's house south of Arab, telling him to keep what he wanted and toss out the rest to burn.
The junk that got tossed still had not been burned last January when the ex-wife told Eddie Chapman he could have anything he wanted from the pile.
Hilda Chapman said Eddie found Lee's order under some glass doors that had only partly protected the document. It was wet.
Further down, he found the letters about the terms of surrender - both dated April 9, 1865 - in a folding picture frame.
At the surrender
Chapman's books and others on the Civil War explain in detail the famous meeting between two generals at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865.
In correspondence leading up to the surrender, Grant had proposed surprisingly liberal terms for surrender. At their April 9 meeting Lee asked him to reiterate the terms, which Grant did. The confederate general then suggested that Grant write them out "so that they may be formally acted upon."
Grant lit a cigar, pondered how to compose the terms, then wrote them himself in his order book using a pencil he borrowed from an aide.
The partial terms letter to Lee that Chapman has is written in pencil. The single page she has ends with "the officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the..."
History books show that sentence continues to say "...United States until properly and each company or regimental commander to sign a like parole for the men of his command."
Grant inadvertently omitted "exchanged" between the words "properly" and "and each company." Times-Life says that Lee penciled in the omitted word with Grant's approval. If Chapman had the second page showing that addition, it would certainly lend authenticity to the letter.
Lee also asked Grant if the Confederates in the artillery and cavalry could keep their horses, which, unlike their Union counterparts, they had brought with them from home. Grant agreed, saying they would need them to put in a late spring planting.
Once everything was agreed upon, the final terms were copied in ink.
'Soaked' in history
Although both letters had been in glassed frames when Eddie Chapman found them, they were still soaking wet when he gave them to his mother.
The letter with the penciled terms was, nonetheless, in pretty good shape. The acceptance letter from Lee to Grant, however, stuck to the glass and has holes in it.
Times-Life and other accounts say Lee turned to Marshall and asked him to write the acceptance letter for his signature.
According to "Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War," this is the content of that letter:
I received your letter of this date, containing the terms of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia as proposed by you. They are substantially the same as those expressed in your letter of the 8th instant, they are accepted. I will proceed to designate the proper officers to carry the stipulations into effect.
Harper's notes that Grant's terms and Lee's acceptance were put into letter form and signed at the surrender, although the terms shows a dateline of Appomattox Courthouse and the acceptance uses the headquarters of the Army of Northern Virginia.
"If these are the real things, I don't want them to sit around my house until I die. Someone else might throw them away," Chapman laughed. "I don't know what I have, that's why I'm trying to find out."
She found the information the Tribune turned up about the copies of Lee's farewell address very interesting. Because there were a number of copies made and signed by Lee, she thinks she might actually have one of them.
"I don't really know what to do with it, but I would like to talk to someone who is more knowledgeable about it," she said.
Another coincidence
As one last passing coincidence, Chapman's maiden name is Lee. Her father, Homer Lee, was an orphan, making it highly unlikely she could ever trace her heritage back to Robert E. Lee.
But, she said, looking at pictures of him it's not hard to see the general in his features.
Anyone with pertinent information about the documents is asked to call: the editor of the Tribune, 586-3188.
Junk 'soaked' in history
Wednesday, December 26, 2007 1:28 PM CST
Terms of surrender between Gen. U.S. Grant and Gen. Robert E. Lee
Document could be rare Civil War find
By DAVID MOORE - The Arab Tribune
A water-spotted document found in a rubbish pile in the Strawberry community depicts one of the most famous orders ever issued and appears to bear an authentic signature by Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Verifying the document's authenticity and tracking down the story behind it has been on Hilda Chapman's to-do list all year. And while her project is not complete, she now has a clearer - albeit incomplete - understanding of the document's possible origin.
The document depicts Lee's farewell address to his Confederate troops. Designated as General Order No. 9 and dated April 10, 1865, it was issued the day after he surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to U.S. Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Va.
The initial question of Chapman, who lives in Arab, was whether the document she has is the original order. Certainly it looks old and authentic. She had nothing to compare it to but a facsimile of a letter from Lee to CSA President Jefferson Davis that her sister had once bought.
Lee's signature on the two documents appears to match, she said. The handwriting in the body of the order and the body of the letter looks similar to each other. They don't match Lee's signature, but Chapman said that in her research she found that Lee and others had aides and clerks that penned their letters and orders, which they then signed.
She said she would be interested in restoring the document if it's an original. Before making such an investment, however, she brought the documents to the newspaper in hopes that the staff or readers could shed some light on them.
Some light can be found in the last of the three volumes of Shelby Foote's comprehensive "The Civil War - A Narrative," which Michael Jones of Arab provided to the Tribune.
Foote goes into detail of Lee and Grant's three and a half-hour meeting on April 9, 1865, in the parlor of the home of Wilmer McLean. In one of history's many interesting coincidences, McClean was at the beginning and the end of the war.
He formerly lived near Manassas Junction along the banks of Bull Run, where the first major land battle of the war was waged. During the fighting a shell crashed through one of his windows, Foote wrote, so McLean moved to the small, isolated town of Appomattox Courthouse in an effort to flee the war.
Although Grant offered extremely generous conditions for surrender, the surrender was still an ordeal for Lee, and followed by the subsequent outcry of affection and devotion by his soldiers, the day left him drained. So, back at camp, Lee wrote a report, talked a while with his advisors and turned in early.
Before doing so, he instructed his aide-de-camp, Charles Marshall to write an order bidding the troops farewell. As another coincidence, Marshall, it turns out, was the grandnephew of Chief Justice John Marshall, for whom Marshall County, Ala., is named.
