Unit 10B - Mercy at Appomattox
Mercy at Appomattox
William Zinsser
I'm not a Civil War buff. I've never heard the old battlefields like Gettysburg and Chickamauga calling to me to walk over them and re-enact what happened there. The story is just too sad.
But one Civil War site did keep beckoning to me—not one where the armies fought but the one where they stopped fighting: Appomattox.
To see it I flew to Richmond and drove west across southern Virginia, choosing a route that would take me over terrain that Gen. Robert E. Lee covered with his Confederate army in its last week.
For nine months Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had been dug in near Petersburg, south of Richmond. On April 2, his railroad lifeline cut by the North, Lee retreated. But Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was in close pursuit, and by April 6 it was all over. Union troops routed almost a fifth of Lee's army at Sayler's Creek and took some 7000 prisoners. Hearing the news, Lee said, "My God! Has the army been dissolved?" It largely had. Hungry and exhausted, huge numbers of soldiers had dropped out, and the army was down to 30,000 men when Lee, hurrying west, received a note from Grant calling on him to surrender.
Outnumbered and almost encircled, Lee considered his dwindling options. One officer suggested that the troops could disperse and carry on as guerrillas.
Lee refused; further fighting, he explained, would only inflict needless pain on regions of the South that had been spared the havoc of war. "There is nothing left me but to go and see General Grant," he said, "and I would rather die a thousand deaths." On April 9, Lee sent his aide, Lt. Col. Charles Marshall, into the nearby village of Appomattox Court House to find a suitable place for the two men to meet.
My schoolboy memory was that Grant and Lee actually met in a courthouse. They didn't, as I learned on my visit; in the 19th-century southern Virginia, certain towns that served as the county seat had the words Court House appended to their name. But in fact, when Colonel Marshall rode into town it was Palm Sunday and the courthouse was closed. Almost nothing was stirring. Only about 100 people—half of them slaves—lived in the village, and many white homeowners, hearing the rumble of armies, had left. One who remained, a merchant named Wilmer McLean, was persuaded by Colonel Marshall to allow his home to be used for the surrender.
Lee arrived first, wearing full dress uniform, with a sash and a presentation sword. Grant, who had outraced his baggage wagon, was in his customary field uniform, with muddy trousers tucked into muddy boots.
Seated in McLean's parlor, the two men chatted amiably about their Army days in the Mexican War. Finally, Lee brought up "the object of our present meeting." Grant took out a pencil, rapidly wrote out the terms of surrender, and handed the paper to Lee.
This will have a very happy effect on my army, Lee said after reading the terms, which, far from hounding the enemy with reprisals, simply let them all go home. Lee mentioned that many of his men owned their horses and asked if those horses could be kept. Grant agreed. He said he assumed that most of the men were small farmers, and without their horses he doubted that they would be able to put in a crop to get through the next winter.
This will do much toward conciliating our people, Lee replied. In parting, he told Grant that he would be returning some Union prisoners because he didn't have any provisions for them—or, in fact, for his own men. Grant said he would send 25,000 rations to Lee's army.
When word of the surrender reached the nearby Union headquarters it touched off a spree of cannon firing. Grant put an end to it. "The war is over—the rebels are our countrymen again," he told his staff. He felt that he couldn't exult in the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly. Catching the clemency of the moment, the Union troops decided not to wait for the official delivery of food to the defeated enemy.
They went to the Confederate camps and emptied their haversacks of the beef, bacon, sugar and other delicacies that the rebels had long gone without.
On April 12, four years to the day after the attack on Fort Sumter which started the war, Lee's Confederate troops marched into the village and stacked their arms. Here the final act of healing that runs through the whole Appomattox story took place, set in motion by another remarkable figure—Joshua L. Chamberlain, the Union general designated to receive the surrender. A Bowdoin College professor who left to enlist in the army, Chamberlain won a battlefield commission for repeated acts of bravery and was wounded six times, once so severely that an army doctor gave him up for dead.
Now, with his soldiers standing at attention, General Chamberlain watched the first ragged Confederate soldiers coming up the road, led by Gen. John B. Gordon.
