Appomattox Courthouse and Lee's Surrender
Thursday April 9, 2009
On April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. Ironically, the site of this last major battle was owned by Wilmer McLean, a retired officer of the Virginia militia, who had moved his family into the Courthouse nearly four years earlier after his farm in Northern Virginia became the site of the first battle of Bull Run. It could be said that McLean hosted both one of the major battles at the beginning and near the end of the Civil War.
Additional troops around the country disbanded and surrendered. In fact the last major surrender by a general occurred on June 23, 1865. The last naval vessel to surrender did not occur until November 6, 1865.
Comments
I found The Tibit about Gen. Lee’s surrender
interesting.
Thanks
Mike Jules
April 9, 1865 was a significant day, but the surrender of one army, even if it is the most important army, does not end a war. When Lee surrendered there were other Confederate armies still fighting. Confederate President Jefferson Davis urged them to continue. However, with Lee defeated there was no real hope for Southern victory, so they also surrendered.
As for McLean, it sounds good, but the war began at Fort Sumter, not Manassas. Wilmer McLean was a great self promoter.
I recently read an article about the 2 flags of the united states. A peacetime flag and a wartime flag. This article ,and 2 others I found, claim that peace has never been restored. So the flag we pledge our allegiance to, has an uncertain history.
My reason for writing this comment was in hopes someone could tell me these articles are wrong. And also offer some proof of it. I want to be able to know the answers based on facts not on opinions (from either side of the argument).
-Was there was an official end to the war?
I can find the end date of other wars quite easily.
-What happened to the peacetime flag?
Whatever our flag is now, is our flag. I do not debate that. It is interesting though. Something I stumbled upon that is hard to find facts either way on.
Either way I would like to hear someone who knows a thing or 2 about the civil war put the writer of this article in his place. Or blow my mind and agree with him. I will learn something either way.