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Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts
對比研究格蘭特和李
Bruce Catton
布魯斯·卡頓
When Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee met in the parlor of a modest house at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9, 1865, to work out the terms for the surrender of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, a great chapter in American life came to a close, and a great new chapter began.
1865年4月9日，尤利西斯·辛普森·格蘭特和羅伯特·愛德華·李在弗吉尼亞阿波馬托克斯的一間普通的會客廳里會面，并商議李的北弗吉尼亞軍隊投降的條件，這意味著在美國歷史上一個偉大的篇章宣告結束，進而一個新的偉大篇章拉開了序幕。
These men were bringing the Civil War to its virtual finish. To be sure, other armies had yet to surrender, and for a few days the fugitive Confederate government would struggle desperately and vainly, trying to find some way to go on living now that its chief support was gone. But in effect it was all over when Grant and Lee signed the papers. And the little room where they wrote out the terms was the scene of one of the poignant, dramatic contrasts in American history.
這兩個人最終將美國內戰畫上了句號。誠然還有一些軍隊在負隅頑抗，在接下來的一段日子里，逃亡的聯邦政府還會作最后的徒勞掙扎，企圖在失去主力部隊之后尋找再生力量。事實上格蘭特和李在簽署文件時一切就已經宣告結束了。他們簽訂條款的那個小房間卻成了美國歷史上令人動容，極具反差、極富戲劇性的場所之一。
They were two strong men, these oddly different generals, and they represented the strengths of two conflicting currents that, through them, had come into final collision.
他們是兩位強人，這兩位迥然不同的將軍代表立場相左的兩股勢力，通過他們這兩股勢力進行了最后一次交鋒。
Back of Robert E. Lee was the notion that the old aristocratic concept might somehow survive and be dominant in American life.
羅伯特·愛德華·李代表的觀點認為，古老的貴族觀念可以通過某種方式存活下來，并在美國社會中占統治地位。
