Neither Abraham Lincoln nor Jefferson Davis (president of the Confederacy) was present at the Appomattox Court House. Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865, following an hour and a half long meeting during which it was decided that Confederate cavalry and officers would be allowed to retain their horses and side arms.
Chat with our AI personalities
Ulysses S Grant was not President at the time, he was the General to whom Lee surrendered. No president met Lee at Appomatox.
at the Appomattox courthouse.
Grant and Lee. Some said that it should have been Meade in Grant's place, as it was Meade's army (with Grant travelling with it) that had defeated Lee.
By April of 1865, Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was in a state of irreversible repair. Food was in short supply if any, and Grant had Lee surrounded. Grant sent a letter to Lee urging him to "cease all resistance, ...." The only chance Lee had was no chance at all. His depleted army of less than 30,000, he would have to fight an estimated Union force of 80,000 troops to escape to Lynchburg. Grant and Lee met in the home of Wilmer McClean at the Appomattox Court House. There the surrender papers were signed. For all practical purposes the war was over. However, not officially over as there were thousands of other Confederate troops in the South and else where.
Ulysses S. Grant
What are the causes of when Lee met Grant and agreed to surrender ?