Lee surrenders at Appomattox, ending the Civil War

On 9 April 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the American Civil War after four years of fighting that had claimed approximately 620,000 lives — more than all other American wars combined. Grant offered generous terms: Confederate soldiers could go home and take their horses. Lee accepted. The Union's victory preserved the United States as one nation and set the stage for the abolition of slavery through the 13th Amendment, ratified in December 1865. President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated just five days later, on 14 April, casting a shadow over the beginning of Reconstruction. The war's legacy — contested interpretations of states' rights, race, and national identity — continues to shape American political life more than 150 years later.