Battle of Appomattox Court House The Battle of Appomattox Court House , fought on the morning of April 9 , 1865 , was the final engagement of Confederate States Army General Robert E . Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia before it surrendered to the Union Army under Lt . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant , and one of the last battles of the American Civil War . 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 retreat at 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 . Background . The final campaign for Richmond , Virginia , the capital of the Confederate States of America , began when the Federal Army of the Potomac crossed the James River in June 1864 . The armies under the command of Lt . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant laid siege to Petersburg and Richmond , intending to cut the two cities ' supply lines and force the Confederates to evacuate . In the spring of 1865 Confederate Gen . Robert E . Lee waited for an opportunity to leave . Grant ' s army achieved a decisive breakthrough , effectively ending the Petersburg siege . With supply lines cut , Lee ' s men abandoned the trenches they had held for ten months and evacuated on the night of 2nd to the 3rd of April . Lee ' s first objective was to reassemble and supply his men at Amelia Courthouse . His plan was to link up with Gen . Joseph E . Johnston ' s Army of Tennessee and go on the offensive after establishing defenses on the Roanoke River . When the troops arrived at Amelia on April 4 , however , they found no provisions . Lee sent wagons out to the surrounding country to forage , but as a result lost a day ' s worth of marching time . The army then headed west to Appomattox Station , where a supply train awaited him . Lee ' s army was now composed of the cavalry corps and two small infantry corps . En route to the station , on April 6 at Sayler ' s Creek , nearly one fourth of the retreating Confederate army was cut off by Sheridan ' s cavalry and elements of the II and VI Corps . Two Confederate divisions fought the VI Corps along the creek . The Confederates attacked but were driven back , and soon after the Union cavalry cut through the right of the Confederate lines . Most of the 7 , 700 Confederates surrendered , including Lt . Gen . Richard S . Ewell and eight other generals . The delay prevented Lee from reaching the station until late afternoon on April 8 , allowing Sheridan to reach the station that evening , where he captured Lee ' s supplies and obstructed his path . Following the minor battles of Cumberland Church and High Bridge , on April 7 Grant sent a note to Lee suggesting that it was time to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia . In a return note , Lee refused the request , but asked Grant what terms he had in mind . On April 8 , Union cavalry under Brig . Gen . and Brevet Maj . Gen . George Armstrong Custer captured and burned three supply trains waiting for Lee ' s army at the Battle of Appomattox Station . Now both the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the James were converging on Appomattox . With his supplies at Appomattox destroyed , Lee now looked west , to the railway at Lynchburg , where more supplies awaited him . While the Union Army was closing in on Lee , all that lay between Lee and Lynchburg was Union cavalry . Lee hoped to break through the cavalry before infantry arrived . He sent a note to Grant saying that he did not wish to surrender his army just yet but was willing to discuss how Grant ' s terms would affect the Confederacy . Grant , with a throbbing headache , stated that " It looks as if Lee still means to fight . " The Union infantry was close , but the only unit near enough to support Sheridan ' s cavalry was Maj . Gen . John Gibbon ' s XXIV Corps of the Army of the James . This corps traveled in 21 hours to reach the cavalry . Maj . Gen . Edward O . C . Ord , commander of the Army of the James , arrived with the XXIV Corps around 4 : 00 a . m . while the V Corps of the Army of the Potomac was close behind . Sheridan deployed three divisions of cavalry along a low ridge to the southwest of Appomattox Court House . Battle . April 9 . At dawn on April 9 , the Confederate Second Corps under Maj . Gen . John B . Gordon attacked Sheridan ' s cavalry and quickly forced back the first line under Brevet Brig . Gen . Charles H . Smith . The next line , held by Brig . Gens . Ranald S . Mackenzie and George Crook , slowed the Confederate advance . Gordon ' s troops charged through the Union lines and took the ridge , but as they reached the crest they saw the entire Union XXIV Corps in line of battle with the Union V Corps to their right . Lee ' s cavalry saw these Union forces and immediately withdrew and rode off towards Lynchburg . Ord ' s troops began advancing against Gordon ' s corps while the Union II Corps began moving against Lt . Gen . James Longstreet ' s corps to the northeast . Colonel Charles Venable of Lee ' s staff rode in at this time and asked for an assessment , and Gordon gave him a reply he knew Lee did not want to hear : " Tell General Lee I have fought my corps to a frazzle , and I fear I can do nothing unless I am heavily supported by Longstreet ' s corps . " Upon hearing it Lee finally stated the inevitable : " Then there is nothing left for me to do but to go and see General Grant and I would rather die a thousand deaths . " Many of Lee ' s officers , including Longstreet , agreed that surrendering the army was the only option left . The only notable officer opposed to surrender was Longstreet ' s chief of artillery , Brig . Gen . Edward Porter Alexander , who predicted that if Lee surrendered then " every other [ Confederate ] army will follow suit . " At 8 : 00 a . m . , Lee rode out to meet Grant , accompanied by three of his aides . Grant received Lee ' s first letter on the morning of April 9 as he was traveling to meet Sheridan . Grant recalled his migraine seemed to disappear when he read Lee ' s letter , and he handed it to his assistant Rawlins to read aloud before composing his reply : Grant ' s response was remarkable in that it let