Battle of Appomattox Court House

Battle of Appomattox Court House
Part of the Union Army, accepting Confederate General in Chief Robert E. Lee's surrender on April 9, 1865
Date April 9, 1865; 159 years ago (1865-04-09) Location Appomattox Court House, Appomattox County, Virginia 37°22′39″N 78°47′46″W / 37.37750°N 78.79611°W / 37.37750; -78.79611 Result Union victory; surrender of the entire 28,000 strong Army of Northern Virginia
Belligerents
United States	Confederate States
Commanders and leaders
Edward O.C. Ord	John Gordon
Units involved
Army of the Shenandoah Army of the James	Army of Northern Virginia
Strength
63,285[1]	26,000[1]
Casualties and losses
164 killed or wounded[2]	195 killed[2] 305 wounded[2] 28,356 surrendered and paroled

The Battle of Appomattox Court House, fought in Appomattox County, Virginia, on the morning of April 9, 1865, was one of the last, and ultimately one of the most consequential, battles of the American Civil War (1861–1865). It was the final engagement of Confederate General in Chief Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia before they surrendered to the Union Army of the Potomac under the Commanding General of the United States Army, Ulysses S. Grant.

Lee, having abandoned the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, after the nine-and-a-half-month Siege of Petersburg and Richmond, retreated west, hoping to join his army with Confederate forces, the Army of Tennessee in North Carolina. Union infantry and cavalry forces under General Philip Sheridan pursued and cut off the Confederates' retreat at the central Virginia village of Appomattox Court House. Lee launched a last-ditch attack to break through the Union forces to his front, assuming the Union force consisted entirely of lightly armed cavalry. When he realized that the cavalry was now backed up by two corps of federal infantry, he had no choice but to surrender with his further avenue of retreat and escape now cut off.

The signing of the surrender documents occurred in the parlor of the house owned by Wilmer McLean on the afternoon of April 9. On April 12, a formal ceremony of parade and the stacking of arms led by Confederate Major General John B. Gordon to Union Brigadier General Joshua Chamberlain marked the disbandment of the Army of Northern Virginia with the parole of its nearly 28,000 remaining officers and men, free to return home without their major weapons but enabling men to take their horses and officers to retain their sidearms (swords and pistols), and effectively ending the war in Virginia.

This event signaled the end of the four-year-long war. It triggered a series of subsequent surrenders across the South, in

With his supplies at Appomattox destroyed, Lee now looked west to the railway at

At dawn on April 9, 1865, the Confederate

Many of Lee's officers, including Longstreet, agreed that surrendering the army was the only option left. The only notable officer opposed to surrender was Longstreet's chief of artillery, Brigadier General Edward Porter Alexander, who predicted that if Lee surrendered then "every other Confederate army will follow suit".^{[citation needed]}

Lee decided to request a suspension of fighting while he sought to learn the terms of surrender Grant was proposing to offer. A white linen dish towel was used as a Confederate flag of truce and was carried by Capt. R. M. Sims,^[10] one of Longstreet's staff officers, into the lines of General Custer, who was part of Sheridan's command.^[11] After a truce was arranged, Custer was escorted through the lines to meet Longstreet. According to Longstreet, Custer said, “in the name of General Sheridan, I demand the unconditional surrender of this army.” Longstreet replied that he was not in command of the army, but if he were he would not deal with messages from Sheridan. Custer responded that it would be a pity to have more blood upon the field, to which Longstreet suggested that the truce be respected, and then added “General Lee has gone to meet General Grant, and it is for them to determine the future of the armies.”^[12]

At 8:00 a.m., Lee rode out to meet Grant, accompanied by three of his aides. Grant received Lee's first letter on the morning of April 9 as he was traveling to meet Sheridan. Grant recalled his migraine seemed to disappear when he read Lee's letter,^[13] 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.^[14]

Grant's response was remarkable in that it let the defeated Lee choose the place of his surrender.

With gunshots still being heard on Gordon's front and Union skirmishers still advancing on Longstreet's front, Lee received a message from Grant. After several hours of correspondence between Grant and Lee, a cease-fire was enacted, and Grant received Lee's request to discuss surrender terms.

