04/09/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/18UUexHqN8/?mibextid=wwXIfr
in , 1865, Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his army at . For four years, a great civil war tested whether our nation—dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal—could long endure. At least 620,000 souls lost their lives. But providence at last gave its answer.
On the morning of April 9, Lee still held hope that his Army of Northern could break through the Union line and retreat south to North Carolina. His troops, though, were virtually surrounded, leading Gen. Ulysses S. Grant to implore: “By the South laying down their arms they will hasten that most desirable” and “save thousands of human lives.”
When Lee finally accepted the futility of his army’s position, he agreed to meet Grant at Appomattox Court House. Though Grant’s men believed “this was all a ruse” to aid a Confederate escape, Grant “had no doubt about the good faith of Lee.” The Virginian was the son of a patriot who was present at the British surrender at Yorktown. Now, Lee was present for a new birth of freedom: for the , and the four million who toiled in bo***ge.
Following an affable conversation, Lee agreed to Grant’s terms of surrender. To avoid what Grant called an “unnecessary humiliation,” Confederate soldiers would be allowed to march home with their horses and side arms; and not be prosecuted for treason—if they never again waged war against the .
But before leaving, Lee conceded that his men were desperate for food after days of surviving on parched corn. Thus, with malice toward none, but charity for all, Grant offered Lee enough rations for 25,000 men. Writing in his memoir, Grant reflected:
“I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse.”
in Picture: “Lee accepts the surrender terms,” Tom Lovell (1965)
