Adam Badeau, Military history of Ulysses S. Grant from April 1861 to April 1865. Volume 2

[603] Headquarters' train; and as they could save but one suit of clothes, each hurriedly selected the best that he had, and so it was that at this juncture Lee and his aide-de-camp were better dressed than the men who had pursued them.

Lee was tall, large in form, fine in person, handsome in feature, grave and dignified in bearing; if anything, a little too formal. There was a suggestion of effort in his deportment; something that showed he was determined to die gracefully; a hint of Caesar muffling himself in his mantle. But apart from this there was nothing to criticise.

Grant as usual was simple and composed, but with none of the grand air about him. No elation was visible in his manner or appearance. His voice was as calm as ever, and his eye betrayed no emotion. He spoke and acted as plainly as if he were transacting an ordinary matter of business. No one would have suspected that he was about to receive the surrender of an army, or that one of the most terrible wars of modern times had been brought to a triumphant close by the quiet man without a sword who was conversing calmly, but rather grimly, with the elaborate gentleman in grey and gold.

The conversation at first related to the meeting of the two soldiers in earlier years in Mexico, when Grant had been a subaltern and Lee a staff officer of Scott. The rebel general, however, soon adverted to the object of the interview. ‘I asked to see you, General Grant,’ he said, ‘to ascertain upon what terms you would receive the surrender of my army.’ Grant replied that the officers and men must become prisoners of war, giving up of course all munitions, weapons, and supplies, but that a parole would