the defeated Lee choose the place of his surrender . Lee received the reply within an hour and dispatched an aide , Charles Marshall , to find a suitable location for the occasion . Marshall scrutinized Appomattox Court House , a small village of roughly twenty buildings that served as a waystation for travelers on the Richmond - Lynchburg Stage Road . Marshall rejected the first house he saw as too dilapidated , instead settling on the 1848 brick home of Wilmer McLean . McLean had lived near Manassas Junction during the First Battle of Bull Run , and had retired to Appomattox to escape the war . With gunshots still being heard on Gordon ' s front and Union skirmisher s still advancing on Longstreet ' s front , Lee received a message from Grant . After several hours of correspondence between Grant and Lee , a cease - fire was enacted and Grant received Lee ' s request to discuss surrender terms . Surrender . Dressed in an immaculate uniform , Lee waited for Grant to arrive . Grant , whose headache had ended when he received Lee ' s note , arrived in a mud - spattered uniform — a government - issue flannel shirt with trousers tucked into muddy boots , no sidearms , and with only his tarnished shoulder straps showing his rank . It was the first time the two men had seen each other face - to - face in almost two decades . Suddenly overcome with sadness , Grant found it hard to get to the point of the meeting and instead the two generals briefly discussed their only previous encounter , during the Mexican - American War . Lee brought the attention back to the issue at hand , and Grant offered the same terms he had before : The terms were as generous as Lee could hope for ; his men would not be imprisoned or prosecuted for treason . In addition to his terms , Grant also allowed the defeated men to take home their horses and mules to carry out the spring planting and provided Lee with a supply of food rations for his starving army ; Lee said it would have a very happy effect among the men and do much toward reconciling the country . The terms of the surrender were recorded in a document hand written by Grant ' s adjutant Ely Parker , a Native - American of the Seneca tribe , and completed around 4 p . m . , April 9 . Lee , upon discovering Parker to be a Seneca remarked " It is good to have one real American here . " Parker replied , " Sir , we are all Americans . " As Lee left the house and rode away , Grant ' s men began cheering in celebration , but Grant ordered an immediate stop . " I at once sent word , however , to have it stopped , " he said . " The Confederates were now our countrymen , and we did not want to exult over their downfall . " Custer and other Union officers purchased from McLean the furnishings of the room Lee and Grant met in as souvenirs , emptying it of furniture . Grant soon visited the Confederate army , then he and Lee sat on the McLean home ' s porch and met with visitors such as Longstreet and George Pickett before the two men left for their capitals . On April 10 , Lee gave his farewell address to his army . The same day a six - man commission gathered to discuss a formal ceremony of surrender , even though no Confederate officer wished to go through with such an event . Brig . Gen . Joshua L . Chamberlain was the Union officer selected to lead the ceremony , and later he reflected on what he witnessed on April 12 , 1865 , and wrote a moving tribute : At the surrender ceremonies , about 28 , 000 Confederate soldiers passed by and stacked their arms . Aftermath . While General George Meade reportedly shouted that " it ' s all over " upon hearing the surrender was signed , Grant was aware that only a single army had given up . Roughly 175 , 000 Confederates remained in the field , but none of them had any commanders left of the same caliber as Lee and they were all starving and disillusioned . Many of these were scattered throughout the South in garrisons while the rest were concentrated in three major Confederate commands . Just as Porter Alexander had predicted , it was only a matter of time before the other Confederate armies began to surrender . As news spread of Lee ' s surrender , other Confederate commanders realized that the strength of the Confederacy was gone , and decided to lay down their own arms . Gen . Joseph E . Johnston ' s army in North Carolina , the most threatening of the remaining Confederate armies , surrendered to Maj . Gen . William T . Sherman at Bennett Place in Durham , North Carolina on April 26 , 1865 : the 98 , 270 Confederate troopers that laid down their weapons ( the largest surrender of the war ) marked the virtual end of the conflict . General Taylor surrendered his army at Citronelle , Alabama in early May , followed by General Edmund Kirby Smith surrendering the Confederate Trans - Mississippi Department in May near New Orleans , Louisiana . Upon hearing about General Lee ' s surrender , Nathan Bedford Forrest , " The Wizard of the Saddle " , also chose to throw in the towel , reading his farewell address on May 9 , 1865 at Gainesville , Alabama . Brig . Gen . Stand Watie surrendered the last sizable organized Confederate force on June 23 , 1865 . There were several more small battles after Lee ' s surrender , with the Battle of Palmito Ranch commonly regarded as the final military action of the Confederacy . Lee never forgot Grant ' s magnanimity during the surrender , and for the rest of his life would not tolerate an unkind word about Grant in his presence . Likewise , General Gordon cherished Chamberlain ' s simple act of saluting his surrendered army , calling Chamberlain " one of the knightliest soldiers of the Federal army . " Civil War commemorative stamps . During the Civil War Centennial , the United States Post Office issued five postage stamps commemorating the 100th anniversaries of famous battles , as they occurred over a four - year period , beginning with the Battle of Fort Sumter Centennial issue of 1961 . The Battle of Shiloh commemorative stamp was issued in 1962 , the Battle of Gettysburg in 1963 , the Battle of the Wilderness in 1964 , and the Appomattox Centennial commemorative stamp in 1965 .