Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 35.djvu/173

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During my sojourn at the Yellow Sulphur Springs, Virginia, last summer, as resident physician, I interviewed a number of our Southern people, both young and old, as well as a few Northern and Western people, as to whether General Robert E. Lee offered to surrender his sword to General U. S. Grant on the 9th day of April, 1865, at Appomattox, Va., and have been surprised to find that nine out of ten, including some old Confederate veterans, positively state that Lee did offer his sword to Grant, and that the latter was magnanimous enough to refuse it. The following, taken from the Confederate Veteran, Vol. VIII, May, 1900, page 204. J. F. J. Caldwell, of Greenwood, S. C, says:

"I wish to call attention to the story of General Grant's refusal to accept the surrender of General Lee's sword at Appomattox, a story without a particle of foundation in fact and utterly unreasonable, yet widely circulated by Northern speakers and writers, and credited by a good many people in the South.

"The account of the ceremonies attending the return of the flag of the Eighth Texas Cavalry, in the Veteran of December, 1899, reports Governor Sayers as saying: 'And finally Appomattox came and General Lee surrendered; the great, heroic, magnanimous Grant refuses to take his sword.'

"Colonel Charles Marshall, who was, I believe, the only officer accompanying General Lee on the occasion, has disclaimed that anything of the kind occurred.

"Dr. J. William Jones, in 'Personal Reminiscences of General Robert E. Lee,' at page 303, reports General Lee as making a similar statement during a conversation with a company of friends, as follows:

"'General Grant returned your sword, did he not?' asked