Lee Surrenders to Grant, Appomattox, April 9, 1865

At dawn on April 9, the Confederate Second Corps under General John B. Gordon attacked Union General Philip Sheridan's cavalry and quickly forced back the first line. The next line, held by Union generals Mackenzie and Crook, slowed the Confederate advance.  Gordon's troops charged through the Union lines and took the ridge, but as they reached the crest they saw the entire Union XXIV Corps in line of battle with the Union V Corps to their right.

Lee's cavalry saw these Union forces and immediately withdrew and rode off towards Lynchburg.  The Union II Corps began moving against General James Longstreet's corps to the northeast. 

Colonel Charles Venable of Lee's staff rode in at this time and asked for an assessment, and Gordon gave him a reply he knew Lee did not want to hear: "Tell General Lee I have fought my corps to a frazzle, and I fear I can do nothing unless I am heavily supported by Longstreet's corps." 

Charles Venable

Upon hearing it Lee finally stated the inevitable: "Then there is nothing left for me to do but to go and see General Grant and I would rather die a thousand deaths."

Many of Lee's officers, including Longstreet, agreed that surrendering the army was the only option left.

When General William Pendleton asked why he had dressed so formally, Lee answered, "I have probably to be General Grant's prisoner and thought I must make my best appearance."

Ulysses S. Grant in 1865

Following breakfast, Grant made a spur-of-the-moment decision to ride to Sheridan's front—a journey that would place him out of touch for several hours.  Grant received Lee's letter late in the morning of April 9 as he was traveling to meet Sheridan.  

John Rawlins

Grant recalled that his migraine headache seemed to disappear when he read Lee's letter, and he handed it to his assistant Rawlins to read aloud before composing his reply: "General, Your note of this date is but this moment, 11:50 A.M. rec'd., in consequence of my having passed from the Richmond and Lynchburg road. I am at this writing about four miles West of Walker's Church and will push forward to the front for the purpose of meeting you. Notice sent to me on this road where you wish the interview to take place."

Orville Babcock

Grant gave his reply to Lieutenant Colonel Orville E. Babcock; It took him about an hour to reach Lee.  After carefully noting the time of receipt on the envelope, Lee read the message. Still worried about fighting breaking out again, he asked Babcock if he would send a note to General Meade asking him to extend the cease-fire on that front. Babcock at once drafted the message, which reached Meade about an hour later.

Custer receiving a flag of truce - sketch by Alfred Waud

Lee dispatched an aide, Charles Marshall, to find a suitable location for the occasion. Marshall scrutinized Appomattox Court House, a small village of roughly twenty buildings that served as a waystation for travelers on the Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road. 

Charles Marshall

Marshall chose the 1848 brick home of Wilmer McLean  McLean had lived near Manassas Junction during the First Battle of Bull Run, and had moved to Appomattox to escape the war.

McLean Family on steps of House where surrender took place

Dressed in an immaculate uniform, Lee, arriving at the home first, and sat in a large sitting room on the first floor.  At about 1:30 p.m., Grant arrived in a mud-spattered uniform—a government-issue flannel shirt with trousers tucked into muddy boots, no sidearms, and with only his tarnished shoulder straps showing his rank. He entered the room alone while his staff respectfully waited on the front lawn. After a short period the staff was summoned to the room.

There are 16 people who are known to have attended at least part of the meeting; they were:

CSA
Gen. Robert E. Lee
Lt. Col. Charles Marshall

USA
Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant
Lt. Col. Ely Parker
Lt. Col. Orville E. Babcock
Maj. Gen. Edward O. C. Ord
Lt. Col. Horace Porter
Capt. Robert T. Lincoln
Lt. Col. Theodore S. Bowers
Maj. Gen. Phillip H. Sheridan
Brig. Gen. John Rawlins
Brig. Gen. Rufus Ingalls
Lt. Col. Adam Badeau
Brig. Gen. George H. Sharpe
Brig. Gen. Michael Morgan
Brig. Gen. Seth Williams

Horace Porter

Horace Porter described the scene:

"We entered, and found General Grant sitting at a marble-topped table in the center of the room, and Lee sitting beside a small oval table near the front window, in the corner opposite to the door by which we entered, and facing General Grant. We walked in softly and ranged ourselves quietly about the sides of the room, very much as people enter a sick-chamber when they expect to find the patient dangerously ill.

The contrast between the two commanders was striking, and could not fail to attract marked attention they sat ten feet apart facing each other. General Grant, then nearly forty-three years of age, was five feet eight inches in height, with shoulders slightly stooped. His hair and full beard were a nut-brown, without a trace of gray in them. He had on a single-breasted blouse, made of dark-blue flannel, unbuttoned in front, and showing a waistcoat underneath. He wore an ordinary pair of top-boots, with his trousers inside, and was without spurs. The boots and portions of his clothes were spattered with mud. He had no sword, and a pair of shoulder-straps was all there was about him to designate his rank. In fact, aside from these, his uniform was that of a private soldier.

Lee, on the other hand, was fully six feet in height, and quite erect for one of his age, for he was Grant's senior by sixteen years. His hair and full beard were silver-gray, and quite thick, except that the hair had become a little thin in the front. He wore a new uniform of Confederate gray, buttoned up to the throat, and at his side he carried a long sword of exceedingly fine workmanship, the hilt studded with jewels.

His top-boots were comparatively new, and seemed to have on them some ornamental stitching of red silk. Like his uniform, they were singularly clean, and but little travel-stained. On the boots were handsome spurs, with large rowels. A felt hat, which in color matched pretty closely that of his uniform, and a pair of long buckskin gauntlets lay beside him on the table.
General Grant began the conversation by saying 'I met you once before, General Lee, while we were serving in Mexico, when you came over from General Scott's headquarters to visit Garland's brigade, to which I then belonged. I have always remembered your appearance, and I think I should have recognized you anywhere.'

