The Stacking of Arms

Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The formal laying down of arms came three days later. Grant's terms were plain: officers kept their sidearms, men who owned horses kept them, and everyone signed a parole and went home. Around 28,000 Confederates were on the rolls.

On the morning of April 12 the Army of Northern Virginia marched for the last time, between lines of Union infantry. Brigadier General Joshua Chamberlain ordered his men from order arms to carry arms — the marching salute. General John B. Gordon, at the head of the column, wheeled his horse and returned it.

Regiment by regiment the men stacked their muskets and laid their colors on the pile. Some pressed the flags to their lips first. Then they walked away.

The Union line stands at the right edge, rigid, bayonets fixed, and the Confederate column shuffles past it toward the viewer. The men are in whatever they still have — gray, butternut, brown — and most are looking at the ground. In the center one soldier bends to lay a folded flag on the stacked muskets, and the whole picture turns on that gesture.

Above them the sky is enormous and softly lit, a morning after rain. The valley behind is quiet farmland. Nothing raises its voice.