The End of the Civil War
1 How wars end is every bit as important as why they start or how they're fought. Put differently, far too many civil wars throughout history end quite badly. Think of Northern Ireland. It's gone on for some 200 years. Thinks of Lebanon, Rwanda, Cambodia. Think of the horrors of the Middle East or the Balkans today. Our civil war could have ended just as badly, with the same terrible, tragic consequences, but didn't. Why? That's a question I wanted to answer and which I do answer in \
2 In \strip away the inevitability of events, so that rather than seeing it with the comfort of 136 years or 140 years of hindsight, you see the events as they take place, you see the decisions as they see them, you see the turning points as they see them, and you see how easily events could have just as--just as easily gone one way or gone another way. And it's that kind of richness of history that I wanted to bring alive.
战争怎样结束与战争为何发生或是如何进行是同等重要的。换句话说，纵观历史，有太多的内战结局极为糟糕。想想北爱尔兰，内战已进行了200多年。想想黎巴嫩、卢旺达、柬埔寨。再想想今天中东和巴尔干地区内战的惨状。我们的内战本来也可能是那样结束，带来同样可怕、悲惨的后果，但我们的内战结局并非如此。为什么呢？这是我曾经想回答的问题，也是我在《1865年4月》一书中回答的问题。
在《1865年4月》中，我没有揭示一些事件发生的必然性，因此不以战争发生136年或140年后的认识心安理得地看待这场内战，而是以处在内战时期的人们的眼光去看那些事件、那些决策、那些关键时刻，这样你会发现那些事件很可能会有两种完全不同的结局。我想呈现给读者的便是这段历史蕴藏的丰富内涵。 every bit as ... as
和 ...同样 ...
horror ['h?r?]
n. 惊骇；惨状；极端厌恶；令人恐怖的事物
strip away 除去；揭掉 hindsight ['haindsait]
n.
1.(枪的)表尺，后瞄准镜 2.事后的聪明，事后的认识 短语
1.kick(或knock) someone's hindsight off (或out) [美国口语] 把某人彻底打垮；把某人彻底干掉
3 Robert E. Lee was the moral conscience of the South, as General Wise, one of his top men, once said to him. Near the end of the war, they were talking about what will happen next. Wise had ridden through the lines. He dismounted his horse, and he had actually fallen in Virginia quicksand, and he was caked with red mud, and he looked kind of ridiculous.
4 They joked a bit, but then they talked about the end of the war. Lee raised the dreaded concept of surrender, and he said, \ 5 And Wise looked over at Lee, and he said, \the country to these men.\Southerners. Whether or not he would decide to deal with the Northerners with honor and dignity and to become good citizens again, or with rage and continued civil war and civil violence, he would be the determinant of that.
罗伯特.E.李是南方道德良知的象征，他手下的高级将领怀斯将军曾这么对他说。战争快结束时，他们两人谈论着战争会如何发展。那天怀斯骑马穿越前线，路上曾掉进弗吉尼亚流沙，下马时他全身沾满红泥，模样十分滑稽。
他们俩相互开了一番玩笑，然后谈起战争结束的话题。李提起他极不愿提及的投降设想，问道：“我们国家会怎么看？”
怀斯看了看李，说：”国家？天啊，对这些当兵的来说，你就代表国家。\因此，换句话说，对南方人而言，李就等于国家。无论他决定以荣誉和尊严应对北方人，然后再当个好公民，还是愤怒地继续打下去，继续以暴力对付北方，都取决于他。 dismount ?[d?s'ma?nt] vt. 下车；使下马；使掉下 vi. 下马；下车 n. 下马；下车
quicksand ['kwiks?nd]
n.
1.【地质学】流沙 2.捉摸不定的危险事物
be caked with
被厚厚的一层...覆盖
dreaded ['dr?d?d]
adj. 令人畏惧的，可怕的
v. 惧怕（dread的过去分词）
determinant [di't?:min?nt]
adj. 决定(性)的，确定(性)的，有决定力的，限定性的 n.
1. 决定因素；决定物
2. 【语法学】限定成分(如复合词gatekeeper中的gate,rainbow中的rain) 3. 【数学】行列式；方阵
4. 【生物学】因子，定子；决定因素，决定簇
5. 【免疫学】抗原决定基[亦作antigonic determinant,epitope] 6. 【遗传学】基因
7. [废语]决定授予文学士学位的学生
6 City Point is in Virginia, and it's where Ulysses S. Grant, the commanding general of the Union armies, had his floating fortress. City Point was, in effect, an armed command post for the Northern Army as they were encircling Lee's army in Petersburg and in Richmond. They met on March 24 where Lincoln actually wanted to see the front lines and confer with his commanding generals.
