On this day in history, April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, Ulysses Grant wrote the following:
General R. E. LEE:
GENERAL: In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the 8th instant, I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on the following terms, to wit: Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate, one copy to be given to an officer to be designated by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as you may designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged; and each company or regimental commander sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, artillery, and public property to be parked and stacked, and turned over to the officers appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to his home, not to be disturbed by U. S. authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside.
U.S. GRANT,
Lieutenant-General
It is one of the great myths of American history, and thus a suitable answer to Eric’s question, that Appomattox ended the Civil War. It certainly surrendered the Confederacy’s most notable army and commander, but even after April 9th, Confederate armies remained in the field, fighting the Union. President Andrew Johnson’s announcement of the end of the Civil War would not come until August 20, 1865, and even then, the Confederate commerce raider Shenandoah held out until early November. But Lee’s surrender has become the de facto end of the Civil War, as it plays powerfully into the personality cult surrounding the Confederate General, and serves usefully as the founding tragedy of Lost Cause mythology.
25 comments
April 9, 2010 at 12:24 pm
Walt
Really? I had no idea that Appomattox didn’t mark the end of the war.
April 9, 2010 at 1:00 pm
andrew
For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it’s still not yet two o’clock on that April afternoon in 1865, the pen is in position in Grant’s hand…
April 9, 2010 at 1:18 pm
AaLD
That would be every white southern boy, wouldn’t it?
Doesn’t Juneteenth mark the end of the Civil War in African American tradition? Although ending the war is probably secondary to ending slavery in that celebration.
April 9, 2010 at 1:23 pm
andrew
It would (and could be limited even more), but I just went with the original phrasing.
April 9, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Anderson
Sherman got in trouble a little while after Appomattox for trying to pardon the Confederate leaders, didn’t he?
April 9, 2010 at 2:09 pm
kid bitzer
at least on this blog, can we point out the real significance of appomattox?
the surrender of lee’s army was officially accepted by a college professor.
April 9, 2010 at 2:17 pm
silbey
Who did a fairly good job of it
April 9, 2010 at 2:38 pm
kid bitzer
twas nothing, really–just a typical day’s work for a professor of modern languages.
(and, come on–hasn’t every one of us, facing a large auditorium full of idle antipathy, at some point wanted to disperse them with a bayonet charge?)
April 9, 2010 at 2:50 pm
silbey
(and, come on–hasn’t every one of us, facing a large auditorium full of idle antipathy, at some point wanted to disperse them with a bayonet charge?
Just yesterday.
April 9, 2010 at 2:59 pm
kid bitzer
you see? brigade commander, lecturer: the skill-set is almost identical.
April 9, 2010 at 4:07 pm
silbey
you see? brigade commander, lecturer: the skill-set is almost identical
I’ve always regretted the fewer air strikes possible in survey courses, now that you mention it.
April 9, 2010 at 4:09 pm
brosna
And how do you count guerilla actions such as Jesse James’ gang’s raid on a Minnesota bank because it had deposits from what they considered “carpetbaggers”?
In fact, if I may inquire of you historians, is there anything to the theory that the “Wild West” violence was partly a postwar continuation of the prewar Kansas-Nebraska violence?
April 9, 2010 at 4:23 pm
silbey
There’s been some work on “reconstruction as insurgency”; I’m not sure that it’s been extended to the West. See:
http://warhistorian.org/mershon/war-for-south-main.htm
April 9, 2010 at 4:35 pm
kid bitzer
“I’ve always regretted the fewer air strikes possible in survey courses”
too true.
at the same time, certain commencement ceremonies have made me want a mortar bored for 120mm shells.
April 9, 2010 at 6:20 pm
Jonathan Dresner
As my father says, there are few problems in this world so large that they can’t be solved in a single strafing run.
A few of those on the quad, and our Spring attendance would go up, I bet.
April 9, 2010 at 7:21 pm
eric
In fact, if I may inquire of you historians, is there anything to the theory that the “Wild West” violence was partly a postwar continuation of the prewar Kansas-Nebraska violence?
Yes; see Richard Brown, No Duty to Retreat.
April 9, 2010 at 8:54 pm
ben
That Kirkus review sure makes the book sound good.
April 11, 2010 at 11:44 am
TF Smith
Wasn’t Colfax Courthouse arguably the last “action” of the Civil War, if such is defined as a clash between two armed, organized groups, involving significant numbers of combatants, for a political purpose?
April 13, 2010 at 11:57 am
bexley32
OT – Brit here. Can anyone recommend a one volume history covering the US civil war and its causes for a novice to the period?
My interest was piqued after reading the unintentionally hilarious comments from Paulbots and Neo-Confederates on the thread about Ron Paul’s views on Abe not trying hard enough to avoid the war.
April 13, 2010 at 11:59 am
silbey
OT – Brit here. Can anyone recommend a one volume history covering the US civil war and its causes for a novice to the period
James MacPherson’s _Battle Cry of Freedom_ is considered the best one volume currently out there.
April 13, 2010 at 12:56 pm
bexley32
Thanks.
April 15, 2010 at 7:05 am
TF Smith
If you are looking for a college-focused text that covers the aftermath as well, McPherson’s “Ordeal by Fire” also does a respectable job on Reconstruction; look for the 3rd (2001) edition.
Bruce Catton’s The Civil War (1960) is dated, but very readable and provides an interesting point of comparison in terms of historiography; the 1980s reprints are nicely illustrated and include some very helpful appendices.
For a Briton, reading this:
http://www.amazon.com/American-Civil-War-Winston-Churchill/dp/0517467798
could be entertaining…
Best
April 15, 2010 at 7:16 am
TF Smith
To give undergraduates a clear understanding of what the conflict was about, I’d recommend:
Chandra Manning, “What This Cruel War was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War”
Charles B. Drew “Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War”
Melton B. McLaurin “Celia, A Slave: A True Story”
Frederick Douglass “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave”
Gallagher and Nolan, (eds). The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History” is a good collection of essays on the historiography.
April 15, 2010 at 1:43 pm
bexley32
Thanks. Although, given the already large pile of books awaiting my attention I may just let Sir Winston’s views on the conflict slide ;)
April 18, 2010 at 8:53 am
TF Smith
Bexley –
Understandable, but I have always enjoyed WSC’s works, as much for the quality of the writing (if not the history!) as for the window it provides to the thinking of one of the 20th Century’s leading figures. The question of what FDR’s memoirs would have read like in comparison is an interesting one…
Best