"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. ? APPENDIX E ? 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 ? ______________________________________ To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html