![]() Quieting a band that had begun to play in celebration, Grant told his officers, “The war is over. Officers would keep their side arms, and Lee’s starving men would be given Union rations. Generously, all officers and men were to be pardoned, and they would be sent home with their private property–most important to the men were the horses, which could be used for a late spring planting. Lee asked for the terms of surrender, and Grant hurriedly wrote them out. In the ensuing years, the house had a series of owners before it was reconstructed and opened to the public by the National Park Service in 1949. Characteristically, Grant had arrived in his mud-splattered field uniform while Lee had turned out in full dress attire, complete with sash and sword.ĭid you know? In 1869, the house where Lee surrendered to Grant was sold at public auction after owner Wilmer McLean defaulted on his loan repayments. Lee and Grant, both of whom held the highest rank in their respective armies, had known each other slightly during the Mexican-American War (1846-48) and began their dialogue by exchanging awkward personal inquiries. Lee surrendering his Army of Northern Virginia to Union Army General Ulysses S. The two war-weary generals met in the front parlor of the Wilmer McLean home at one o’clock that afternoon. With no remaining options, Lee sent a message to General Ulysses Grant announcing his willingness to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia. Grant, and I would rather die a thousand deaths.” But Lee also knew his remaining troops, numbering about 28,000, would quickly turn to pillaging the countryside in order to survive. Later that morning, Lee-cut off from all provisions and all support-famously declared that “there is nothing left me to do but to go and see Gen. Soon, however, the Confederates saw that they were hopelessly outnumbered by two corps of Union soldiers who had marched all night to cut off the Confederate advance. Gordon mounted a last-ditch offensive that was initially successful. Nonetheless, early on the morning of April 9, Confederate troops led by Major General John B. At one point, Union cavalry forces under General Philip Sheridan had outrun General Lee’s troops, blocking their retreat and taking approximately 6,000 prisoners at Sayler’s Creek.Ĭonfederate desertions were mounting daily, and by April 8 the Rebels were almost completely surrounded. In retreat from the Union army’s Appomattox campaign, which began in March 1865, the Army of Northern Virginia stumbled westward through the Virginia countryside stripped of food and supplies.
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