"The Surrender at Appomattox Court House"; by General Horace Porter

"The Surrender at Appomattox Court House"; by General Horace Porter

"The Surrender at Appomattox Court House";
excerpt from Battles and Leaders of the Civil War

Covering events from April 1865; published in 1887

An eyewitness account of Lee's surrender to Grant

"The terms I propose are those stated substantially in my letter of yesterday—that is, the officers and men surrendered to be paroled and disqualified from taking up arms again until properly exchanged, and all arms, ammunition, and supplies to be delivered up as captured property."

General Ulysses S. Grant

During the first weeks of 1865, it appeared that the long and bitter Civil War between the North and the South was finally drawing to a close. The Confederate armies had fought valiantly (bravely) during the previous four years, but even the most optimistic Southerner had to admit that the war had swung in favor of the Union armies. In late 1864, Northern military forces won crushing victories in Mobile Bay, Alabama; the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia; and Atlanta, Georgia. After capturing Atlanta, Union general William T. Sherman (1820–1891) launched his devastating "March to the Sea." During this march through the heart of the Confederacy, Sherman's army wrecked tens of thousands of Southern homes and farm fields, shattering the morale of the South's civilian population in the process.

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