“Next to a battle lost, there is no spectacle more melancholy than a battle won.” April 9, 1865, The surrender of General Robert E. Lee to General Ulysses S. Grant, 'Peace in Union', at the Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Excerpt from "Grant" by Ron Chernow, ©2017 “Characteristically, Grant tried to exchange pleasantries with Lee, who sat there with Olympian gravity. In a slightly fumbling manner, Grant said deferentially, “I met you once before, General Lee, while we were serving in Mexico, when you came over from General Scott’s headquarters to visit Garland’s brigade, to which I then belonged. I have always remembered your appearance, and I think I should have recognized you anywhere.” Fifteen years his senior, Lee didn’t bother to pretend that he recalled Grant. “Yes, I know I met you on that occasion, and I have often thought of it, and tried to recollect how you looked, but I have never been able to recall a single feature.”100 The comment surely reminded both men of their highly unequal ranks in Mexico, a difference in status equalized by subsequent events. On the surface, their conversation seemed amiable, but Grant was perceptive enough to discern that Lee struggled with strong feelings behind a mask of cordiality. As he observed in an eloquent passage of his Memoirs notable for its empathy: “What General Lee’s feelings were I do not know. As he was a man of much dignity, with an impassible face, it was impossible to say whether he felt inwardly glad that the end had finally come, or felt sad over the result, and was too manly to show it. Whatever his feelings, they were entirely concealed from my observation; but my own feelings, which had been quite jubilant on the receipt of his letter, were sad and depressed. I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse.101 The tone of Grant’s reminiscence confirmed the Duke of Wellington’s (at Appomattox, Virginia) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-xQ3JmJlJF/?igshid=1di836vgf48m9