#OTD in 1865, the morning after Appomattox, Grant realized he had a few more surrender details to iron out with Lee. Grant being Grant, he didn’t want to waste time sending messages back & forth. So he mounted his horse and rode out -- straight for the Army of Northern Virginia.

Grant’s aides must have been THRILLED.
“Excuse me, Ulysses, we’re going WHERE?”
“To visit Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.”
“Ok, I know I’m wildly hungover, but that’s the craziest idea I’ve ever heard. Have YOU been drinking again? They were shooting at us, like, YESTERDAY.”

Just for a moment, put yourself in the nonexistent shoes of the Rebel soldier who drew picket duty that morning. There you are, stamping your bare feet in the cold April chill, enjoying the first decent rations you’ve had in weeks, courtesy of U.S. Grant ...

And here he comes!!!

“Halt! Who goes there?”
“My name’s Grant.”
“THE Grant?”
“Yes. I’d like to see General Lee.”
“Oh, no. I didn’t want any drama on my last day. Um, I can’t just give you a Hall Pass, after you stole a march on us across the James River. I was on watch, man -- that was EMBARRASSING.”

As Grant’s aide Horace Porter noted: “... the practice which had so long been inculcated in Lee’s army of keeping Grant out of its lines was not to be overturned in a day, and he was politely requested at the picket-line to wait til a message could be sent to headquarters …”

Lee soon “rode out a gallop to meet him,” no doubt terrified that Douglas Southall Freeman might momentarily think him less than a Perfect Southern Gentleman. And on a little hill between the two armies, Grant and Lee talked for a half hour, out-of-earshot of their aides.

How’d you like to be a fly on the horse for THAT chat?
Lee: “Well … it’s gonna suck to be tried for treason.”
Grant: “Yep. I’m sure it will.”
Lee: “I always liked McClellan. You guys should have stuck with him.”
Grant: “We gave you Burnside and Hooker. What more do you want?”

Grant said they talked about the future, emancipation, and the surrender of other Rebel armies--which Lee claimed (ahem) he couldn’t force. Some suggested Grant told Lee he should talk to Lincoln (woulda been interesting), but Grant said “the president,” meaning Jefferson Davis.

After the meeting, several Rebel generals visited Grant. Two of them, Cadmus Wilcox and James Longstreet, had been at his wedding. (HASHTAG AWKWARD.) Henry Heth came, too; Grant knew him in Mexico. Hope he said: “Here, Henry. I got you a present. I heard you needed shoes …”

Did Grant want to visit Richmond, the symbol of the Union’s inability to crush the rebellion? “No,” he said, “I could do no good there, and my visit might lead to demonstrations which would only wound the feelings of the residents.” One trip to see Rebels was enough for a day ...