Most Confederates paroled at Appomattox headed south towards their homes within a day or two after Lee’s surrender. A surprising number headed north. One northbound Confederate was Brigadier General Edward Porter Alexander.
The twenty-nine year old Georgian was one of the most respected artillery commanders in the Confederate armies. Unreconciled to defeat, E.P. Alexander suggested to Lee that he disperse his forces rather than surrender at Appomattox. After the game was given up, he decided to head to Brazil, the last slave-owning country in the Western Hemisphere.
When Lee’s army surrendered, Ulysses S. Grant’s terms required the surrender of weapons and the issuance of paroles to the Confederates, “This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside,” according to the agreement. Grant did not anticipate that hundreds, or even thousands, of Lee’s men would head North. Some did so because they lived in Border States like Maryland. Other believed that they were entitled to free transportation and want to try their luck in the thriving Northern States instead of the war-wracked South. Alexander wanted to go to New York where he could seek passage to Brazil.
Alexander’s odyssey provides a look at the changing fortunes of those Confederates who left the Confederacy in the days after their war ended, but while other Confederate armies were still fighting. Alexander left an account of this time in his Fighting for the Confederacy: Personal Recollections of Edward Porter Alexander. His story begins with unexpectedly friendly treatment by some of the Union men he encounters. One was Senator Elihu Benjamin Washburne of Illinois. The senator, Alexander, and Confederate generals Wilcox and Gordon rode together with an escort of Union cavalrymen to protect them from marauding deserters. Alexander writes that the Republican senator “was exceedingly pleasant & courteous to us Confederates.” (p. 546)
When Alexander reached Farmville, Va. on April 12, 1865, he met with the son of the Republican governor of Pennsylvania. Alexander describes his reception, “The officer in command was a handsome & exceedingly nice, young General Curtin…He took care of the whole party for the night, & took me actually to share his own pallet with him, & gave us all a good breakfast in the morning.” (p. 546) On the 13th of April, Alexander arrived in Burkeville, Va. where he surrendered his horse to the Union quartermaster. When the quartermaster tried to pay for the horse, Alexander declined the payment because it was not his personal property. He then boarded a train for City Point, Va. The Union army allowed Confederates travelling from Appomattox free rides on trains and steam ships so they could quickly get home.
The crowded train waited on the tracks for an hour, “while it waited some one came to the door of the car I was in & called “Alexander.” Not supposing it meant for me I made no reply. Then, “Is Gen. Alexander of the Confederate army here?” On this I spoke, & up rushed Gen. A. S. Webb, who had been an intimate friend at West Point in the old times. Regardless of the crowd he threw his arms about my neck, & hugged me saying, “I’ve got you at last. I’ve been trying to get you for four years & now I have got you.” Then we got in a corner behind the door, & he produced from one pocket a candle & a tumbler, & from another a bottle of whiskey, & we renewed old friendship & discussed places where we had fought each other—particularly Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg— until the train left. His brigade had been at the very brunt of our assault.” (pp. 546-547).
On April 17, Alexander was in Richmond and he called on his old commander. Alexander writes:
“Gen. Lee was staying in the city with his family, who had remained during the evacuation & the fire, & I called & spent an evening with them, all of his daughters being at home. Gen. Lee did not at all sympathise with my plan of going to Brazil. [Union] Gen. Ord was in the city, & in command of it. I called on him to get a permit to go to Washington City, & found him very cordial & pleasant…” (p. 547)
Up until now, Alexander was gratified by the treatment he had received from his former enemies. Then ill omens appeared. According to Alexander:
Sunday evening I first heard on the streets rumors of the assassination of Prest. Lincoln. I did not believe it & went to Gen. Ord’s after supper to ask if it could be true. Gen. Ord confirmed it & advised me not to got to Washington City. But I did not know exactly what else I could do & decided to risk it. I left on Mon. morning in a boat which went down the James & up the Potomac, & landed me in Washn. on Tuesday the 18th. I had no sooner landed than I felt it in the atmosphere that I was in the wrong place. The streets swarmed like beehives. The president’s body was lying in the White House to be viewed, & the column, four deep, forming & marching past reached a half mile up Pa. Avenue.