7 It was from City Point that Lincoln, in that same meeting, spoke about his fears of guerrilla warfare and his fear that there would be a final bloody Armageddon; he did something quite unique. Abraham Lincoln said, \hangings, there must be no
bloody work.\looming large in his mind was the specter of the French Revolution because it loomed large in the minds of all Americans. In the French Revolution, the revolutionariesstarted outwith the best of intentions, and before everybody knew it, they were guillotining the
opposition, and they were guillotining each other. Before everybody knew it, violence engulfed all of a continent.
城角镇位于弗吉尼亚州，这里设有联邦军队主将尤利西斯.S.格兰特的一个流动堡垒。实际上，城角镇是北方军包围驻守在彼得斯堡和里士满的李的军队时的一个武装指挥所。林肯于3月24日在此会见了格兰特，林肯来此是想视察前线并与将领们进行商谈。
就是这次在城角镇的会见中，林肯谈到他担心南方军可能打游击队，他担心最后会有一场血腥大决战。林肯作出了非凡之举。亚伯拉罕.林肯说：“这场战争结束时，决不允许有绞刑，决不允许有血腥之举。”法国大革命的恐怖阴影笼罩在他的心头，因为这也是所有美国人所
担心、害怕的。法国大革命时期，革命者怀着极好的目的发动革命，但很快他们就将对手送上断头台，并相互残杀。不久，暴力运动就席卷了整个欧洲大陆。 floating fortress 流动堡垒
armed command post 武装指挥所 confer with 协商；交换意见 guerrilla [ɡ?'ril?]
n.
1. 游击队员 2. [古语]游击战 adj.
1. 游击队员的
2. 游击(战)的，非正式的[亦作 guerilla]
Armageddon [,a:m?'gedn]
n. 大决战；世界末日善恶决战的战场（源于《圣经》）
hanging ['h????]
n. 悬挂；绞刑；帘子，幔帐 adj. 悬挂着的
v. 悬挂（hang的ing形式）
work n. 行为 loom [lu?m]
n. 织布机；若隐若现的景象 vt. 在织布机上织
vi. 可怕地出现；朦胧地出现；隐约可见
loom large
赫然耸现；显得突出(或严重)
specter ['sp?kt?]
n. 幽灵；妖怪；恐怖之物
revolutionary [rev?'lu??(?)n(?)r?]? n. 革命者
adj. 革命的；旋转的；大变革的 start out
1. 突然离开：
A mouse started out as I went into the cave, which startled me. 我刚要走进山洞，一只老鼠突然窜了出来，把我吓了一跳。 2. 起程，动身，出发：
The expedition started out before sunrise. 太阳出来之前探险队就出发了。 3. 开始从事；雇用：
I started out as a doctor in 1995. 我在1995年开始做医生。
The firm started him out as a salesman. 那家公司一开始雇他做推销员。
4. [口语]一开始打算，本来想要；起初，一开始：
He started out wanting a motorbicycle, and then bought a car. 他本打算要一辆摩托车，可后来却买了一辆汽车。
You started out by saying that it's easy to get into a good seat at the theatre. 一开始你不是说，在剧场里找个好座位很容易嘛。
with the best of intention
出于一片好心；好心好意
guillotine ['ɡil?ti:n]
n.
1. 断头台
2. 【机械装置】轧刀；截断机；裁切机；立式切纸机 3. 【医学】(摘除扁桃体等的)铡除刀，环状刀 4. [英国英语]截止辩论以付表决法 vt.
1. 在断头台上处决，把...送上断头台 2. 用裁切机切；切断
3. [英国英语]截止对议案的辩论而付表决
engulf [in'ɡ?lf]
vt.
1. 吞没，淹没，沉没；席卷；压倒；为洪水 (或如同为洪水) 覆盖：
The overflowing river has engulfed many towns and villages along its banks. 泛滥成灾的河水已把其沿岸一带的许多城乡给淹没了。 2. [常用被动语态] 使陷入 (深渊)，使深深卷入，使沉浸在： She engulfed herself in her studies. 她埋头攻读。
3. 大口吞食；吞噬；狼吞虎咽： The monkey engulfed the food whole. 这只猴子囫囵吞下食物。
8 In effect, what Lincoln said was, \It was prescient, and it was visionary and it was one of Lincoln's finest acts and finest moments. And Grant would carry it out brilliantly at Appomattox during the surrender, where rather than treating Lee like a defeated,
dishonored foe, he treated him with great dignity and grace. It was one of the most poignant scenes in our history.
9 Just think about it, the morning that Lee had made this fateful decision that he's going to surrender. At that point, he straightened himself up, and he said, “Now I must go meet General Grant, and I would rather die a thousand deaths than do that.\more often than not, telescoped and simplified what happened, said that Lee was vain and quixotic in retreat, and then said there was the dignity of Appomattox, the end of war, end of story.