Signet style wooden ring, standard ring size 9. Carved from the tree under which General Lee allegedly surrendered the Confederate army.

Provenance:

"Ring carved from tree under which General Lee surrendered. By Daniel Wishart / Great, Great, Great, Uncle."

Daniel C. Wishart (1834-1914) mustered into the 34th Massachusetts Infantry in 1862 and rose through the ranks, mustering out as a 2nd Lieutenant. On 9 April, 1865, the 34th Massachusetts Infantry, including Wishart, were present in Appomattox, Virginia, where General Lee would historically surrender the Confederate army and end the Civil War. 

Despite the official surrender of the Confederate army taking place at the Appomattox court house between General Grant, General Lee, and a few of their staff, it became a popular tale that Lee waited underneath an apple tree after the battle of Appomattox to discuss terms of surrender. Perpetuated by an infamous lithograph printing by artist Edward Valois, which depicts the two generals meeting under a tree with onlooking soldiers observing the historic moment, this was entirely a fabrication. Nevertheless, it encouraged soldiers to indiscriminately cut away bits of the apple trees around the courthouse and carve them into souvenirs of the historic moment. 

While it could be believed that Daniel Wishart was not an actual witness to the surrender of General Lee and the Confederate army, the locale of the 34th Infantry of Massachusetts recorded adds some layer of assurance that Wishart followed along with his fellow soldiers in celebration. Crafting a fine ring from one of the apple trees that stood near the courthouse where the momentous exchange occurred, Wishart obtained an excellent souvenir from his time spent in the Union army. 

[Relics, Militaria][Civil War, Union, Confederate]