FINAL SALUTE TO THE WALKING DEAD

The final salute to General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia came from a most surprising source--Brigadier Lt. General Joshua Chamberlain.  Chamberlain was a Union hero of the Battle of Gettysburg who was also placed in charge of accepting the arms surrendered by Lee's army at Appomattox on April 10, 1865, the day following Lee's formal meeting with Grant.

As the surrendering Confederate regiments were passing in review before the assembled Union troops, Gen. Chamberlain ordered Federal troops to present arms as a token of respect for the defeated Confederates.  Chamberlain's writing records the reaction of Confederate General John Gordon and the rest of the Confederate army:

 "Instructions had been given; and when the head of each division column comes opposite our group, our bugle sounds the signal and instantly our whole line from right to left, regiment by regiment in succession, gives the soldier's salutation, from the "order arms" to the old "carry"—the marching salute. Gordon at the head of the column, riding with heavy spirit and downcast face, catches the sound of shifting arms, looks up, and, taking the meaning, wheels superbly, making with himself and his horse one uplifted figure, with profound salutation as he drops the point of his sword to the boot toe; then facing to his own command, gives word for his successive brigades to pass us with the same position of the manual,—honor answering honor. On our part not a sound of trumpet more, nor roll of drum; not a cheer, nor word nor whisper of vain-glorying, nor motion of man standing again at the order, but an awed stillness rather, and breath-holding, as if it were the passing of the dead!:

— Joshua L. Chamberlain, The Passing of the Armies, pp. 260-61

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Then Lt. Col. Chamberlain of Maine, had been instrumental in turning back Lee's attack on Little Round Top in the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2, 1865. He had been severely wounded in action at Gettysburg and was high decorated. There is probably no Union officer who personally saw more action against his Confederate enemy than Chamberlain. He had engaged in practically hand-to-hand combat on Little Round Top and had led the bayonet charge that repealed the final Confederate advance on the Union's left flank on July 2. In spite of that, or perhaps because of it, Chamberlain recognized the valor and bravery of his former Confederate adversaries and honored them once they had been defeated. 

Politicians today have no such honor.

I am disheartened, 150 years later, that the political Left (and some on the Right) wish to denigrate all who wore the Confederate gray--something that Chamberlain and other Union soldiers and officers had no stomach for at the immediate end of the war.  However, as time passes, those who never had the honor of facing brave men on the battlefields feel free to assassinate the character of Southern soldiers simply because it is politically permissible to do so.  Chamberlain certainly never sympathized with Confederate politics and he made that very clear.  He did, however, recognize their honor and  bravery and he had a magnanimous character which seems to have been lost on our present political generation altogether.  In a modern PC culture, someone would have grabbed Lt. Gen. Chamberlain by the coattails and said, "Look, General, these people supported slavery and few the Confederate battle flag.  You must not be seen as doing anything which might fail to condemn them."  If anyone had done this, I suspect Chamberlain would have punched them in the face.  He was quite a brave and honorable gentleman.