mail: Bill Thayer Help Up Home   This webpage reproduces an appendix to Volume IV of R. E. Lee: A Biography by Douglas Southall Freeman published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York and London, 1934 The text, and illustrations except as noted, are in the public domain.   This site is not affiliated with the US Military Academy.

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Vol. IV
p520 Appendix IV-6

Lee's Interview with Grant, May 1, 1869

Of the two most detailed contemporary published versions of Lee's interview with President Grant at the White House on May 1, 1869, one represented General Lee as saying too little, the other as talking too much. The New York Herald​1 reported the incident in this manner:

All this may conceivably have been said, in substance, but it certainly is not all that was said. Lee would not have been so abrupt.

 p521  The other extended version is that of The New York Tribune.​2 It described the interview as "polite and cordial," but marked by "a certain reserve." Nothing was said about the war, but Lee, at Grant's instance, is alleged to have "made several suggestions" on politics respecting Virginia and the South. He is credited, also, in this account, with opinions that hardly could be ascribed to him.

As neither of these accounts can be accepted, it probably is best to take the statements of Robert M. Douglas and of Robert E. Lee, Jr., as authentic, however much one might wish for something color­ful, something dramatic: "The visit," Judge Douglas wrote long afterwards, "was merely one of courtesy, and did not last long."​3 Said Captain Lee, "this meeting was of no political significance whatever, but simply a call of courtesy. . . . The interview lasted about fifteen minutes, and neither General Lee nor the President spoke a word on political matters."​4

General Badeau, who was not present, stated that his information came from Grant and from J. L. Motley. He wrote: "Motley said that both men were simple and dignified, but he thought there was a shade of constraint in the manner of Lee, who was indeed always inclined to be more formal than the Northern general. The former enemies shook hands; Grant asked Lee to be seated, and presented Motley. The interview was short, and all that Grant could remember afterwards was that they spoke of building railroads, and he said playfully to Lee, 'You and I, General, have had more to do with destroying railroads than building them.' But Lee refused to smile, or to recognize the raillery. He went on gravely with the conversation, and no other reference was made to the past. Lee soon arose, and the soldiers parted. . . ."5

The Author's Notes:

1 Quoted in The Richmond Dispatch, May 8, 1869.

2 Reprinted in The National Intelligencer, May 4, 1869.

3 R. M. Douglas, in The Youth's Companion, Dec. 19, 1912, p700.

4 R. E. Lee, Jr., 349.

5 Badeau, Grant in Peace, 26‑27.

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