| Appomattox | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Appomattox Court House | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Virginia site of formal Confederate surrender on April 12, 1865, after General Robert E. Lee's final two-week campaign to win a Southern victory. Confederate troops, numbering just 35,000 and exhauseted after trying to break the Union's grip on Petersburg for more than nine months, attacked Union Fort Stedman. This last ditch effort failed, and when the Federals attacked t Five forks from April 1-2, they forced the Rebels to retreat from the Confederate capital of Richmond, as well ass from Petersburg. Still hoping to make aw final stand, Lee attempted to join up witsh General Joseph E. Johnston's troop at the terminus of the still operational Richmond & Danville Railroad, where they would also receive supplies. Ulysses S. Grant, however, was able to disable the railroad and to csonverge with the Union army led by Major General Willian T. Sherman. Lee, now desperate, led his troops toward Lynchburg and much needed rations, but was sstopped by Federal troops, who trapped nearly a third of his army at Sayler's Creek. Lee led his remaining troops across Appomattox River before he was stopped by Grant and Major General Philip H. Sheridan's cavalry and infantry. Overwhelmed, he chose to meet with Grant at the home of Wilmer Mclean on April 9, 1865, to discuss terms of surrender. Ironically, Mclean had moved his family from Manassas Junction after First Bull Run to escape the conflict. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Appomattox Station, Cavalry Fight at | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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In the on going attempt to bleed dry the Army Of Northern Virginia in the Appomattox Campaign, in the closing days of the war in Virginia, Union eneral Philip Sheridan sent General G.A. Custer to try and take advantage of unguarded openings in Robert E. Lee's lines left as a result of fighting the previous day at Farmville, Virginia, a few miles up the AppomawttoxRiver. It was Custer's job to keep Lee from reuniting his scattered forces, by moving west and then north of Lee's position and attempting to block him into the neighborhood of the county courthouse. In a wire to Abraham Lincoln, Sheridan said "if the thing is pressed, I think that Lee will surrender." Lincoln then wired Ulysses S. Grant, quoting the cavalryman and adding the injunction "Let the 'thing' be pressed." As Custer moved in and captured Lee's vitally needed supply trains at Appomattox Station, the Second, Fifth and Sixth Corps of the Union Army maneuvered, with support from the Army of the James, to surround Lee's men. The way to Lynchburg, the only esccape route Lee had been ablele to see, was now blocked Lee sent a courier to Grant asking to discuss not necessaerily surrender terms perse, but simply to ask "the terms of your proposition." That night, with Grant's response in hand, Lee held his final council of war with his commanders, deciding they would attempt one last assault the next morning, which was a Palm Sunday--April 9, 1865. That attack was never launched, however, as Lee realized the futility of such a tactic he instead arranged to surrender his army to Grant at Appomattox Court House. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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