Long-Lost Surrender Document Is
Found In A Philadelphia Museum
By Herb Kaufman
(September 2008 Civil War News)

EDITOR’S NOTE: National headlines recently announced the discovery of the long-lost third copy of the Appomattox surrender document. Herb Kaufman says the document is authentic and, what’s more, he found it.

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — On April 7, 1865, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant sent the first of a succession of letters to Gen. Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.

The Federal staff in the immediate vicinity of their headquarters noted that Grant presumed that the Union army was well situated and that Confederate chances of reaching much needed supplies at Lynchburg were almost hopeless. Grant had made a personal decision to endeavor to make direct contact with General Lee in an attempt to avoid more bloodshed and obtain the surrender of Lee’s army.

There was apparently considerable disagreement among the Confederate staff as to what reply should be made to Grant’s first letter.

Lt. Gen. James Longstreet’s initial reaction was simply, “Not yet.” Lee, nevertheless, responded to Grant by requesting the terms of possible surrender.

A number of Confederate officers met and came to the unavoidable conclusion that surrender was inevitable. They asked Lee’s old friend, Brig. Gen. William Pendleton to present their concerns to Lee. Upon receiving Pendleton, Lee responded in part, “I trust that it has not come to that.”

Lee, however, did know that the end was near. Thus began a series of letters between the two commanders. This correspondence resulted in the famous meeting of April 9, 1865, in the Appomattox residence of Wilmer McLean, at which time, Robert E. Lee agreed to the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia.

It was also decided that each general would appoint three commissioners who would meet the following day to specify the full terms of the surrender.

In his memoirs, Maj. Gen. John Gibbon, one of the Federal commissioners, stated that once the five final terms and conditions were delineated, “Triplicate copies were signed, one being retained by the officers of each army. The third copy I kept and afterwards presented to the Historical Society of Maryland….”

Over the years one copy of these terms resided in the National Archives and the second copy remained in the Historical Society of Maryland as noted by Gen. Gibbon. However, the third copy disappeared into history.

As the Civil War and Underground Railroad Museum was planning its closing while the new Civil War Museum of Philadelphia is being designed, I was asked by President Sharon Smith to evaluate and catalog the contents of every one of the several dozen boxes in the archives.

In the 85-year history of the museum at its current location it was possible that the provenance and documentation of archival material could have been lost or misplaced.

This was a task any historian would embrace. As I began I discovered one box with no notations concerning its contents.

Upon opening the unlabeled box I found a considerable number of modern prints of the museum’s exterior, as well as some additional unremarkable modern documents. This seemed to be a box with nothing of any value.

Nevertheless, I removed all the papers and found several folders in the bottom of the box. Upon opening one of them I was astonished to find what appeared to be the terms of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia.

The document was glued to a piece of cardboard and a “preservative” of some kind had been applied many years ago.

I immediately took it to museum curator Andrew Coldren and asked him to look at the document. We both grabbed magnifying lenses and, seeing the indentations of the pen, and the shading of the writing, we determined that this did appear to be the actual document.

Upon further investigation through past inventories, we learned that the document was given to the museum in the 1930s by Bruce Ford, a well-placed businessman and the son of a Union veteran. 

It was framed and hung in a place of honor by the members of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion (MOLLUS) who founded the museum.

As time passed the document was removed from the frame and its provenance was apparently lost. In the 1960s it was considered by someone to be a probable “photocopy” and it then found its way into a box with other apparently “insignificant” documents.

In closely examining the document, the shades and impressions made by a pen are clearly discernable. Continuing the research, I found that General Grant’s aide, Col. Horace Porter, in his book Campaigning With Grant, stated that two copies of the surrender agreement signed on April 9, 1865, by Generals Grant and Lee were made with Grant’s “manifold writer.”

General Gibbon’s memoirs provide extensive detail about the signing of the April 10 document, even delineating the time (“8:30 p.m.”) and the table being used (his “old pine camp table”). He then states that “triplicate copies were signed.”

It is certainly possible that after the terms of surrender were completed, an aide made two copies with the manifold writer. If this did occur, then this would explain why the “triplicate copies” would appear to be nearly identical.

Further, after the signing on April 10, the six officers involved went their separate ways. It is highly doubtful that they ever again came into each others’ company as a group so as to sign a “souvenir” copy.

The staff of the Civil War Museum of Philadelphia is continuing its investigation into the provenance of this document.

Making this discovery was one of my most interesting and remarkable experiences. As a historian, I have had the opportunity to examine a significant number of extraordinary documents, but none of these will ever replace the amazement of finding this singularly historic agreement.