#HumpDayHistory (Civil War medicine facts to get you through the longest day of the week) Left for Dead on the ‘Last Day of the War’ Charles Minnigerode Jr. was just 16 years old when he ran away from home to join the Confederate Army. In 1862, he became General Fitzhugh Lee’s aide-de-camp. During the Battle of Appomattox Court House #OnThisDay April 9, 1865, he was injured and left for dead. A note was pinned to him by the Chief Surgeon, A.C. Randolph, that read, “Take care of the body and inform his father Rev. Minnigerode of Richmond.” Fitzhugh Lee would later recount, “One of the last Minie balls that whistled on its cruel errand over the Field of Appomattox passed entirely through the upper part of his body. He fell at my side….” Laying on the ground, Minnigerode wrote a letter home to his parents saying, “I am dying but I have fallen where I expected to fall. Our cause is defeated but I do not live to see the end of it.” But he did live to see the end of it…and more. Minnigerode was transferred to and treated at a field hospital in Farmville. He later married and had several children, one of whom he named Fitzhugh Lee. He suffered pain from his wounds and the trauma of war for the rest of his life and committed suicide in 1888. (fb)

It was the beginning of the end for the Confederacy #OnThisDay in 1865. General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Potomac at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia. The terms of surrender were especially generous: --To surrender their arms and artillery (not including the swords of officers) --To return to their respective homes --To observe the conditions of their parole, not to take up arms against the Government --To abide by the laws of their individual states In addition, food was granted for the starving army, and soldiers were allowed to keep their own horses and mules for use in the spring planting. Image: Parole form (National Museum of American History) (fb)