"As I understand it (sic) Once you swore oath to the USA, you were sent 
home, you
made the best way you could. Your were allowed you (sic) Rifle to shoot 
game.
These people were use to living off the land. I am sure that you could have
gotten rides, or hopped freight trains.
I f you had a horse you were also allowed to keep it. Larger cities were
supplied with bread and soup kitchens."

---------------------------------

At Appornattox the five regiments of the old Stonewall Brigade mustered 19 
officers and 184 enlisted men, of whom only 81 were still armed. The Fifth 
Regiment of Virginia Volunteers, led by Captain Peter E. Wilson, carried 47 
men on its roster, only 20 of them bearing arms. Company L, Staunton's West 
Augusta Guard, had 6 enlisted men and an officer. Of the Stonewall Brigade 
Band, 7 were left to surrender at Appomattox:

J. A. Armentrout J. P. Ast J. M. Foley

A. A. Grove A. L. Spurr D. E. Strasburg

R. A. Wilson


John M. Carroll, who was once listed as a band member, was paroled as 
sergeant major of his regiment.53

Throughout the retreat from Petersburg, notwithstanding the carnage and 
destruction, the bandwagon had escaped disaster and had remained with the 
regiment. In accord with terms of surrender granting retention of personal 
and individual possessions, band members were permitted to keep their 
musical instruments, which were brought back to Staunton and now are 
enshrined in the Stonewall Brigade Band hail.


"Paroles of the Army of Northern Virginia Surrendered at Appomattox,"

Southern Historical Papers, XV (1887), pp. 90-91.

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APPENDIX E

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THE SURRENDER AT APPOMATTOX

It has been said that invention of mythology is an American trait and that 
it is particularly true in the annals of war, histories of military units, 
and martial legends of individual exploits. The Stonewall Brigade Band has 
been fortunate in that most of its history is reasonably well documented. An 
outstanding exception, however, is the intriguing story that General Ulysses 
S. Grant singled out this band for special consideration at Appomattox, 
permitting it, alone of all Confederate bands, to take its instruments home. 
Events of the surrender hardly bear this out. General Grant, after 
negotiations with General Lee April 9, 1865, left Appomattox and was not 
present at the formal capitulation April 12. Douglas Freeman states that, in 
the Confederate retreat from Petersburg, most of the bands lost or discarded 
their musical instruments but that a few organizations retained theirs. At 
least one other band-the Fourth North Carolina, with twelve musicians-played 
a serenade for General Lee after the surrender and departed from Appomattox 
with its musical ihstruments.1

Apparently this legend of Grant's consideration for the Stonewall Brigade 
Band did not come into vogue or general acceptance until twenty years after 
the surrender. No earlier references to the general's special gesture of 
graciousness can be found. When on June 30, 1874, Grant stopped briefly in 
Staunton and was serenaded from the American Hotel, no allusions were made 
to any favor shown at Appomattox. On that latter occasion, in response to an 
inquiry, Mayor Trout identified the musicians as members of the Stonewall 
Brigade Brand; Grant, raising his hat and bowing, murmured, "The immortal 
Jackson!"

Though an unofficial band history, written a few years later, cited this as 
the first occasion when Grant was so honored south of the Mason and Dixon 
line, it made no mention that the band ever enjoyed special concessions from 
Grant.

In May 1885, after sending resolutions of sympathy to the ailing 
cx-President, the Stonewall Brigade Band noted in its news dispatch, "The 
old band feels more than an ordinary interest in General Grant, from the 
fact that at Appomattox he issued a special order permitting the members to 
retain the instruments they had carried through the war."2 This seems to 
have been the first assertion of the story. In due time this statement was 
magnified and dramatized, with vivid pictures of General Grant pointing to 
the seven musicians of the Stonewall Brigade Band and asking, "What band is 
that ?" then issuing the order, "Let them take their instruments with them."

Unquestionably the instruments on display in the Stonewall Brigade Band room 
are the original Civil War ones. The simplest explanation of the band's 
continued possession of them is that the musicians had been fortunate in 
retaining their property through the arduous retreat and that, as private 
personal possessions of individual soldiers, the instruments were not 
included among items to be turned over to Federal authorities.

1 Douglas S. Freeman, Lee's Lieutenants (New York, 1942-1946), III, p. 745.

2 Valley Virginian, May 28, 1885.

?

The above quoted from Marshall Moore Brice's; "The Stonewall Brigade Band"; 
1967; McClure Printing Co., Verona, Va.

Footnote: The original "band wagon" that went with the band members on 17 
April 1861 had been ordered returned to Staunton very early into the war 
even before the regiments were renamed the "Stonewall Brigade". The "band 
wagon" having "escaped disaster" cited above probably was the one used by 
the band members in ambulance service - the original employment of their 
duties along with band membership.

Brice further presented documented evidence that even before the end of 1865 
during the summer and fall of that year the Stonewall Brigade Band was in 
regular rehearsal and in August of that year provided Staunton and Augusta 
county with several public performances described by the Staunton Spectator 
as "spirited, stirring music" - (using the same instruments that they 
carried back from Appomattox).

Brice's description of Staunton, Augusta County from 1 May 1865 forward, the 
members of the Stonewall Brigade Band and the Shenandoah Valley residents is 
quite inspiration.

Opinion: Formed in 1855, the now named, The Stonewall Brigade Band, has been 
in continuous organization, rehearsal, and performance. The end of the 
Confederacy did not cause a break in its purpose; and, arguably, makes this 
organization, an element of the Stonewall Brigade, the only surviving unit 
of the Confederacy still in existence. All other units, mostly military 
entities, were "Federalized" at later dates under careful constructed 
"reconstruction".

Submitted for your evaluation as to "what then"?

Regards, Ray


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