American History: Primary Sources: Lee Surrenders to Grant (1865)

On April 9, 1865, after a final battle that failed to break through Union forces, Robert E. Lee surrendered at the Appomattox Court House in Virginia. As a brigadier general and secretary to Ulysses S. Grant, Horace Porter witnessed and recorded this event. In his report, Porter included detailed observations, letters between the opposing generals, and personal opinions—all of which served to emphasize the humanity of the moments leading up to and surrounding the formal ceremony that is now seen as the end of the Civil War.
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