The momentous meaning of this occasion impressed me deeply, Chamberlain later wrote. "I resolved to mark it by some token of recognition: which could be no other than a salute of arms. I was well aware of the criticisms that would follow. My main reason, however, was one for which I sought no authority nor asked forgiveness. Before us in proud humiliation stood the embodiment of manhood: men whom neither toils and sufferings, nor the fact of death, nor disaster, nor hopelessness could bend from their resolve; standing there before us, thin, worn and famished, but erect, and with eyes looking level into ours, waking memories that bound us together as no other bond. Was not such manhood to be welcomed back into a Union so tested and assured?"
Responding to his command, "instantly our whole line, regiment by regiment, gave the soldier's salutation, from the 'order arms' to the old 'carry' - the marching salute. Gordon, at the head of the column, riding with heavy spirit and downcast face, caught the sound of shifting arms, looked up and, taking the meaning, wheeled superbly, making with himself and with his horse one uplifted figure, with profound salutation as he dropped the point of his sword to the boot toe; then facing to his own command, he gave word for his successive brigades to pass us with the same position... honor answering honor. On our part, not a sound of trumpet more, nor roll of drum; not a cheer, nor word nor whisper of vain glorying, but an awed stillness rather, and breath-holding, as if it were the passing of the dead!"
From early morning until late afternoon the saluting soldiers of the South marched past the saluting Union soldiers, stacked their rifles and tattered Confederate flags and started for home. Counting the Union troops, almost 100,000 men had been in Appomattox Court House.
A few days later they were all gone.
After the surrender the village went right back into its cocoon, I was told by Ron Wilson, historian of Appomattox Court House, which is now a National Park Service site consisting of the reconstructed McLean house and courthouse and more than 20 smaller buildings. He and I were sitting on the porch of the restored Clover Hill Tavern where printing presses ordered by Grant had printed 28,231 parole passes for the Confederate soldiers. We were looking across a vista of overwhelming stillness. The road that the surrendering rebels took into the village climbed across countryside so recognizable from 19th-century paintings that I almost expected to see them coming down the road again.
Today the site gets roughly 110,000 tourists a year. "They come to Appomattox because they really want to—it's off the usual path," said superintendent John B. Montgomery. "They're looking for inspiration. The story we try to tell is not the final battle. It's the reconciliation of the country and the generous terms offered by Grant. He didn't play the conquering hero."
That theme of forgiveness and reconciliation kept booming in my ears through the stillness at Appomattox.
Grant and Lee had to look far into the future, said Wilson. "They knew that the energies that had been given to divisions for so many years would have to be devoted to rebuilding the country. There was no vindictiveness."
Three people were strongly alive to me there. Two of them, Lee and Grant, continued to radiate powerful qualities that Americans still honor: one, symbolizing nobility and the aristocratic tradition of the old South, and the other symbolizing the self-made common man of the new North, Midwest and West.
The third person was the inescapable Lincoln. Appomattox was, finally, his show. I could almost see him standing over the little table in the McLean house where Grant sat scribbling his terms. I knew that Lincoln had often spoken of wanting a merciful peace, but I didn't know whether he and Grant had found time to discuss it. Ron Wilson said they had met just two weeks earlier—on the River Queen, in the James River—and had talked at length about the rapidly approaching end of the war and the disarray it was bound to bring.
You just know, Wilson told me, "that Lincoln said, 'Let'em down easy.'"
