It ends at Appomattox

IT'S HARD to believe that “The Civil War: A Ken Burns Film” first aired 20 years ago on PBS. The concluding episode of its re-airing ran last night. It remains powerful and haunting.

Union General Joshua Chamberlain, renowned for his actions on “Little Round Top” at the Battle of Gettysburg, was given the momentous task of accepting the surrender Robert E. Lee's Army at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. The beaten Confederates were obliged to march down a single road to collection points where their arms and colors could be turned in. General John Brown Gordon led the progression. As Gordon rode by, Chamberlain unexpectedly ordered the Union troops to "carry arms" as a show of respect.

Recalling the event, Chamberlain later wrote:

“Gordon, at the head of the marching column, outdoes us in courtesy. He was riding with downcast eyes and more than pensive look; but at this clatter of arms he raises his eyes and instantly catching the significance, wheels his horse with that superb grace of which he is master, drops the point of his sword to his stirrup, gives a command, at which the great Confederate ensign following him is dipped and his decimated brigades, as they reach our right, respond to the 'carry.' All the while on our part not a sound of trumpet or drum, not a cheer, nor a word nor motion of man, but awful stillness as if it were the passing of the dead.”

Many historians regard this scene as among the most poignant of the Civil War.