Dressed in his ceremonial uniform (according to himself, "I may be taken prisoner today. I must look my best."), Lee waited for Grant to arrive. Grant, whose headache had ended when he received Lee's note, arrived at the McLean house in a mud-spattered uniform—a government-issue sack coat with trousers tucked into muddy boots, no sidearms, and with only his tarnished shoulder straps showing his rank. Over one shoulder was a carrying case for his binoculars.^[17] It was the first time the two men had seen each other face-to-face in almost two decades.^[16] Suddenly overcome with sadness, Grant found it hard to get to the point of the meeting, and instead the two generals briefly discussed their only previous encounter, during the Mexican–American War. Lee brought the attention back to the issue at hand, and Grant offered the same terms he had before:

In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the 8th inst., I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of N. Va. on the following terms, to wit: Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate. One copy to be given to an officer designated by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as you may designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged, and each company or regimental commander sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, artillery and public property to be parked and stacked, and turned over to the officer appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside.^[18]

The terms were as generous as Lee could hope for; his men would not be imprisoned or prosecuted for treason. Officers were allowed to keep their sidearms, horses, and personal baggage.^[19] 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 said it would have a very happy effect among the men and do much toward reconciling the country.^[20] The terms of the surrender were recorded in a document handwritten by Grant's adjutant, Ely S. Parker, a Native American of the Seneca tribe, and completed around 4 p.m., April 9.^[21] Lee, upon discovering Parker to be a Seneca, remarked "It is good to have one real American here." Parker replied, "Sir, we are all Americans." As Lee left the house and rode away, Grant's men began cheering in celebration, but Grant immediately ordered them to 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", he said.^[22] Custer and other Union officers purchased from McLean the furnishings of the room Lee and Grant met in as souvenirs, emptying it of furniture. Grant soon visited the Confederate army, and then he and Lee sat on the McLean home's porch and met with visitors such as Longstreet and George Pickett before the two men left for their capitals.^[23]

On April 10, Lee gave his

The momentous meaning of this occasion impressed me deeply. I resolved to mark it by some token of recognition, which could be no other than a salute of arms. Well aware of the responsibility assumed, and of the criticisms that would follow, as the sequel proved, nothing of that kind could move me in the least. The act could be defended, if needful, by the suggestion that such a salute was not to the cause for which the flag of the Confederacy stood, but to its going down before the flag of the Union. My main reason, however, was one for which I sought no authority nor asked forgiveness. Before us in proud humiliation stood the embodiment of manhood: men whom neither toils and sufferings, nor the fact of death, nor disaster, nor hopelessness could bend from their resolve; standing before us now, thin, worn, and famished, but erect, and with eyes looking level into ours, waking memories that bound us together as no other bond;—was not such manhood to be welcomed back into a Union so tested and assured? Instructions had been given; and when the head of each division column comes opposite our group, our bugle sounds the signal and instantly our whole line from right to left, regiment by regiment in succession, gives the soldier's salutation, from the "order arms" to the old "carry"—the marching salute.

Gordon

at the head of the column, riding with heavy spirit and downcast face, catches the sound of shifting arms, looks up, and, taking the meaning, wheels superbly, making with himself and his horse one uplifted figure, with profound salutation as he drops the point of his sword to the boot toe; then facing to his own command, gives word for his successive brigades to pass us with the same position of the manual,—honor answering honor. On our part not a sound of trumpet more, nor roll of drum; not a cheer, nor word nor whisper of vain-glorying, nor motion of man standing again at the order, but an awed stillness rather, and breath-holding, as if it were the passing of the dead!

— Joshua L. Chamberlain, The Passing of the Armies, pp. 260–61

Chamberlain's account has been questioned by historian William Marvel, who claims that "few promoted their own legends more actively and successfully than he did".

At the surrender ceremonies, about 28,000 Confederate soldiers passed by and stacked their arms.[28] General Longstreet's account was 28,356 officers and men were “surrendered and paroled”.^[29] The Appomattox Roster lists approximately 26,300 men who surrendered. This reference does not include the 7,700 who were captured at Sailor's Creek three days earlier, who were treated as prisoners of war.

Aftermath

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While General George Meade (who was not present at the meeting) reportedly shouted that "it's all over" upon hearing the surrender was signed, roughly 175,000 Confederates remained in the field, but were mostly starving and disillusioned. Many of these were scattered throughout the South in garrisons or guerrilla bands while the rest were concentrated in three major Confederate commands.^[22][32] Just as Porter Alexander had predicted, as news spread of Lee's surrender other Confederate commanders realized that the strength of the Confederacy was gone, and decided to lay down their own arms.

General

Upon hearing about Lee's surrender, General Nathan Bedford Forrest, future leader of the Ku Klux Klan, also surrendered, reading his farewell address on May 9, 1865, at Gainesville, Alabama. General Edmund Kirby Smith surrendered the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department on June 2, 1865, in Galveston, Texas. Also on May 26, 1865, the Native American tribes that had sided with the Confederacy, met at the Camp Napoleon Council in modern-day Oklahoma and decided to have commissioners offer peace with the United States. Cherokee Chief and General Stand Watie, in command of 1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles, surrendered the last sizeable organized Confederate force on June 23, 1865,^[35] in Doaksville, Choctaw Nation.^[36]

There were several more small battles after Lee's surrender. The Battle of Palmito Ranch, east of Brownsville, Texas, on May 12–13, 1865, is commonly regarded as the final land battle of the war (ironically a Confederate victory which was followed soon after by the surrender of the Confederate forces). Commander James Iredell Waddell in command of the CSS Shenandoah, a commerce raider of the Confederate States Navy, was the last to surrender when he lowered the Confederate flag in Liverpool and surrendered his vessel to the British government on November 6, 1865 (Waddell was halfway around the world in the Pacific when he learned the war had ended).

