Terms of Surrender

Appomattox Court House Witnessed on April 9, 1865 in the tiny Court House of Appomattox, Virginia was the surrender of General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant.

Appomattox Court House

All in all, close to 30,000 Confederates surrendered their arms and their fate to their Union victors according to the terms agreed upon by the two generals.

Surrender at Appomattox General Lee started to move his army west of Richmond Virginia, in hopes to meet up with another Confederate force. The Union however blocked Lee's escape route.

General Grant’s Terms Generously to Wit 1. Confederate soldiers had to lay down their arms (weapons) 1. Then were free to leave. 2. Were allowed to keep their horses. 2. In order to farm food for their family, in the upcoming winter. 3. Grant also ordered three days' worth of food. 3. To send to Lee's starving troops.

The Outcome Two months after Lee's surrender, all Confederate troops surrendered. Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, was captured on May 10. Finally, the Civil War has ended!

Lincoln’s Assassination A Night Out: On the evening of April 14, 1865, while attending a special performance of the comedy, "Our American Cousin," President Abraham Lincoln was shot. Accompanying him at Ford's Theater that night was his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, an officer named Major Henry R. Rathbone, and Rathbone's fiancée, Clara Harris.

Ford’s Theater

Presidential Box

Who Shot the President? Actor John Wilkes Booth entered the presidential box at Ford's Theater in Washington D.C., and fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln. As Lincoln slumped forward in his seat, Booth leapt onto the stage and escaped through the back door. A doctor in the audience rushed over to examine the paralyzed president. Lincoln was then carried across the street to Petersen's Boarding House, where he died early the next morning.

John Wilkes Booth

All is Done The bodies remain hanging for about 25 minutes before being cut down.

Why Murder the President? Booth was a fanatical Confederate sympathizer, and thought by assassinating Lincoln, he would help the South. BUT It had the opposite effect; both the South and the North joined together and mourned Lincoln's death.

Not Just Booth Booth did not act alone. At almost the same moment Booth fired his shot, his accomplice, Lewis Paine, attacked Lincoln's Secretary of State, William Henry Seward. Paine slashed the Secretary's throat twice, and then escaped. However, William Henry Seward lived for another 7 years.

A President to Remember The whole country grieved the death of President Lincoln. As the nine-car funeral train carried President Lincoln home for burial in Springfield, Illinois, people showed up at train stations all along the way to pay their respects.