Little was yet known of the plot which resulted in the murder, & it was naturally ascribed to Confederates in general. And somehow Mr. Davis, Mr. Clay, & others were supposed to be connected with it & rewards of $100,000 each were offered for their capture. The passion & excitement of the crowds were so great that anyone on the street, recognised merely as a Confederate, would have been instantly mobbed & lynched. In Richmond I had gotten a citizen coat & pants, & I wore a U.S. army private’s overcoat, only dyed black instead of in its original blue. But, to a close observer, such a coat would seem particularly suspicious. However, being there I went to see the Brazilian minister. He read my letters & told me that if I should go to Brazil he had no doubt I could secure a commission in the Brazilian army, but he had no authority to speak on the matter or to send any one, nor any means to use to that end. Possibly, he said, the consul in N. Y. might render aid. He said that, I am sure, just to get rid of me. He seemed to be actually afraid lest my being in his house might bring a mob on him. (pp. 547-548).
His suggestion of the consul in New York determined me to leave Washington on the train at 5 P.M. that afternoon. On the street I met my old friend Major—now Gen. Myer, chief signal officer. He was very cordial & took me to his house to lunch with Mrs. Myer. After leaving them I went to the office of Gen. Augur,64 commanding in the city, to get my pass made good to N. Y.
Augur’s adjt. was Col. Jos. Taylor,65 one of my most special & intimate friends. As I walked up to his desk, he stared at me & said, “Great God! Alexander, what are you doing here?” “I am trying to get away,” I said, “& I’ll do it quick if you’ll fix me these papers.” “Well,” said he, “Old fellow, you had better. Yesterday a company of cavalry brought in your Confederate General Payne, who had surrendered up at Leesburg, & the crowd started after him to hang him. It was all the soldiers could do to stop them long enough for us to run Payne out the back way & put him in a hack & take him to the Old Capital Prison where we have him now, locked up for his own safety.”
On looking at my papers Taylor decided to send me to Grant’s office, which he did, with a soldier to conduct me; & there my pass was fixed by some subordinate & I saw no one whom I knew. Then I went by the old National Hotel for my hand baggage, left there in the morning, & took a street car to the B.&O. Railway station. I knew the city was swarming with detectives, amateur & regular, all stimulated by the enormous rewards offered for every one connected with the murder plot; and, as I got out of the street car, I spotted one of them standing on the side walk & evidently sizing up the people coming to take the train.
My dyed soldier’s overcoat & my $500 Richmond boots, with my pants tucked inside, evidently took his eye, & he turned down the side walk so as to be abreast of me as I reached it. I tried to shake him, as if casually, by long quick strides across the muddy street; but he was also quick. So, on the side walk, I came down to a very leisurely gait to let him pass. But he also slowed down as he drew along side of me & said, “Good evening, Sir.” “Good evening,” said I with a blandness which would have turned Ah Sin green with envy. “Going to Baltimore?” said he. “Yes,” said I; & butter, in my mouth, would have thought itself in a refrigerator. “So am I,” said he. “Ah?” said I, with an accent of utterly indifferent good nature, plainer than the nose on most people’s faces. “Yes,” said he, “seems to be a big crowd”—as we entered the big waiting room. I grunted a polite “Um Hoo,” & we joined in the swarm of hundreds pressing into the funnel shaped space before the ticket seller’s window. I was awfully scared. During all the war my favorite nightmare had been to dream of being in the Federal lines & in danger of arrest as a spy; & now, here was a situation very like it. But I continued to play my hand with a coolness & nonchalance that seemed to me really inspired. It was a pushing crowd & presently some man pushed to get between me & my friend. I apparently resisted but I let him in. And I played that game so carefully & so well that when we came near the neck of the funnel he was some three or four files ahead of me. But I heard him say, “Ticket to Baltimore,” & the agent answered, “This is [the] New York train. No Baltimore tickets sold until this train has gone. Pass on please.” He motioned to me & tried to speak, but I was looking another way & he was squeezed along. As my turn came I had my money ready & said “N. Y.” in a low tone, got my ticket, & shot through the train gate a little ways ahead, & hid myself in the most distant & darkest corner I could find in a long train of about a dozen coaches. I saw my friend no more, the train starting in a short while.” (pp. 548-549)
Note: Fighting for the Confederacy: Personal Recollections of Edward Porter Alexander edited by Gary Gallagher published by University of North Carolina Press was written by Alexander for his family. Because it was not intended by the general for publication, it contains abbreviations and other non-standard forms. It is considered an important first-hand account of the Army of Northern Virginia, although it was written long after the war.
I was reminded of Alexander’s experiences while reading Caroline Janney’s fine new book Ends of War about the men of the Army of Northern Virginia in the weeks after Appomattox.
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This reads almost exactly like a description of the activity on the streets of Dublin from the Easter Rising to the end of the Irish Civil War.
Very interesting follow up on the consequences of the war,