From the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, May 9, 2001

'Appomattox' is a fascinating portrait
of Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant'
Review by John Berger

Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant met on three occasions. Their first meeting was during the Mexican-American War and was so inconsequential that Lee barely remembered Grant at all. Their second meeting was the darkest day of Lee's life and became one of the pivotal moments in American history as he surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant at Appomattox.

The meeting at Appomattox and the events leading up to it provided Friday and Saturday as The Actors Group presented Earll Kingston and Sam Polson in "We Meet at Appomattox" as a work-in-progress at the Yellow Brick Studio.

Polson, a familiar face at TAG, has been portraying Lee for several years at Civil War reenactment events on the mainland. Old-time theater fans here will remember Kingston as a former Hawaii resident with extensive credits in several local-acting groups. He and Polson are working on two versions of "Appomattox." One is a one-act show for reenactor audiences. The other is a two-act production for conventional theater.

The two-act version was a fascinating and entertaining portrait of two American heroes. Lee enjoyed almost unbroken success in the U.S. Army and also as the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia in defense of the Confederate States of America. Grant resigned his commission several years after the Mexican War amid rumors that he was an alcoholic. He failed at every civilian job he tried thereafter.

Grant's fortunes hit their nadir after the start of the Civil War. He applied for reinstatement in the Army but was ignored even though a great number of experienced officers had resigned to serve the Confederacy. It wasn't until Grant joined a lowly militia unit that he was able to prove his ability as a wartime military commander.

President Lincoln took note of Grant's successes and made him head of U.S. forces in 1864. The war -- in which more Americans were killed than in World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam combined -- was over within a year.

Kingston and Polson share all this history and more as Lee weighs his options over several days in April, 1865, and finally decides that there is no longer any hope for the Confederate forces under his command.

We learn that neither man looked back with pride on the U.S. war against Mexico, and that both were appalled by the slaughter that ensued when they faced each other in battle for the first time in the Wilderness campaign of 1864. Grant was sometimes called a "butcher" for his successful war of attrition against the outnumbered CSA forces but insisted that the men in his command treat their horses humanely.

Lee neither supported slavery nor favored secession but once Virginia voted to secede from the United States he considered it his duty to resign his commission in the U.S. Army and serve the Confederacy since he could not "in good conscience" lead U.S. forces against his home state.

With magnanimity rare in the history of U.S. war making, Grant allowed Lee's surrendered soldiers to go home rather than penning them up for post-war exploitation as slave labor. He also acceded to Lee's request that CSA men with horses be allowed to keep them: "The men will need them for spring plowing," Lee explained.

Kingston and Polson wrote Act I using government documents, eyewitness accounts, letters and the public statements of Lee and Grant. Act II comes from their imagination but is based on what is known of the two principals' interests.

The two-act version presented takes the story of Grant and Lee to their final meeting in 1870. Grant had been elected president in 1868, the South was being exploited under a system that Republican Party radicals called "Reconstruction," and Lee, a non-citizen still facing the possibility of prosecution for his services to the Confederacy, was the president of a small southern university.

The official topic of their 20-minute meeting at the White House was improved rail links between the North and South. Neither man ever revealed what other subjects were discussed. The playwrights make an educated guess.

Lee speaks of the need to end martial law and restore democracy in the South, reign in the carpetbaggers and make the people of the former CSA feel like U.S. citizens rather than a conquered nation. (Historically this was not done and the results of "Reconstruction" continue to haunt U.S. society.) Both men ponder the possible dangers of tobacco; Grant comments that the doctors he knows all seem to be smokers. The two agree that the political arena is more treacherous than the battlefield.

Kingston and Polson make all this history interesting while creating two engaging characters. The experiences of Grant and Lee transcend the era in which they lived and remain relevant. The DOE should fund "We Meet at Appomattox" for performances in high schools across Hawaii. Even as a work-in-progress, it is excellent as educational entertainment.