![[LEE, Robert E.] MARSHALL, Charles. Manuscript document, Lt. Col. Charles Marshall's Draft of General Order No. 9, Appomattox, Va., 10 April 1865. 2 pages, 4to, ruled paper, two small holes at fold intersections, bottom edge chipped, with partial loss of several words, small loss at top right corner, affecting portions of two words. In pencil.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2005/NYR/2005_NYR_01587_0252_000(112557).jpg?w=1)
THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
[LEE, Robert E.] MARSHALL, Charles. Manuscript document, Lt. Col. Charles Marshall's Draft of General Order No. 9, Appomattox, Va., 10 April 1865. 2 pages, 4to, ruled paper, two small holes at fold intersections, bottom edge chipped, with partial loss of several words, small loss at top right corner, affecting portions of two words. In pencil.
Details
[LEE, Robert E.] MARSHALL, Charles. Manuscript document, Lt. Col. Charles Marshall's Draft of General Order No. 9, Appomattox, Va., 10 April 1865. 2 pages, 4to, ruled paper, two small holes at fold intersections, bottom edge chipped, with partial loss of several words, small loss at top right corner, affecting portions of two words. In pencil.
CHARLES MARSHALL'S DRAFT OF LEE'S GENERAL ORDER NO. 9, WITH THE INFLAMMATORY PASSAGE DELETED BY LEE
"THE NOBLEST CAUSE FOR WHICH SWORD WAS EVER DRAWN" AGAINST "THE HATED FOE"
MARSHALL'S DRAFT OF LEE'S MOST MEMORABLE ADDRESS, INCLUDING THE LONG- SOUGHT PARAGRAPH WHICH LEE STRUCK OUT. The idea for the famous General Order No. 9 arose around ten o'clock on the night of 9 April 1865. Robert E. Lee sat with his aides around a camp fire, talking over his surrender earlier that day to General Grant, and wondering what would become of his brave, hungry and ragged troops. Would they become lawless, roving gangs of guerilla fighters? Or reconcile themselves to defeat and once again become farmers and workers, husbands and fathers? Lee turned to Lt. Col. Charles Marshall and asked him to compose a draft farewell order.
Given the bustle and confusion in the camp, Marshall had not even begun his task when Lee asked for it the next morning. The story has it that Lee then ordered Marshall to lock himself into a nearby ambulance, not to emerge without the completed draft. In the meantime Lee got word that Ulysses Grant had approached the Confederate lines for a conference. Grant too was worried about the mood of Lee's departing troops as well as the remaining Rebel forces still in the field in North Carolina. Grant remembers "We had there between the lines, sitting on horseback, a very pleasant conversation of over half an hour, in the course of which Lee said to me that the South was a big country and that we might have to march over it three or four times before the war entirely ended, but that we would now be able to do it as they could no longer resist us." Grant asked Lee whether he would urge the remaining Confederate forces to surrender and avoid more loss of life. Lee said "he could not do that without consulting the President [Jefferson Davis] first" (Memoirs, 741-744).
Lee couldn't speak for Davis, but he could communicate with his own men, and by the time he returned to his tent, Marshall's penciled draft was ready for his review. "Lee went over it," Douglas Southall Freeman writes, "struck out a paragraph that seemed to him calculated to keep alive ill-feeling, and changed one or two words. Marshall then wrote a revised draft, which he had one of the clerks at headquarters copy in ink. General Lee signed this and additional copies made by various hands for the corps commanders and for the chiefs of the bureaus of the general staff....Marshall probably destroyed or misplaced the penciled text which General Lee revised. The language of the eliminated paragraph is not even known. An amended draft, in Marshall's autograph, is in the hands of his descendants, but cannot be affirmed positively to be the paper given by Marshall to the copyist" (Lee, 4:154).
The present newly discovered manuscripts constitutes Marshall's pencil draft (with the textual variations from the final version noted), as well as the paragraph that Lee struck out:
"Hd Qrs Army of No Va, 10th April 1865
Gen Order No. 9
After four years of arduous service(s), marked by unsurpassed courage [and] (&) fortitude, the Army of N.Va has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers [and] (&) resources. I need not tell the brave survivors of so many hard fought battles who have remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented to [the] (this) result from no distrust of them. But feeling that valor and [devotion] (devotion) could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the loss that [would] (must) have attended the continuance of the contest, I determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services [have] (has) endeared them to their countrymen. By the terms of the agreement, (the) officers and men can return to their homes and remain until exchanged. You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully performed and I earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend to you His blessing and protection. With an unceasing admiration [of] (for) your constancy and devotion to your country, and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous consideration [of] (for) myself, I bid you all an affectionate farewell. R. E. Lee.
The excised paragraph (written on the verso, not part of the main text) reads: "God willing, the surviving south, still there, strikes for the right cause for which so many sacrifices have already been made, for which doubtless many will yet be required. But remember when for always, the heart of every man will be strengthened by the recollection of friends left through necessity, in hands of the hated foe and one day by the help of God, we will return to retrieve the loved ones and unfold to the breeze from our own blue hills, the glorious flag of our young republic which has been baptized by fire and shell for four long sad years. Farewell my friends. We leave you to God & with sad hearts bid adieu to home, friends & kindred, aged and sever even stronger ties, thinking all sacrifices light in comparison with the noblest cause for which sword was ever drawn--God will defend the right."