'Yes,' replied General Lee, 'I know I met you on that occasion, and I have often thought of it and tried to recollect how you looked, but I have never been able to recall a single feature.'"

The two generals talked a bit more about Mexico, and then moved on to a discussion of the terms of the surrender.  The terms were as generous as Lee could hope for; his men would not be imprisoned or prosecuted for treason. In addition to his terms, Grant also allowed the defeated men to take home their horses and mules to carry out the spring planting and provided Lee with a supply of food rations for his starving army.

Lee asked Grant to commit the terms to paper. Ely Parker moved a small table from the opposite side of the room, and placed it by General Grant, who sat facing General Lee. When General Grant had written his letter in pencil, he took it to General Lee, who remained seated. General Lee read the letter; the terms of the letter having been agreed to, General Grant directed Colonel Parker to make a copy of it in ink, and General Lee directed Colonel Marshall to write his acceptance.

Ely Parker

Ely Parker made an ink copy while everyone waited. There were brief periods of conversation among those present, but the importance of the occasion made the atmosphere strained. The terms of the surrender were recorded in a document completed before 4 p.m.  Grant signed the ink copy of his terms, and Lee signed his letter accepting them. The notes were exchanged, formalizing the act of surrender.

Grant said to Lee that he had come to the meeting as he was and without his sword, because he did not wish to detain General Lee until he could send back to his wagons, which were several miles away. 

"At a little before 4 o'clock General Lee shook hands with General Grant, bowed to the other officers, and with Colonel Marshall left the room. One after another we followed, and passed out to the porch. Lee signaled to his orderly to bring up his horse, and while the animal was being bridled the general stood on the lowest step and gazed sadly in the direction of the valley beyond where his army lay - now an army of prisoners. He smote his hands together a number of times in an absent sort of way; seemed not to see the group of Union officers in the yard who rose respectfully at his approach, and appeared unconscious of everything about him. All appreciated the sadness that overwhelmed him, and he had the personal sympathy of every one who beheld him at this supreme moment of trial. The approach of his horse seemed to recall him from his reverie, and he at once mounted. General Grant now stepped down from the porch, and, moving toward him, saluted him by raising his hat. He was followed in this act of courtesy by all our officers present; Lee raised his hat respectfully, and rode off to break the sad news to the brave fellows whom he had so long commanded."

As Lee left the house and rode away, Grant's men began cheering in celebration, but Grant ordered an immediate stop. "I at once sent word, however, to have it stopped," he said. "The Confederates were now our countrymen, and we did not want to exult over their downfall."

Grant returned inside the house, where he wrote a series of orders to his forces regarding implementation of the surrender. So engrossed was he in making certain that all the necessary instructions had been issued that it wasn't until he left the McLean house and was riding back toward his headquarters, that he realized he had not officially notified the government in Washington, D.C. 

Grant dismounted at once, sat on a large stone alongside the road, and wrote the following message to be sent to the Secretary of War:

"General Lee surrendered the army of Northern Virginia this afternoon on terms proposed by myself. The accompanying additional correspondence will show the conditions fully."

The unfortunate Wilmer McLean was besieged by Yankee officers who made off with furniture and other items from the surrender room.  A few tried to assuage their consciences by forcing a payment upon the reluctant host, but nothing was taken with his willing permission. (The table and chairs used by Lee and Grant when negotiating the surrender are now part of the collections of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.)

On one part of the field, a Virginia cavalrymen named W. L. Moffett came across a comrade, Sam Walker, mortally wounded in the morning's action. "Moffett, it is hard to die now just as the war is over," Walker said.

The word that the fighting was over spread like wildfire among the troops of both sides. "I never expected to see men cry as they did," a private in the 12th Virginia recollected, "all the officers cried and most of the privates broke down and wept like little children and oh, Lord! I cried too." 

The mood was decidedly different on the Union side. "A general jubilee took place," recalled a New Yorker in the 146th Regiment. "Some of us gave expression to our feelings by running to an orchard near by and throwing our canteens, haversacks, and coats into the trees, grabbing each other and rolling over and over on the ground; some laughed, some cried, all were overjoyed."

On the evening of the 9th, Lee sat in front of his tent before a fire with his aides and generals, talking about the army, the events of the day, and his feelings for the men who had fought for him during the war years. Lee directed Colonel Marshall, the aide who had accompanied him into the McLean parlor, to write out a farewell address with ideas Lee had expressed that night. 

Robert E. Lee, 1865 photograph

While General George Meade reportedly shouted that "it's all over" upon hearing that the surrender was signed, Grant was aware that only a single army had given up.  Roughly 175,000 Confederates remained in the field.

New York Times, April 10, 1865

General  Joseph Johnston's army in North Carolina, the most threatening of the remaining Confederate armies, surrendered to General William Sherman at Bennett Place near Durham, North Carolina on April 26. 

On May 5, 1865, in Washington, Georgia,  Confederate Jefferson Davis held the last meeting of his Cabinet. At that time, the Confederate Government was declared dissolved.  On May 10, 1865, Union cavalrymen captured Davis as he attempted to flee to Texas. 

There were several more small battles after the surrender, with the Battle of Palmito Ranch on May 12-13 commonly regarded as the final military action of the Confederacy.

General Richard Taylor surrendered his army at Citronelle, Alabama early May, followed by General Edmund Kirby surrendering in May near New Orleans, Louisiana. 

 General Stand Watie surrendered the last sizable organized Confederate force on June 23, 1865.


The last Confederate surrender occurred on November 6, 1865, when the Confederate warship CSS Shenandoah surrendered at Liverpool, England.