Appomattox Court House

Describe the 1865 surrender.

Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.

What children learn in Level 69

By spring 1865, Lee's army was hungry and worn out. Grant's forces took Richmond, the Confederate capital, in early April.
Lee tried to get away to the west, but he was surrounded. He wrote to Grant and agreed to meet.
On April 9, 1865, they met in a house at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Grant was in a muddy uniform, and Lee was in his finest. Ely Parker, a Seneca officer on Grant's staff, wrote out the terms.
The terms were generous. Soldiers could go home, officers kept their swords, and men could keep their horses for spring planting. Grant even sent food to Lee's hungry soldiers.
When Union soldiers began to cheer, Grant stopped them. The Confederates were their countrymen again. Other Confederate armies gave up in the weeks after. The Civil War was over.

Georgia Standards of Excellence in Social Studies:

SS4H5.c — Identify major battles, campaigns, and events: Fort Sumter, Gettysburg, the Atlanta Campaign, Sherman's March to the Sea, and Appomattox Court House.
SS4H5.d — Describe the roles of Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Jefferson Davis, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, and William T. Sherman.