Prior to the surrender, Lee’s army had been forced to abandon the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, and was retreating with the hope of joining with other Confederate forces in North Carolina. The Union army managed to cut them off with cavalry and infantry. With his army surrounded and his men weak and exhausted, Lee had no option but to surrender.
Lee and Grant sent a series of messages to each other that led to them meeting in the village of Appomattox Courthouse. Here they both signed the surrender documents in the parlour of a house owned by Wilmer McLean. The terms were as generous as Lee could have hoped for, since Grant wanted to avoid any possible excuse for a subsequent uprising.
Among the key terms granted to the Confederates were that all officers and men were pardoned and allowed to return home with their private property including their horses. Furthermore all Confederate officers were allowed to keep their side arms and would be fed with Union rations.
With the surrender signed, Grant is reputed to have stepped outside and declared, ‘The war is over. The Rebels are our countrymen again’. Lee’s surrender encouraged other Confederate forces across the south to do the same and marked the beginning of the end of the American Civil War.
By the time the war reached its final conclusion it had lasted for four years. Approximately 630,000 people had died, and there were over one million casualties on both sides.
