It's a beautiful, serene knoll from which we think we can see Appomattox. We are here at almost the exact time of year that Lee and Grant were. Flowering trees and greening leaves lend peace and a sense of rebirth to everything.
It's amazing to John and I that we can go to the exact spot where famous men or women stood while making decisions that literally changed the world. Some say, after reading our blog - or any writing or pictorial representation of historical people and places - that there is no reason for them to travel there. OH, SO VERY NOT SO!!! There is an air about the place, a feeling of immensity, of timelessness. Some places, like the Alamo in Texas, cause a hush to descend on the crowds as they move through and tears to form as eyes see the reality of hundreds of years ago. Reading about something puts thoughts and ideas into our heads, but BEING here... Enormous events took place here and now, because we came, we are somehow literally a part of that.
Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia came so close, so very close to escaping Grant, reaching Danville, resupplying and joining up with another Confederate army in North Carolina. So close. It probably wouldn't have changed the outcome of the Civil War, merely prolonged it. But still...
Grant drove his men hard when leaving Petersburg in order to flank Lee and block his path to freedom. Lee tried to burn all his bridges, literally. But Grant's army succeeded in its maneuvers. Some of Lee's officers suggested Lee have all of his men - some 30,000 - scatter, fight as guerrillas, and rejoin somewhere else. Lee saw the inevitability of defeat. He issued General Order No. 4:
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