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Surrender at Appomattox

9 Apr 1865 — Cut off both ahead and behind, Lee surrenders 28,000 men. Grant’s terms allow officers to keep their sidearms and men who own horses to keep them “for the spring plowing.” Chamberlain’s men present arms as the surrendering column passes.

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Map: Surrender at Appomattox, 9 April 1865
9 APRIL 1865 · THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, 1840–1877

The moment in context

For months, the lines around Petersburg seemed to hold. But Grant was attacking the means by which Lee could keep an army there. Railroads brought food and ammunition to Petersburg and Richmond; as Union troops extended their lines west toward those routes, Lee had to defend more ground with fewer men. Hunger and desertion further reduced his force. Sherman’s advance north through the Carolinas threatened to bring another Union army into the contest.

From Appomattox and the end of the war, chapter 11 of The American Civil War, 1840–1877 (APR 1865).

The place: Surrender at Appomattox — map and full story →

Teach this in 5 minutes

Then ask the room: Did Grant’s generous surrender terms make Reconstruction’s later failure more likely? The argued answer is on the chapter page →

The atlas that shows it

The American Civil War, 1840–1877
13 CHAPTERS · AN INTERACTIVE SITUATION MAP

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