参考译文——阿波马托克斯的宽恕
阿波马托克斯的宽恕
威廉·津泽
我不是内战迷，也从未听到过葛底斯堡和奇克莫加那些老战场的召唤而去那里走一走，重温一下在那儿发生的一切。那个战事的确是太令人伤心了。
但是有一处内战的遗址一直吸引着我——它不是军队作战的地方，而是他们停火的地方——阿波马托克斯。
为了参观阿波马托克斯，我乘飞机到了里士满，然后驱车西行穿过南弗吉尼亚，选择的这条路线能使我经过当年罗伯特·E.李将军和他的南方盟军在最后一周走过的地带。
九个月来，李的北弗吉尼亚大军一直驻扎在里士满南部的彼得斯堡附近。4月2日，他的铁路生命线被北方军切断，李撤退了。但尤利塞斯·S.格兰特将军紧追不舍，到了4月6日，一切都结束了。在塞勒湾，北方联军使李损失了将近五分之一的军队，并捕获其7，000名战俘。听到这个噩耗，李说上帝啊！我的军队就这样垮了吗？”在很大程度上的确如此。里于饥饿、疲劳，许多战士做了逃兵，军队人数锐减至3万，就在此时，匆忙西行的李收到了来自格兰特的劝降信。
敌众我寡，又几近被包围，李考虑到他的选择范围正在缩小。一个军官建议他分散兵力以游击的形式继续作战。
李拒绝了；他解释道，如果继续作战只会使那些没有遭受战争破坏的南方地区蒙受无须承受的战乱之苦。“我别无选择，只能去见见格兰特将军，”他说，“其实我宁愿死一千次也不愿意这么做。”4月9日，李派他的副官陆军上校査尔斯·马歇尔到附近的阿波马托克斯镇的村庄找一个适宜两人见面的地方。
在我儿时的记忆中，格兰特和李将军是在县法院见的面。但据我在路途中得知事实并非如此。19世纪的弗吉尼亚南部，一些作为县首府的小镇在其名称后都加上“法院”二字。事实上，当马歇尔上校骑马来到镇上的时候，正值棕枝主日，县法院大门紧闭。几乎没有什么令人兴奋的事。只有大约100人——其中半数都是奴隶——住在村子里。听到军队的隆隆炮火声，许多白人庄园主早已逃走了。留下来的人当中有一个叫威尔默·麦克莱恩的商人，他在上校马歇尔的劝说下，同意把他家作为举行受降仪式的场所。
那天，是李将军先到的，他身着整齐的军装，佩戴着饰带和军剑。格兰特的行李车还未到达，因此他只穿了平常的作战服，满是泥巴的裤子被塞进了泥靴子里。
两人在麦克莱恩的客厅里落座，亲切地聊着墨西哥战争时的军旅生活。最后，李提出“商谈我们此行的目的”。格兰特拿出一支铅笔，很快地写下了投降的条款，递给了李。
“这将对我的军队大有好处。”李看后说。受降条款里并没有报复性的迫害，而是让所有人都回家。李提到许多士兵有马，并询问是否可以保留这些马。格兰特同意了。他说他知道大多数士兵都是小农场主，没有马他们种不了庄稼，很难度过明年冬天。
“这将大大抚慰我们的人民。”李回答道。分别时，他告诉格兰特他将释放一些联军战俘，因为他没有粮食供给他们。事实上他连供给自己人的粮食都没有。格兰特承诺他会给李的军队送去25，000人的口粮。
当投降的消息传到附近的联军总部时，人们开始鸣炮庆祝。格兰特命令他们停止庆祝。“战争结束了——叛军重新成为我们的同胞。”格兰特告诉他的军队。与自己顽强作战多年的敌人战败了，他不能表现得欢欣喜悦。联军士兵领悟到统帅的宽厚和仁慈，决定不等给败军送的粮食到达，他们直接来到南方盟军营地，倾其所有，从干粮袋里倒出叛军短缺已久的牛肉、熏肉、糖和其他美味。