Lee cut all of the latter passage. He wanted no hint of "the South will rise again" rhetoric. Famed during the war for referring to his Union adversaries as "those people" rather than "the enemy," Lee was not about to start calling the victors the "hated foe." Instead his edited text conveys precisely the sense of gratitude, affection and consolation he wanted to impart. The time for war was over. The time for peace and healing had arrived. Lee's words had an immediate and profound affect on the men. By the hundreds they copied out the text and gave it to him to sign before the General departed from Appomattox and made his slow, sad journey home to Alexandria.
CHARLES MARSHALL'S DRAFT OF LEE'S GENERAL ORDER NO. 9, WITH THE INFLAMMATORY PASSAGE DELETED BY LEE
"THE NOBLEST CAUSE FOR WHICH SWORD WAS EVER DRAWN" AGAINST "THE HATED FOE"
MARSHALL'S DRAFT OF LEE'S MOST MEMORABLE ADDRESS, INCLUDING THE LONG- SOUGHT PARAGRAPH WHICH LEE STRUCK OUT. The idea for the famous General Order No. 9 arose around ten o'clock on the night of 9 April 1865. Robert E. Lee sat with his aides around a camp fire, talking over his surrender earlier that day to General Grant, and wondering what would become of his brave, hungry and ragged troops. Would they become lawless, roving gangs of guerilla fighters? Or reconcile themselves to defeat and once again become farmers and workers, husbands and fathers? Lee turned to Lt. Col. Charles Marshall and asked him to compose a draft farewell order.
Given the bustle and confusion in the camp, Marshall had not even begun his task when Lee asked for it the next morning. The story has it that Lee then ordered Marshall to lock himself into a nearby ambulance, not to emerge without the completed draft. In the meantime Lee got word that Ulysses Grant had approached the Confederate lines for a conference. Grant too was worried about the mood of Lee's departing troops as well as the remaining Rebel forces still in the field in North Carolina. Grant remembers "We had there between the lines, sitting on horseback, a very pleasant conversation of over half an hour, in the course of which Lee said to me that the South was a big country and that we might have to march over it three or four times before the war entirely ended, but that we would now be able to do it as they could no longer resist us." Grant asked Lee whether he would urge the remaining Confederate forces to surrender and avoid more loss of life. Lee said "he could not do that without consulting the President [Jefferson Davis] first" (Memoirs, 741-744).
Lee couldn't speak for Davis, but he could communicate with his own men, and by the time he returned to his tent, Marshall's penciled draft was ready for his review. "Lee went over it," Douglas Southall Freeman writes, "struck out a paragraph that seemed to him calculated to keep alive ill-feeling, and changed one or two words. Marshall then wrote a revised draft, which he had one of the clerks at headquarters copy in ink. General Lee signed this and additional copies made by various hands for the corps commanders and for the chiefs of the bureaus of the general staff....Marshall probably destroyed or misplaced the penciled text which General Lee revised. The language of the eliminated paragraph is not even known. An amended draft, in Marshall's autograph, is in the hands of his descendants, but cannot be affirmed positively to be the paper given by Marshall to the copyist" (Lee, 4:154).
The present newly discovered manuscripts constitutes Marshall's pencil draft (with the textual variations from the final version noted), as well as the paragraph that Lee struck out:
"Hd Qrs Army of No Va, 10th April 1865
Gen Order No. 9
After four years of arduous service(s), marked by unsurpassed courage [and] (&) fortitude, the Army of N.Va has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers [and] (&) resources. I need not tell the brave survivors of so many hard fought battles who have remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented to [the] (this) result from no distrust of them. But feeling that valor and [devotion] (devotion) could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the loss that [would] (must) have attended the continuance of the contest, I determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services [have] (has) endeared them to their countrymen. By the terms of the agreement, (the) officers and men can return to their homes and remain until exchanged. You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully performed and I earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend to you His blessing and protection. With an unceasing admiration [of] (for) your constancy and devotion to your country, and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous consideration [of] (for) myself, I bid you all an affectionate farewell. R. E. Lee.
The excised paragraph (written on the verso, not part of the main text) reads: "God willing, the surviving south, still there, strikes for the right cause for which so many sacrifices have already been made, for which doubtless many will yet be required. But remember when for always, the heart of every man will be strengthened by the recollection of friends left through necessity, in hands of the hated foe and one day by the help of God, we will return to retrieve the loved ones and unfold to the breeze from our own blue hills, the glorious flag of our young republic which has been baptized by fire and shell for four long sad years. Farewell my friends. We leave you to God & with sad hearts bid adieu to home, friends & kindred, aged and sever even stronger ties, thinking all sacrifices light in comparison with the noblest cause for which sword was ever drawn--God will defend the right."
Lee cut all of the latter passage. He wanted no hint of "the South will rise again" rhetoric. Famed during the war for referring to his Union adversaries as "those people" rather than "the enemy," Lee was not about to start calling the victors the "hated foe." Instead his edited text conveys precisely the sense of gratitude, affection and consolation he wanted to impart. The time for war was over. The time for peace and healing had arrived. Lee's words had an immediate and profound affect on the men. By the hundreds they copied out the text and gave it to him to sign before the General departed from Appomattox and made his slow, sad journey home to Alexandria.