...and then a man rode through the lines bearing a white flag.

[malthaussen]

115. Boiler-plate, actually.

The terms offered were customary. Well, one could quibble about officers not being forced to surrender their sidearms, but it was a not-uncommon gesture. Parole and exchange of prisoners was SOP in years past, although by 1865 the practice had been discontinued. Grant was willing to resurrect the practice because he didn't want to feed and care for a mass of POWs, and he rather expected that the war would be over pretty soon after the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered. He did somewhat exceed his authority in guaranteeing there would be no reprisals, but he knew he'd have Lincoln's backing there, and he had an eye to the future.

Grant offered much the same terms to the Vicksburg garrison. However, in 1863, he was afraid that the Confederates would construe being secured in private property as to also include slaves, so he refused to make that concession. By Appomatox, he wasn't worried about that, although you might note the text refers to "baggage," and not property. Incidentally, Grant informally assured Lee that private soldiers would also be allowed to retain their horses, after Lee pointed out that in the CSA soldiers often supplied their own mounts.

Grant was something of a master in the art of surrender, and differed from the fire-eaters of the US army in that he was disinterested in humiliating his enemies, and wanted only to get the process over with as quickly and simply as possible. He was careful to ensure, however, that a surrender was a surrender, hence the important stipulation that arms and equipment be turned over to the US forces, and not simply dropped in place.

One can imagine that if, say, Ben Butler had received the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia the terms would have been rather harsher!

-- Mal