Lee never forgot Grant's magnanimity during the surrender, and for the rest of his life would not tolerate an unkind word about Grant in his presence. Confederate General Longstreet spoke well of his old friend Grant, saying he was grateful to Grant for a cheerful greeting and providing him a cigar at Appomattox, as well as later efforts by Grant to get Longstreet a pardon and appointing him to a federal position in New Orleans after Grant became president.^[37] Likewise, General John Brown Gordon cherished Chamberlain's simple act of saluting his surrendered army, calling Chamberlain "one of the knightliest soldiers of the Federal army."^[27]

During the Civil War Centennial, the United States Post Office issued five postage stamps commemorating the 100th anniversaries of famous battles, as they occurred over a four-year period, beginning with the Battle of Fort Sumter Centennial issue of 1961. The Battle of Shiloh commemorative stamp was issued in 1962, the Battle of Gettysburg in 1963, the Battle of the Wilderness in 1964, and the Appomattox Centennial commemorative stamp in 1965.^[38]

The American Battlefield Trust and its battlefield land preservation partners have acquired and preserved 512 acres (2.07 km²) of the battlefield.^[39]

• List of American Civil War battles
• Bibliography of the American Civil War
• Bibliography of Abraham Lincoln
• Bibliography of Ulysses S. Grant
• Commemoration of the American Civil War on postage stamps

Footnotes

Citations

Works cited

• Bodart, Gaston (1908). Militär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon, (1618–1905). Stern.
• Calkins, Chris. The Appomattox Campaign, March 29 – April 9, 1865. Conshohocken, PA: Combined Books, 1997.
  ISBN 978-0-938289-54-8
  .
• ISBN 0-553-29992-1
  . First published 1915 by G.P. Putnam's Sons.
• Davis, Burke. To Appomattox: Nine April Days, 1865. New York: Eastern Acorn Press reprint, 1981.
  ISBN 0-915992-17-5
  . First published New York: Rinehart, 1959.
• ISBN 0-684-84944-5
  .
• Eicher, John H., and
  ISBN 0-8047-3641-3
  .
• OCLC 166632575
  .
• Gordon, John B. Reminiscences of the Civil War
  . New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1904.
• ISBN 0-914427-67-9
  .
• Korn, Jerry, and the Editors of Time-Life Books. Pursuit to Appomattox: The Last Battles. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1987.
  ISBN 0-8094-4788-6
  .
• Lee, Fitzhugh, General Lee; Great Commanders, D. Appleton and Company, 1894.
• Long, E. B. The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac, 1861–1865. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971.
  OCLC 68283123
  .
• Longstreet, James, From Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War in America, J. B. Lippincott, 1908.
• Marvel, William. A Place called Appomattox. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000.
• Marvel, William. Lee's Last Retreat. The Flight to Appomattox. Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
  ISBN 978-0-8078-5703-8
  .
• Salmon, John S. The Official Virginia Civil War Battlefield Guide. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2001.
  ISBN 0-8117-2868-4
  .
• Silkenat, David. Raising the White Flag: How Surrender Defined the American Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019.
  ISBN 978-1-4696-4972-6
  .
• ISBN 0-684-84927-5
  .
• Williams, Joe (September 22, 2004). "The Appomattox Campaign; March 29 – April 9, 1865". National Park Service. Archived from the original on July 15, 2012. Retrieved August 21, 2012.
• Winik, Jay. April 1865: The Month That Saved America. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.
  ISBN 978-0-06-089968-4
  . First published 2001.
• National Park Service Battle Summary Archived February 3, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
• CWSAC Report Update Archived November 8, 2012, at the Wayback Machine

Further reading

• ISBN 0-385-04451-8
  .
• Dunkerly, Robert M. To the Bitter End: Appomattox, Bennett Place, and the Surrenders of the Confederacy. Emerging Civil War Series. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2015.
  ISBN 978-1-61121-252-5
  .
• Marvel, William. A Place Called Appomattox. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999.
  ISBN 978-0-8078-2568-6
  .
• Marvel, William. Lee's Last Retreat: The Flight to Appomattox. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
  ISBN 978-0-8078-5703-8
  .
• Silkenat, David. Raising the White Flag: How Surrender Defined the American Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019.
  ISBN 978-1-4696-4972-6
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Battle of Appomattox Court House.

• Battle of Appomattox Court House: Battle maps, photos, history articles, and battlefield news (
  Civil War Trust
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• Confederate Surrender at Appomattox, Virginia, April 10, 1865.