評論
打印
Mercy at Appomattox
阿波馬托克斯的寬恕
William Zinsser
威廉·津澤
I'm not a Civil War buff. I've never heard the old battlefields like Gettysburg and Chickamauga calling to me to walk over them and re-enact what happened there. The story is just too sad.
我不是內(nèi)戰(zhàn)迷，也從未聽到過葛底斯堡和奇克莫加那些老戰(zhàn)場的召喚而去那里走一走，重溫一下在那兒發(fā)生的一切。那個戰(zhàn)事的確是太令人傷心了。
But one Civil War site did keep beckoning to me—not one where the armies fought but the one where they stopped fighting: Appomattox.
但是有一處內(nèi)戰(zhàn)的遺址一直吸引著我——它不是軍隊(duì)作戰(zhàn)的地方，而是他們停火的地方——阿波馬托克斯。
To see it I flew to Richmond and drove west across southern Virginia, choosing a route that would take me over terrain that Gen. Robert E. Lee covered with his Confederate army in its last week.
為了參觀阿波馬托克斯，我乘飛機(jī)到了里士滿，然后驅(qū)車西行穿過南弗吉尼亞，選擇的這條路線能使我經(jīng)過當(dāng)年羅伯特·E.李將軍和他的南方盟軍在最后一周走過的地帶。
For nine months Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had been dug in near Petersburg, south of Richmond. On April 2, his railroad lifeline cut by the North, Lee retreated. But Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was in close pursuit, and by April 6 it was all over. Union troops routed almost a fifth of Lee's army at Sayler's Creek and took some 7000 prisoners. Hearing the news, Lee said, "My God! Has the army been dissolved?" It largely had. Hungry and exhausted, huge numbers of soldiers had dropped out, and the army was down to 30,000 men when Lee, hurrying west, received a note from Grant calling on him to surrender.
九個月來，李的北弗吉尼亞大軍一直駐扎在里士滿南部的彼得斯堡附近。4月2日，他的鐵路生命線被北方軍切斷，李撤退了。但尤利塞斯·S.格蘭特將軍緊追不舍，到了4月6日，一切都結(jié)束了。在塞勒灣，北方聯(lián)軍使李損失了將近五分之一的軍隊(duì)，并捕獲其7，000名戰(zhàn)俘。聽到這個噩耗，李說上帝啊！我的軍隊(duì)就這樣垮了嗎？”在很大程度上的確如此。里于饑餓、疲勞，許多戰(zhàn)士做了逃兵，軍隊(duì)人數(shù)銳減至3萬，就在此時，匆忙西行的李收到了來自格蘭特的勸降信。
Outnumbered and almost encircled, Lee considered his dwindling options. One officer suggested that the troops could disperse and carry on as guerrillas.
敵眾我寡，又幾近被包圍，李考慮到他的選擇范圍正在縮小。一個軍官建議他分散兵力以游擊的形式繼續(xù)作戰(zhàn)。
