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The Battle of Appomattox Courthouse is considered by many historians the end of the Civil War and the start of post-Civil War America. The events of General Robert E. Lee’s surrender to General and future President Ulysses S. Grant at a small town courthouse in Central Virginia put into effect much of what was to follow. The surrender at Appomattox Courthouse was about reconciliation, healing, and restoring the Union. While the Radical Republicans had their mercifully brief time in the sun rubbing defeated Dixie’s nose in it, they represented the bleeding edge of Northern radicalism that wanted to punish the...

Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia to Union Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant. Lee is the third Confederate General to surrender their army to Grant.

The Army of Northern Virginia passes into history. General Lee surrenders the 28,000 men of his army to General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. This is the third Confederate Army that has surrendered to Grant during the war.

Last month marked the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, a moment vividly encapsulated by the frenzied scene of South Vietnamese desperately trying to reach the last helicopter on the roof of the American embassy. April was also the 150th anniversary of the surrender at Appomattox, when Robert E. Lee capitulated to Ulysses S. Grant, bringing the bloodiest fighting of the Civil War to an end.The two episodes seemingly have little to do with each other. But each, in its way, illustrates one of the bleakly recurring themes of US military history: When America's armed forces prematurely abandon the...

Bells will ring across the country and in Lynchburg on Thursday to mark the 150th anniversary of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Appomattox, the symbolic end of four years of bloodshed. A historic bell will be rung at Appomattox Court House National Historical Park at 3 p.m., the time the surrender occurred. People at historic sites, schools, parks, government buildings and within communities throughout Lynchburg and the country will join in at 3:15 p.m., ringing bells for four continuous minutes, representing the four years of fighting.

The surrender of Confederate Robert E. Lee to Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant 150 years ago Thursday was the definitive milestone of the end of the Civil War.

149 years ago today, the Civil War all but came to an end with the surrender of Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia to Union forces headed by Ulysses S. Grant. While a few battles were still to be fought and many other Confederate units or forces would surrender over the following weeks and months, Lee's surrender marked the end of the war in the Eastern Theater.

American Minute, with Bill FedererApril 9The Civil War began on Wilmer McLean's farm in Manassas Junction, Virginia, with the First Battle of Bull Run. A Union shell exploded in his kitchen. Wilmer McLean moved to get away from the conflict, yet almost four years later his new home, near Appomattox Court House, Virginia, was the agreed location for General Robert E. Lee to surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant on APRIL 9, 1865. Ken Burn's documentary film of the Civil War stated that the war began in Wilmer McLean's front yard and ended in his front parlor. The Civil War...

A big anniversary is drawing extra tourists to the battlefields of Appomattox. One hundred and forty-five years ago Friday, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederacy at Appomattox, bringing the Civil War to an end. Crowds gathered to re-live the historic moment at the Appomattox National Historic Site. Actors are playing the part of townspeople to help visitors understand what the area was like in the 1860's. Friday's events have attracted visitors from across the U.S. Some drove from as far away as Oregon and California. "We had about 400 people out here on Thursday. It was nice. Don't know...

APPOMATTOX, Va. (AP) - Virginia State Police are reporting multiple fatals and injuries involving a lone gunman in central Virginia. State police spokeswoman Corinne Geller says more than 100 law enforcement officials have surrounded the suspected gunman in a wooded area just outside of Appomattox. She could not say how many had been killed or injured. Police say the violence began shortly after noon Tuesday when an injured man was found on a rural stretch of road. Police say when officers responded, someone fired at them. A state police helicopter had to land with a ruptured fuel tank. The officers...

'Several' fatalities in Virginia shooting: police (AFP) – 2 hours ago WASHINGTON — A shooting in Virginia on Tuesday caused "several fatalities," and law enforcement officials were still searching for the gunman, state police said.... "There is just one male suspect," he added.... "When the deputy arrived on scene, the deputy heard several gun shots and he in turn contacted his dispatch center and they dispatched several more of their deputies to the scene along with contacting the Virginia state police for assistance," Molnar said....

Ever since the document was examined several weeks ago, it's been a mystery. Initially, it appeared to be a reproduction of the terms and conditions of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender in Appomattox, Va., in 1865. But staff members of the Civil War and Underground Railroad Museum in Center City - who came upon the document while preparing for the museum's relocation - soon noticed pen indentations in the paper, and darker and lighter ink strokes consistent with handwriting. They also found a notation in a 1935 museum inventory identifying the document as an "original." Could this artifact, crudely...

On April 9 1865, only days after fleeing Richmond, Robert E Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House. On the evening of April 8, the ANV had arrived at Appomattox where Lee planned on meeting a supply train that had arrived at nearby Appomattox Station. The plan was to feed and rearm as many troops as possible before continuing their retreat. A fast-moving Federal cavalry unit dispersed a small Confederate detachment guarding the supply train and captured it. At this point, Lee did not believe that Federal infantry was anywhere near his position. He believed that...

Excerpted with permission from April 1865: The Month That Saved America....To grasp the full horror of the march it is necessary to make it yourself. The landscape constantly changes: open fields are exasperatingly punctuated by high hedges and dense windbreaks that are impossible to see through or over or around. On the other side, they seamlessly merge into swamps, or dense, claustrophobic woods, or undergrowth so thick as to be a second forest; or, conversely, they run into long, muddy tracts, known euphemistically as Virginia quicksand. Once more, Lee pushed his men to the outer limits of human endurance. "I...