Grant (L) - Lee (R)

Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse

On April 9, 1865 after four years of Civil War, approximately 630,000 deaths and over 1 million casualties, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, at the home of Wilmer and Virginia McLean in the rural town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia.

Appomattox Courthouse, April 1865

On April 10, 1865 Generals Lee and Grant met for a 2nd time at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. In the 2nd meeting General Lee requested that his men be given evidence that they were paroled prisoners - to protect them from arrest or annoyance. 28,231 Parole passes were issued to the Confederates.

When Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox, thirty-six African-Americans were listed on the Confederate paroles. Most were either servants, free blacks, musicians, cooks, teamsters or blacksmiths. A Black woman was to become the only civilian casualty in the final fighting at Appomattox. Hannah stayed behind with her husband in the home of Doctor Coleman located on the battlefield and was mortally wounded by an artillery round. A Union chaplain remembered: "she was sick with fever and unable to be moved. As she lay upon her bed, a solid shot had passed through one wall of the house at just the right height to strike her arm, and then passed out through the opposite wall." Few black Southerners served as combat troops in the Confederate Army, many served in other capacities.

The end of the war led directly to the adoption of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution – ending slavery, providing citizenship and male suffrage.

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