Fitz Lee's 'forlorn hope' for the South

摘要

As his uncle contemplated the merits of trying to fight his way out of Appomattox Court House, Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, son of Robert's brother Sidney Smith Lee, hatched a plan of his own. "If a surrender was compelled the next day, I would try to extricate the cavalry," he recalled, and when Federal infantry arrived on April 9, "knowing what would be the result, I withdrew the cavalry." Fitz and about 2,000 men escaped and did not surrender that day."Apart from the fond, though forlorn hope that future operations were still in store for the cavalry, I was desirous that they should not be included in the capitulations because the ownership of their horses was vested in themselves, and I deemed it doubtful that terms could be offered allowing such ownership to continue. A few days convinced me of the impracticability of longer entertaining such hopes, and I rode into the Federal lines and accepted for myself the terms offered the officers of the Army of Northern Virginia." Fitzhugh Lee was paroled at Appomattox Court House on April 11, 1865.