Worse Than Murder

This chapter compares how Ulysses S. Grant and Nathan Bedford Forrest used surrender. While Forrest demanded surrender and threatened a massacre if refused, Grant saw surrender as an opportunity to prevent bloodshed. The chapter includes discussion of unconditional surrender and the massacre of African American soldiers at Fort Pillow.

Dying in the Last Ditch

This chapter examines Confederate surrenders east of the Mississippi after Appomattox Courthouse. It argues that these post-Appomattox surrenders were more complex and contingent than most historians imagine. It focuses on Johnston's surrender to William Tecumseh Sherman at Bennett Place, Jefferson Davis's flight, and why some Confederate soldiers refused to surrender.

A Convulsion at Appomattox

This chapter examines Robert E. Lee's surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. It explores Lee's decision to surrender, their meeting at the McLean house, and the patrol of Confederate soldiers. It demonstrates how the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse built on earlier surrenders and set the stage for the surrenders that came afterwards.

Heroes and Cowards

This chapter explores how ideas about honor and shame shaped how Civil War era Americans understood surrender. Robert Anderson was celebrated as a hero for his honorable surrender at Fort Sumter. By contrast, Union surrenders at San Antonio, San Augustin Springs, and Harpers Ferry, and Confederate surrenders at Fort Donelson and Fort Jackson, were seen as dishonorable.

To the Last Man

This chapter examines how the collapse of the Dix-Hill prisoner exchange cartel led to the "hard war" of 1864. Without prisoner exchange, prisons like Andersonville became overcrowded, and soldiers increasingly refused to surrender. The chapter also examines the experience of guerrillas, African Americans, and Southern Unionists in 1864.

Treated with the Greatest Civility

This chapter explores the role of surrender in American history prior to the Civil War, including the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Mexican War. It argues that American ideas about surrender grew out of notions that civilized warfare had rules. The chapter culminates with Major Robert Anderson's surrender at Fort Sumter in 1861.

Conclusion

The conclusion explores the broader significance of surrenders during the Civil War. It argues that if surrender had not been so common during the Civil War, the death toll would have been much higher. It examines the experience of Thomas Benton Alexander, who surrendered three times during the Civil War.

Never Surrender

This chapter seeks to situate how surrenders fit into the memorialization and memory of the Civil War. It argues that surrender sites, unlike battlefields, proved challenging to commemorate. This began in 1865 with Robert Anderson's return to Fort Sumter and the rise of the Lost Cause. Focusing on Fort Sumter, Vicksburg, Appomattox Courthouse, and Bennett Place, the chapter looks at the monuments built on these sites and how they were commemorated during the Civil War Centennial and Sesquicentennial.

Without a Government

This chapter examines the collapse of the Confederacy west of the Mississippi. It explores why some Confederates continued to fight a month after Lee's surrender and how desertion compelled their surrender. It examines the last Confederates to surrender, including Stand Watie and the CSS Shenandoah.

Better to Be a Prisoner Than a Corpse

This chapter builds on the previous one to examine the Battle of Gettysburg through the lens of the soldiers who surrendered. More soldiers ended up captured at Gettysburg than killed. The chapter explores all three days of the battle, Lee's retreat, and the fate of some of the soldiers who surrendered.