Though long in Lee's service, Charles Marshall was at a loss for what to say in Lee's farewell and found himself facing writer's block that was nearly as staunch as the Army of the Potomac. The following morning, Marshall had nothing to show, and Lee ordered him to sit in his ambulance and not come out until the piece was written.
Lee placed a sentry at the door to keep anyone from disturbing Marshall with the considerable busy work tied to the surrender. Free to think, Marshall soon gave Lee a draft.
The general deleted a paragraph he thought might "tend to keep alive the feeling existing between the North and South," penciled in a few other changes and had Marshall write out the final version.
Lee signed numerous copies
It's unclear what became of that original, but according to a website for Stratford Hall Plantation, Marshall instructed his clerk, Norman Bell, to write out 12 copies of the order for distribution to key officers with Lee's various units. Bell made a 13th copy for himself, and Lee signed them all.
Bell's "original copy" was given to the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association in 1985, and it can be viewed on the Stratford website.
Unlike the copy Chapman has, Bell's is written on lined paper and there are differences in the handwriting. Also unlike Chapman's copy, Lee's signature could well have been made with the same pen or pencil Bell used.
Foote writes, "In addition to the copies made by Marshall's clerk for normal distribution, others were transcribed and taken to the general for his signature, and these remained for those who had them, the possession they cherished most."
As an example, he cites an infantry captain, Henry Perry, who took one of the 13 original copies (or a copy of one of those) and wrote out his own copy on a piece of Confederate paper using a drum for a desk. Perry carried it to Lee and asked him to sign it.
"There were tears in his eyes when he signed it for me, and when I turned to walk away there were tears in my own eyes," Foote quotes Perry as saying. "He was in all respects the greatest man who ever lived, and as a humble officer of the South, I thank heaven I had the honor of following him."
Perry said that Lee's farewell and his parole papers as an officer were the "best authority" why he never again "raised a soldier's hand for the South."
One man's junk...
Hilda, who has lived in Arab for 30 years, has long been fascinated by the Civil War. One of her sources for information is the Time-Life series of books on the conflict.
It's because of that interest that last January her son, Eddie Chapman, 50, brought her the wet document of General Order No. 9.
"I looked at it and said, 'My Lord!'" Hilda Chapman said.
Her son had found it in a trash dump at a friend's house in the Strawberry area. The friend had been married to a man who bought and sold junk at flea markets and the like, she said.
The junk dealer and his wife separated and about five years ago he moved to Minnesota, Chapman said. About three years ago he called someone and asked him to clean out a shed at his ex-wife's house south of Arab, telling him to keep what he wanted and toss out the rest to burn.
The junk that got tossed still had not been burned last January when the ex-wife told Eddie Chapman he could have anything he wanted from the pile.
Hilda Chapman said Eddie found Lee's order under some glass doors that had only partly protected the document. It was wet.
Further down, he found the letters about the terms of surrender - both dated April 9, 1865 - in a folding picture frame.
At the surrender
Chapman's books and others on the Civil War explain in detail the famous meeting between two generals at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865.
In correspondence leading up to the surrender, Grant had proposed surprisingly liberal terms for surrender. At their April 9 meeting Lee asked him to reiterate the terms, which Grant did. The confederate general then suggested that Grant write them out "so that they may be formally acted upon."
Grant lit a cigar, pondered how to compose the terms, then wrote them himself in his order book using a pencil he borrowed from an aide.
The partial terms letter to Lee that Chapman has is written in pencil. The single page she has ends with "the officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the..."
History books show that sentence continues to say "...United States until properly and each company or regimental commander to sign a like parole for the men of his command."
Grant inadvertently omitted "exchanged" between the words "properly" and "and each company." Times-Life says that Lee penciled in the omitted word with Grant's approval. If Chapman had the second page showing that addition, it would certainly lend authenticity to the letter.
Lee also asked Grant if the Confederates in the artillery and cavalry could keep their horses, which, unlike their Union counterparts, they had brought with them from home. Grant agreed, saying they would need them to put in a late spring planting.
Once everything was agreed upon, the final terms were copied in ink.
'Soaked' in history
Although both letters had been in glassed frames when Eddie Chapman found them, they were still soaking wet when he gave them to his mother.
The letter with the penciled terms was, nonetheless, in pretty good shape. The acceptance letter from Lee to Grant, however, stuck to the glass and has holes in it.
Times-Life and other accounts say Lee turned to Marshall and asked him to write the acceptance letter for his signature.
According to "Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War," this is the content of that letter:
I received your letter of this date, containing the terms of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia as proposed by you. They are substantially the same as those expressed in your letter of the 8th instant, they are accepted. I will proceed to designate the proper officers to carry the stipulations into effect.
Harper's notes that Grant's terms and Lee's acceptance were put into letter form and signed at the surrender, although the terms shows a dateline of Appomattox Courthouse and the acceptance uses the headquarters of the Army of Northern Virginia.
"If these are the real things, I don't want them to sit around my house until I die. Someone else might throw them away," Chapman laughed. "I don't know what I have, that's why I'm trying to find out."
She found the information the Tribune turned up about the copies of Lee's farewell address very interesting. Because there were a number of copies made and signed by Lee, she thinks she might actually have one of them.
"I don't really know what to do with it, but I would like to talk to someone who is more knowledgeable about it," she said.
Another coincidence
As one last passing coincidence, Chapman's maiden name is Lee. Her father, Homer Lee, was an orphan, making it highly unlikely she could ever trace her heritage back to Robert E. Lee.
But, she said, looking at pictures of him it's not hard to see the general in his features.
Anyone with pertinent information about the documents is asked to call: the editor of the Tribune, 586-3188.
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