Claim: Ulysses S. Grant was in a battle with the chief leader of the Confederate Army.

The Battle of Appomattox Court House , fought on the morning of April 9 , 1865 , was one of the last battles of the American Civil War . It was the final engagement of Confederate Army general Robert E. Lee 's Army of Northern Virginia before it surrendered to the Union Army under Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant . Lee , having abandoned the Confederate capital of Richmond , Virginia , after the ten-month Siege of Petersburg , retreated west , hoping to join his army with the Confederate forces in North Carolina . Union forces pursued and cut off the Confederate 's retreat at the village of Appomattox Court House . Lee launched an attack to break through the Union force to his front , assuming the Union force consisted entirely of cavalry . When he realized that the cavalry was backed up by two corps of Union infantry , he had no choice but to surrender .   The signing of the surrender documents occurred in the parlor of the house owned by Wilmer McLean on the afternoon of April 9 . On April 12 , a formal ceremony marked the disbandment of the Army of Northern Virginia and the parole of its officers and men , effectively ending the war in Virginia . This event triggered a series of surrenders across the South , signaling the end of the war .