"Governor, if I had foreseen the use those people designed to make of their victory, there would have been no surrender at Appomattox Courthouse; no sir, not by me. Had I foreseen these results of subjugation, I would have preferred to die at Appomattox with my brave men, my sword in my right hand."

Jamie,

I don't think that General Lee would have thought that way at that point in time. The Federal forces had completed about a 270 or 280 degrees of encirclement around Richmond at that point. That is why Lee approached Grant about terms. If you can find any drawings of where the Federal advance was in terms of encircling Richmond you will see what I mean. Lee was limited in how many men he had or could call up to help where as Grant had unlimited troops to bring in. The rebel forces were really stretched out by then. I would guess that they didn't have more than one man per 50 yards of line to cover by that time in 1865. General Lee was a very brave and intelligent officer and I don't see him sacrificing lives for no reason. Had he not ceased hostilities at that time, the Federals would have completed their encirclement in short order and after reinforcing their line they would have turned toward Richmond from a 360 degree circle and drove into the city and literally crushed it and the inhabitants. Thats just my opinion. FC