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In fact, when the surrender was over—I'm going to digress for a second—everything would be ripped apart from the Wilmer McLean house: the desk, the pens, the floorboards, the wallpaper. Even a tree that Lee himself leaned against that morning would be ripped apart because everybody knew that history was taking place that day, and they wanted a piece of it.
事实上，受降仪式过后——请允许我跑题片刻——威尔默·麦克莱恩房子里的所有物品都被抢走了：那张桌子，那些钢笔以及地板和壁纸。就连那天上午李靠过的那棵树也未能幸免。大家都明白，那天发生了一起重大的历史事件，人人都想要点见证物。
But inside this small, little home, rather than talk about the surrender, they talked about the old days... Grant said: "You know, I remember you from the Mexican War, and what was it you did?" Lee looked at him and he said, "All these times in this battle, I've tried to recall your face. I could never quite do it." They continued to chat happily. They continued on and on, and it was eventually Lee who said, "I suppose we must discuss the object at hand, the surrender."
在这小巧而可爱的家里，格兰特只字不提投降一事，而是和李谈起了往事……他说墨西哥战争那会儿，我就知道有你这个人，你那时干什么差事？”李看了看他，说道在这场战斗中，我一直努力回想你的模样，可总记不起来。”他们俩接着兴高采烈地谈了起来，他们一直聊啊聊，最后还是李说“我想我们应该讨论投降这件事了。”
So though they didn't know each other, the bonds that were forged and the closeness they had almost defied the fact that they were the greatest nemeses one could imagine.
就这样，尽管过去互不相识，但他俩之间的关系以及亲密程度简直令人难以相信他们曾是宿敌。
On April 9, Robert E. Lee surrendered to U. S. Grant—that dignified, honorable surrender. Yet he only surrendered his army. There were still three Confederate armies in the field. There were over 175,000 men, their murderous gun barrels hot to the bitter end. There was Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president, calling for guerrilla warfare.
4月9日这天，罗伯特.E.李向U.S.格兰特投降——这是一次有尊严的、体面的投降。不过，李只能交出他本人指挥的部队，战场上还有三支南部邦联的部队，总计175，000多个士兵，他们都端着颇具杀伤力的步枪，准备奋战到底。此外，南部邦联总统杰斐逊·戴维斯还在鼓吹游击战。
