Matt Bors for July 02, 2015
Transcript:
1865 General Grant: Unconditional surrender, Confederates! Man: We have ONE condition! General Lee: Our flag... General Lee: You will fly it over southern statehouses... But ONLY from 1961 to 2015! THEN the war is over. General Grant: These conditions make perfect sense and we love them! IT'S A DEAL.
To be precise, Grant was known as “Unconditional Surrender” Grant quite accurately. He did demand unconditional surrender of Lee’s troops, but then gave them back their horses (because unlike the Union Army, the Confederate Cavalry used their own and needed them to plow) and was generally kind to them in defeat.And Lincoln dictated the terms of surrender. Late in the war some Confederates actually tried to negotiate terms, but their terms assumed recognition of the Confederacy after they were sure to lose. Lincoln sent them on their way, but their chutzpah lives on in the Lost Cause mythologists of today…