Lee's Retreat: Appomattox Station
April 8, 1865
The station is on the left past the red brick building. You can not get to the tracks at the station.
The view to the west down the tracks.
Carol found a bookstore. Baine's Books and Coffee, good coffee and a nice selection of new and used books. Lots of local history.
It is my contention that Lee was exhausted by the time he arrived at Appomattox. Sheridan had beaten him there and captured all but one of the train loads of food Lee had sent from Farmville. Sheridan through up a screen of dismounted cavalry with light infantry support, in the past Lee would have swatted that screen away like a bug; but this time, he surrendered.
When I say exhausted, I mean Lee must have been suffering from a deep fatigue. I’m not speaking of his army here, but Lee himself. He had been carrying the weight of the Cause on his shoulders since Sailor’s Creek. On a hill over Saylor’s Creek Lee had asked aloud, “what will the country think?” One of Lee generals had answered, “The country? You’re the Country. You have been for over a year. Everyone who dies dies for you.”
Who wouldn’t be tired? Who wouldn’t be stressed by the weight of it all?
Lee’s retreat is dated from April 2nd in Petersburg, the surrender was April 9th in Appomattox, but Lee had been carrying the responsibility of the army for much too much longer than that. I think Lee wanted to stop. I suspect that he would have quit at Cumberland Church if Longstreet hadn’t objected.
Next: Appomattox Court House