The Training Ground - Prologue

Hey All --

The new book is coming out May 14. The Training Ground is already available online at Amazon.com. Click on the link for a look at the cover and for a detailed description. In the meantime, here's a taste of the book.

Appomattox

It was Palm Sunday, 1865 when General Robert E. Lee rode forth to surrender. He had struggled with the decision for two days, but now the time had come. His vaunted Army of Northern Virginia, which had bewildered and frustrated its Union opponents throughout the Civil War, was camped just outside the village of Appomattox Court House. A 60,000 strong Union force hemmed them in on three sides. Rather than try to fight his way out one more time, Lee decided to avoid further bloodshed. It was time for the war that had divided America to come to an end.
The home of a man named Wilmer McLean was chosen, somewhat randomly, as the site where Lee would meet with Union commander Ulysses S. Grant to lay down his sword. McClean had once lived near the place where the Battle of Bull Run was fought, and had moved to get away from the war. Now it had found him once again.
Lee arrived first, resplendent in polished black boots, a pressed gray uniform, an expensive ceremonial sword, and a clean yellow sash. With him were Colonel Orville Babcock and Major Charles Marshall. Lee was a stately man who had been a soldier his entire adult life. To show up for such a momentous occasion in a uniform that was less than his very best would have been out of character, and so he preferred to dress immaculately for this heartbreaking occasion
Ulysses S. Grant, who rode thirty-five miles on horseback through April mud to be there that morning, wore spattered boots and a private's uniform on which he had sewn the stars of a lieutenant general. He wore no sword or sash, and one coat button was in the wrong hole. With him were his staff and a number of his high-ranking officers, including General Edward Ord.
Grant later told friends that as he walked up the courthouse steps to accept Lee's unconditional surrender of his Confederate forces, he felt a sudden embarrassment. Grant was fearful Lee would think his appearance was retribution for a long-ago rebuke.
"I met you once before, General Lee," Grant began their conversation, "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."
"Yes," Lee replied, setting Grant at ease. "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 recalled a single feature."
Then, for the next few minutes, before getting down to the business of surrender and the end to the Civil War, Grant and Lee spoke of Mexico, the war where their uniforms were both blue and where they first learned how to fight.