4月12日，李的盟军进入阿波马托克斯，放下了武器。而四年前的这一天，对萨姆特堡的进攻引发了内战。在这里贯穿于整个阿波马托克斯故事核心、愈合战争创伤的一幕上演了，这一幕是由联军另一位卓越的人物——乔舒亚.L.张伯伦将军开始的，他奉命接受投降张伯伦原是鲍登大学的教授，后来投笔从戎，并因多次英勇作战而荣获战地指挥官军衔。他曾先后六次负伤，最严重的一次，军医都已经放弃了，以为他必死无疑。
此刻，他的士兵正立正站好，张伯伦将军看见了第一队衣衫褴褛的南方军士兵沿路走来，领头的是约翰·B.戈登将军。
“那个场合的深远意义令我印象深刻，”张伯伦后来写道，“我决定用某种象征敬意的举动来纪念这一时刻，那只能是行军礼。我很清楚批判会接踵而至。然而，我这样做既不想得到上级的批准，也不想寻求谅解。站在我们面前的是虽受屈辱却保持高傲的男子气概的化身：劳苦、死亡、灾难、无望都不能屈服他们的意志；站在我们面前的是瘦弱、疲惫、饥饿但却挺直腰杆与我们平等对视的人们。他们唤醒我们心中将我们紧紧团结在一起的那些记忆。难道这些人不应受到欢迎，回到历经考验而更牢固的联邦中来吗？”
随着他的命令，“所有士兵，以团为单位向行进中的南方军行军礼，从‘立正持枪’到旧式的‘持枪礼’。戈登骑马走在队伍的最前面，心事重重，面容沮丧，听到操作枪支的声音，他抬头看了看，明白这意思后便气宇轩昂地转身，骑在马上，显示出高大的形象，他把剑端指向靴头，深深致意。然后面向自己的部队，命令后面的旅同样以行军礼的方式通过……用军礼回敬我们。而我们的军队没有号声，没有战鼓，没有欢呼，没有一句炫耀的言语和耳语，只有敬畏的沉默，使你屏住呼吸，就像目送死者的葬仪。”
从清晨到傍晚，行着军礼的南方士兵从同样行着军礼的联军士兵面前走过，放下武器和破烂的军旗，启程回家。包括联军士兵在内，将近10万人来到阿波马托克斯。
几天后，他们都走了。
“投降之后，村庄又恢复了往日的宁静。”阿波马托克斯的历史学家罗恩·威尔逊告诉我。现在的阿波马托克斯是一个国家公园军事遗址，包括重建的麦克莱恩的房子、县法院大楼和20多个小型建筑物。我和他坐在重建的克洛弗山酒店的前厅，在那里格兰特曾下令为南方军队士兵印制了28，231份释放通行证。我们看着远方无比寂静的景色。降军进入村庄的那条路在19世纪的绘画中清晰得一眼可辨，我甚至以为他们又从那条路上走来了。
如今，每年大约有11万旅游者来此观光。“他们来到阿波马克斯，因为他们真心想来这里看看——这里很偏僻，”管理员约翰·B.蒙哥马利说，“他们来寻找灵感，我们所要讲述的故事并不是最后的战役，而是国家的和解和格兰特提出的宽宏大量的条款，他并没有以一个征服者自居。”
在寂静的阿波马托克斯，宽恕与和解的主题始终在我耳边回荡。
“格兰特和李一定是着眼于未来的，”威尔逊说，“他们知道多年来分裂国家的力量必将用来重建这个国家。他们彼此都没有仇恨。”
在我看来，有三个人发挥了重要作用。其中两位，李和格兰特，他们身上仍然散发着美国人民至今仍引以为荣的人格魅力：一个象征着尊严和古老南方贵族的传统，而另外一个象征着新北部、中西部以及西部普通民众的自立、自强。
第三个人无疑就是林肯，阿波马托克斯的和解最终是他策划的。我仿佛看见他正站在麦克莱恩的小桌旁，格兰特就坐在那儿，潦草地写着条款。我知道林肯经常提到渴望一个仁慈的和平，但我不知道他和格兰特是否找时间讨论过此事。罗恩·威尔逊说他们在受降前两周见过面——在詹姆斯河的“大河女王”号轮船上——曾长时间讨论过战争即将结束和可能带来的混乱。
“你要知道，”威尔逊告诉我，“林肯说过‘让他们有尊严地投降!’”
