Surrender Towel
Gift of Mrs. Elizabeth B. Custer, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
On April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee, his battered and outnumbered army surrounded by Union forces near Appomattox Court House, Virginia, moved to negotiate terms of surrender with Ulysses S. Grant. Captain Robert M. Sims, an officer on the staff of James Longstreet, was ordered to relay Lee’s request. As he rode toward the enemy position, Sims carried a makeshift flag of truce, a white linen dish towel he had purchased in Richmond days before the Confederate army abandoned the city. At the Union lines, he encountered troops commanded by George A. Custer, and delivered Lee’s message. Custer’s chief of staff Edward Whitaker then escorted Sims back to the Confederate lines. Before making his own return trip through no man’s land, Whitaker asked to hold on to the towel for his protection. He subsequently cut it in two, keeping one half while the other (shown here) was eventually given to Custer’s wife, Elizabeth. She later bequeathed it to the Smithsonian, where it remains.
