[Civil War]

Agreements entered into this day in regard to the surrender of the Army of Northern Va., to the United States authority: … Appomattox C[ourt]. H[ouse]., Va., [Army of Northern Virginia,] April 10th, 1865

Printed handbill (9 1/2 x 7 3/8 in.; 242 x 189 mm) on blue-ruled paper; browned, mounting remnant at left margin.

Not in Parrish & Willingham, Confederate Imprints; cf. Our Documents: 100 Milestone Documents from the National Archives, p. 99

The end of the Civil War: an unrecorded and evidently unique Confederate printing of the Articles of Agreement Relating to the Surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, by definition one of the last Confederate imprints.

Four years of horrific bloodshed ended on 9 April 1865 in the home of Wilmer McLean at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, when Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant met to discuss the terms of surrender of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Grant proved to be as generous at the negotiating table as he was merciless on the battlefield, as the Articles of Agreement relating to the Surrender demonstrate:

"1st. The troops shall march by Brigades and Detachments to a designated point, stack their arms, deposit their flags, sabres pistols &c, and from thence march to their homes, under charge of their respective Division and Corps commanders—officers retaining their side arms, and authorized number of private horses.

"2nd. All public horses and public property of all kinds to be turned over to Staff Officers designated by the United States authorities.

"3d. Such transportation of private baggage, belonging to officers, will be allowed to accompany the officers, to be turned over at the end of the trip to the Nearest U.S,Q.M., receipts being taken for the same.

"4th; Couriers, and mounted men of the artillery, and cavalry, whose horses are their own private property, will be allowed to retain them.

"5th The surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia shall include all forces operating with that army on the 8th instant the day of the commencement of negotiations for surrender; except such bodies of cavalry as actually made their escape previous to the surrender, and except all such pieces of artillery as were more than twenty miles from Appomattox Court House at the time of surrender on the 9th inst." The agreement is signed in type by Generals Gibbon, Maerritt, and Griffin for the United States and by Generals Longstreet, Gordon, and Pendleton for the Confederate States.

This printing of the Articles of Agreement was crudely done on a field job press for distribution among the Confederate troops. T. Michael Parris, co-author of Confederate Imprints: A Bibliography (1987), states that the imprint “is in my opinion clearly a Confederate production. … It's far too crude to be a Union imprint.” This copy survived in a scrapbook kept by George A. Barksdale, A.Q.M., who served  in the 16th Virigina Infantry under Major General William Mahone, who was with Lee for the surrender at Appomattox Court House. Two days after this document was printed, Lee's army stacked its arms and surrendered its flags, sabres, and pistols and began the long march home.