Key Words:
grant [grɑ:nt]
n. 授予物，补助金; 同意，给予
n. 财产
mercy ['mə:si]
n. 怜悯，宽恕，仁慈，恩惠
surrender [sə'rendə]
v. 投降，让与，屈服
n. 投降，屈服，放弃
disperse [dis'pə:s]
vt. 分散，传播，散开
vi. 分散
route [ru:t]
n. 路线，(固定)线路，途径
creek [kri:k]
n. 小湾，小溪 Creek n. 克里克族，克里克人，
terrain ['terein]
n. 地带，地域，地形
grant [grɑ:nt]
n. 授予物，补助金; 同意，给予
n. 财产
needless ['ni:dlis]
adj. 不需要的，无用的
havoc ['hævək]
n. 大破坏，混乱 vt. 破坏
presentation [.prezen'teiʃən]
n. 陈述，介绍，赠与
n. [美]讲课，报告
surrender [sə'rendə]
v. 投降，让与，屈服
n. 投降，屈服，放弃
certain ['sə:tn]
adj. 确定的，必然的，特定的
trousers ['trauzəz]
n. 裤子
wagon ['wægən]
n. 四轮马车，货车
v. 用四轮马车运
uniform ['ju:nifɔ:m]
n. 制服
adj. 一致的，统一的
inflict [in'flikt]
vt. 施以，加害，使遭受，折磨
clemency ['klemənsi]
n. 仁慈，（气候）温和，和蔼
delivery [di'livəri]
n. 递送，交付，分娩
grant [grɑ:nt]
n. 授予物，补助金; 同意，给予
n. 财产
touched [tʌtʃt]
adj. 受感动的 adj. 精神失常的
exult [ig'zʌlt]
vi. 欢欣鼓舞，狂喜
surrender [sə'rendə]
v. 投降，让与，屈服
n. 投降，屈服，放弃
assumed [ə'sju:md]
adj. 假装的；假定的
humiliation [hju:.mili'eiʃən]
n. 耻辱，丢脸
bend [bend]
v. 弯曲，使弯曲，屈服，屈从
n. 弯曲，弯
momentous [məu'mentəs]
adj. 重要的，重大的
enlist [in'list]
v. 徵募，参与，支持
remarkable [ri'mɑ:kəbl]
adj. 显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的
designated ['deziɡ,neitid]
adj. 特指的；指定的
surrender [sə'rendə]
v. 投降，让与，屈服
n. 投降，屈服，放弃
recognition [.rekəg'niʃən]
n. 认出，承认，感知，知识
authority [ə'θɔ:riti]
n. 权力，权威，职权，官方，当局
disaster [di'zɑ:stə]
n. 灾难
figure ['figə]
n. 图形，数字，形状; 人物，外形，体型
salutation [.sælju'teiʃən]
n. 招呼，致敬，问候 n. (信函开头)称呼语
superbly [sju:'pə:bli]
adv. 壮丽地，极度地
column ['kɔləm]
n. 柱，圆柱，柱形物，专栏，栏，列
assured [ə'ʃuəd]
adj. 确实的，保障的，有自信的 动词assure的过
sword [sɔ:d]
n. 剑，刀
bond [bɔnd]
n. 债券，结合，粘结剂，粘合剂
vt. 使结
whisper ['wispə]
n. 低语，窃窃私语，飒飒的声音
vi. 低声
downcast ['daunkæst]
adj. 气馁的，悲哀的，垂下的
drum [drʌm]
n. 鼓，鼓声，鼓状物
restored [ri'stɔ:d]
adj. 精力充沛的；精力恢复的 v. 修复（resto
reconciliation [.rekənsili'eiʃən]
n. 调和，和解
n. [会]对账
surrender [sə'rendə]
v. 投降，让与，屈服
n. 投降，屈服，放弃
cocoon [kə'ku:n]
n. 茧，茧状物， vt. 包围，包裹
stillness ['stilnis]
n. 静止，沉静
generous ['dʒenərəs]
adj. 慷慨的，宽宏大量的，丰盛的，味浓的
inspiration [.inspə'reiʃən]
n. 灵感，吸入，鼓舞人心(的东西)
theme [θi:m]
n. 题目，主题
vista ['vistə]
n. 街景，展望，回想
devoted [di'vəutid]
adj. 投入的，深爱的 v. 投入 vbl. 投入
radiate ['reidieit]
v. 放射，散发，辐射
disarray [.disə'rei]
vt. 弄乱，使混乱 n. 无秩序，杂乱，不整齐的衣服
参考资料：
- 现代大学英语精读(第2版)第三册:U10B Mercy at Appomattox(1)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
- 现代大学英语精读(第2版)第三册:U10B Mercy at Appomattox(2)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
- http://www.kekenet.com/daxue/201706/51238shtml
- 现代大学英语精读(第2版)第三册:U10B Mercy at Appomattox(4)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
- 现代大学英语精读(第2版)第三册:U10B Mercy at Appomattox(5)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
- 现代大学英语精读(第2版)第三册:U10B Mercy at Appomattox(6)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
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