While the rearguard of Lee's army was retreating toward Lynchburg, the rest of his army was retreating from Petersburg. On April 8, 1865, two Confederate corps consisting of starved, poorly equipped soldiers under General John B. Gordon and General James Longstreet arrived at a village called Appomattox Court House. When General Lee arrived, he noticed that his men were actually surrounded and far outnumbered by General Grant's Army of the Potomac. He had been corresponding with Grant concerning a surrender ever since the fall of Petersburg. Lee, realizing the futility of the comparatively small group of poorly equipped troops which he now commanded against Grant's large army, asked for an official meeting at Appomattox Court House. The meeting took place at noon on April 9, 1865, on Palm Sunday in the parlor of Wilmer McLean's House. General Lee and Colonel Charles Marshall, one of Lee's staff members and a most distinguished officer, represented the Army of Northern Virginia at the meeting while General Grant and fourteen federal officers including General George A. Custer and Major General Philip H. Sheridan constituted the remaining membership of the famous meeting. The contrasting appearance of the two leaders was very noticeable: Grant, the victor, appeared straight from the battlefield in a dusty, fatigue uniform of a private without side arms and Lee, the vanquished, appeared in a new dress uniform of a Confederate general--the only one he owned after his personal effects had been burned in a wagon raid during an earlier retreat. Although the two leaders had had only casual meetings in their earlier years, their previous acquaintance seemed to lighten the tenseness of the situation. After an exchange of formal greetings and general conversation, the talks gradually shifted to a discussion of peace terms of surrender.