細節
LEE, ROBERT E., General, C.S.A.. Letter signed ("R E Lee Genl.") TO LIEUTENANT GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT, "Commandg U.S. Armies," Headquarters, Army of Northern Virginia, 5 June 1864. 1 page, 4to, text in a clear aide-de-camp's handwriting, verso docketed, matted with engraved portraits of Lee and Grant and neatly framed with UV-30 plexiglas.
LEE TO GRANT, ON THE BLOODY BATTLEFIELD AT COLD HARBOR
The Battle of Cold Harbor, which the present letter concerns, was fought on June 3rd and 4th and marked the bloody climax of Grant's spring offensive which had opened with the Battle of the Wilderness. A month's bitter fighting in the Wilderness, at Spotsylvania and at the North Anna had resulted in nearly 50,000 Union casualties, 7,000 at Cold Harbor alone. In the view of Douglas Southall Freeman, Cold Harbor constituted Lee's "last great battle in the field" (R.E. Lee, 3:191). Taking advantage of ponderous movements of the Union armies, Lee had made use of the interval to entrench and solidly fortify his lines before Cold Harbor prior to the frontal attack by the Army of the Potomac on June 3rd. "The day was a morning of fierce, futile charges that resulted in slaughter...everything had gone wrong...Only at Fredericksburg had Lee inflicted such terrible losses...Union soldiers, who had charged, lay where they had fallen wounded, moaning in the blistering sun. Their brothers watched in torment, unable to retrieve them due to Confederate sharpshooters. Lee, hoping to force Grant to admit a defeat, refused to call off the sharpshooters. After two days, on June 5, Grant sent one of Meade's aides across the lines with a letter suggesting that firing cease while litter bearers went out on the field " (W.S. McFeely, Grant, p.171). The present is Lee's formal reply:
"General I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of this date, proposing that, hereafter, except in time of action [combat], either party to be at liberty to remove the dead and wounded from between the lines.
I fear that such an arrangement will lead to misunderstanding and difficulty. I propose therefore instead, that when either party desires to remove their dead or wounded, a flag of truce be sent as is customary. It will always afford me pleasure to comply with such a request as far as circumstances will permit. Verty respectfully Your obt. Servt."
The long agony of the wounded was far from over. The next morning, June 6, Grant again wrote Lee, reporting that at noon stretcher bearers under the white flag of truce would go for the wounded, but this time Lee objected that the request itself had not been made under flag of truce: "I have directed that any party you send out be turned back. In a further communique, that afternoon, Grant reminded Lee that the "wounded men are now suffering from want of attention," and agreed to accept a two-hour truce. This late in the day, Lee felt this could not be done during daylight, so he proposed a cease-fire between 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. His letter, though, reached Grant at 10:45 p.m. Late in the morning of the 7th, Grant informed Lee of the missed opportunity; Lee, replied, suggesting another truce that evening, which Grant accepted. McFeely is scathing about these delays: "For days, as commanders stupidly corresponded, untended men had lain in agony dying." A Union staff officer wrote that the delayed truce "was very acceptable for burying the dead; but the wounded were mostly dead too, by this time, having been there since the 3rd'" (ibid., p.173).
The present is one of only a handful of surviving letters between Lee and Grant and the only letter between the commanders of the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac to be offered at auction in the last two decades (the other, Lee's note of 9 April 1865 suggesting a cessation of hostilities, sold in 26 October 1988 for $200,000). One letter from Grant to Lee, dated 6 June 1864, remains in a private collection, but most are known through official records only. The present letter is not in Lee, Wartime Papers, ed. Downey & Manarin.
LEE TO GRANT, ON THE BLOODY BATTLEFIELD AT COLD HARBOR
The Battle of Cold Harbor, which the present letter concerns, was fought on June 3rd and 4th and marked the bloody climax of Grant's spring offensive which had opened with the Battle of the Wilderness. A month's bitter fighting in the Wilderness, at Spotsylvania and at the North Anna had resulted in nearly 50,000 Union casualties, 7,000 at Cold Harbor alone. In the view of Douglas Southall Freeman, Cold Harbor constituted Lee's "last great battle in the field" (R.E. Lee, 3:191). Taking advantage of ponderous movements of the Union armies, Lee had made use of the interval to entrench and solidly fortify his lines before Cold Harbor prior to the frontal attack by the Army of the Potomac on June 3rd. "The day was a morning of fierce, futile charges that resulted in slaughter...everything had gone wrong...Only at Fredericksburg had Lee inflicted such terrible losses...Union soldiers, who had charged, lay where they had fallen wounded, moaning in the blistering sun. Their brothers watched in torment, unable to retrieve them due to Confederate sharpshooters. Lee, hoping to force Grant to admit a defeat, refused to call off the sharpshooters. After two days, on June 5, Grant sent one of Meade's aides across the lines with a letter suggesting that firing cease while litter bearers went out on the field " (W.S. McFeely, Grant, p.171). The present is Lee's formal reply:
"General I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of this date, proposing that, hereafter, except in time of action [combat], either party to be at liberty to remove the dead and wounded from between the lines.
I fear that such an arrangement will lead to misunderstanding and difficulty. I propose therefore instead, that when either party desires to remove their dead or wounded, a flag of truce be sent as is customary. It will always afford me pleasure to comply with such a request as far as circumstances will permit. Verty respectfully Your obt. Servt."
The long agony of the wounded was far from over. The next morning, June 6, Grant again wrote Lee, reporting that at noon stretcher bearers under the white flag of truce would go for the wounded, but this time Lee objected that the request itself had not been made under flag of truce: "I have directed that any party you send out be turned back. In a further communique, that afternoon, Grant reminded Lee that the "wounded men are now suffering from want of attention," and agreed to accept a two-hour truce. This late in the day, Lee felt this could not be done during daylight, so he proposed a cease-fire between 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. His letter, though, reached Grant at 10:45 p.m. Late in the morning of the 7th, Grant informed Lee of the missed opportunity; Lee, replied, suggesting another truce that evening, which Grant accepted. McFeely is scathing about these delays: "For days, as commanders stupidly corresponded, untended men had lain in agony dying." A Union staff officer wrote that the delayed truce "was very acceptable for burying the dead; but the wounded were mostly dead too, by this time, having been there since the 3rd'" (ibid., p.173).
The present is one of only a handful of surviving letters between Lee and Grant and the only letter between the commanders of the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac to be offered at auction in the last two decades (the other, Lee's note of 9 April 1865 suggesting a cessation of hostilities, sold in 26 October 1988 for $200,000). One letter from Grant to Lee, dated 6 June 1864, remains in a private collection, but most are known through official records only. The present letter is not in Lee, Wartime Papers, ed. Downey & Manarin.