In the months that led up to Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox in April of 1865, both Lee and Longstreet considered possibilities of beginning peace negotiations. That the end was near was very evident to both.

Lee petitioned General Grant for a meeting to discuss terms of surrender, but feared that any terms might include the return of the southern states to the Union. He had, in fact, discussed this with President Jefferson Davis. Grant sensed that Lee’s proposal might be politically motivated, rather than a military issue. He replied that only the President of the United States had the authority to conduct such a meeting.

On the afternoon of April 7, 1865, Grant made an attempt to invite Lee’s surrender. General Phil Sheridan had sent word to Grant that he intended to capture seven trains of provisions that were intended for the Confederate army. With this in mind, and the previous week's series of Federal victories, Grant addressed Lee on April 7.

The result of last week must convince you of the hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia in this struggle. I feel that is so, and regard it as my duty to shift from myself the responsibility of any further effusion of blood, by asking you the surrender of that portion of the Confederate army known as the Army of Northern Virginia.

This note was sent by Grant’s adjutant, General Seth Williams, by way of Lee’s rear guard. After midnight, the following reply was received at Grant’s headquarters.

I have received your note of this date. Though not entirely of the opinion you express of the hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia, I reciprocate your desire to avoid useless effusion of blood and therefore, before considering your proposition, ask the terms you will offer on conditions of its surrender.

This was not a satisfactory reply to Grant. On the next day, April 8, 1865, he replied as follows.

Your note of last evening in reply to mine of same date, asking conditions on which I will accept the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, is just received. In reply, I would say that peace being my first desire, there is but one condition I insist upon, viz.: That the men surrendered shall be disqualified for taking up arms against the Government of the United Sates until properly exchanged. I will meet you, or will designate officers to meet any officers you may name for the same purposes, at any point agreeable to you, for the purpose of arranging definitely the terms upon which the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia will be received.

It must have been hard for Lee to think of surrender, as he was hoping to gain some concessions when he next communicated with Grant. At midnight on the 8th of April, Grant received the following.

I received at a late hour your note of today in answer to mine of yesterday. I did not intend to propose the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, but to ask the terms of your proposition. To be frank, I do not think the emergency has arisen to call for the surrender of this army, but as the restoration of peace should be the sole object of all, I desire to know whether your proposals would lead to that end. I can not, therefore, meet you with a view to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia; but as far as your proposition may affect the Confederate States forces under my command and tend to the restoration of peace, I should be pleased to meet you at 10 a.m. tomorrow on the old stage road to Richmond, between the picket lines of the two armies.

Lee’s situation was desperate and he knew it. There was no food. Rations were down to gruel in a tin cup. Men were simply walking off to get food for themselves, or to be done with soldiering altogether. The Army of Northern Virginia was now down to a core of officers and men who had fought together for years and had no thoughts of surrender.

On the night of April 8, Lee’s army rested a few miles east of Appomattox Court House. Generals Longstreet, John B. Gordon, Fitzhugh Lee, and a number of division commanders were summoned to Lee’s campfire to discuss the situation. It was decided that Fitzhugh Lee’s cavalry would attempt to break through the Federal line if it encountered only Cavalry when it advanced. If Grant’s infantry was blocking the road, the only option was surrender. At 1 a.m., the troops would be awakened, and Fitzhugh Lee’s cavalry would start west.

That same night, George Armstrong Custer’s division of Sheridan’s cavalry made a dash to destroy the railroad west of Appomattox Station. He found seven Confederate supply trains. Three escaped when they saw Custer approaching and four were captured.

At dawn, Fitzhugh Lee’s cavalry, accompanied by Gordon’s infantry, attacked Custer. Custer sent three of the four captured trains to Farmville, the fourth was burned. The Federal cavalry was being manhandled by Fitzhugh Lee, when they gave way to the massed Federal infantry closing in on Gordon’s flanks and rear. The Confederate Cavalry was surrounded!

A short message was received from General John B. Gordon, “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.” According to his aide, Colonel Venable, General Lee said, “Then there is nothing left for me to do but to go and see General Grant, and I would rather die a thousand deaths.” Venable’s description of the scene follows:

Convulsed with passionate grief, many were the wild words which we spoke as we stood around him. Said one: “Oh general, what will history say of the surrender of the army in the field?” He replied: “Yes, I know they will say hard things of us; they will not understand how we are overwhelmed by numbers. But that is not the question, Colonel; the question is, is it right to surrender this army? If it is right, then I will take all the responsibility.”

Lee called his officers together. He was dressed in his finest uniform, but according to Longstreet, “the handsome apparel and the brave bearing failed to conceal his profound depression.” The situation was discussed. Lee’s army was surrounded on all sides and the situation was indeed hopeless. Longstreet asked if the bloody sacrifice of the army would help the cause in other quarters. Lee thought not. Longstreet’s reply was “then your situation speaks for itself.”

Lee did not expect Grant to demand an unconditional surrender. Lee would surrender on the condition that the Army of Northern Virginia would not fight again until exchanged.

With his adjutant, Colonel Walter H. Taylor, and Colonel Charles C. Marshall to accompany him, Lee mounted his horse, Traveller, and headed for the agreed meeting place. A sergeant carrying a white flag preceded the party. A Federal officer met them with a flag, bearing the following message:

Your note of yesterday is received. As I have no authority to treat on the subject of peace, the meeting proposed for 10 a.m. today could lead to no good. I will state, however, General, that I am equally anxious for peace with yourself, and the whole North entertains the same feeling. The terms upon which peace can be had are well understood. By the South laying down their arms, they would hasten that desirable event, save thousands of human lives and hundreds of millions of property not yet destroyed. Sincerely hoping that all our difficulties may be settled without the loss of another life, I subscribe myself, very respectfully –

This was not the response Lee was hoping for, but he was determined to go ahead with the surrender. A courier dashed up with word that Fitzhugh Lee had found a place where the army could get through the Federal lines, but Lee was uninterested. He dictated a letter to Grant as follows:

I received your note of this morning on the picket line whither I had come to meet you and ascertain definitely what terms were embraced in your proposition of yesterday. With reference to the surrender of this army I now request an interview in accordance with the offer contained in your letter of yesterday for that purpose.

Lee then sent word to General Gordon to put up a white flag. He sent a flag to Sheridan’s front, and another to Meade, telling them he was about to confer with Grant and asking for a suspension of hostilities.

General Lee then tried to get a little rest on some blankets under an apple tree. Soon thereafter, a Federal officer arrived with a Confederate escort who presented Lee with a note containing Grant’s reply to his message of that morning.

Your note of this date is but this moment 11:50 a.m. received, in consequence of my having passed from the Richmond and Lynchburg road to the Farmville and Lynchburg road. I am at this writing about four miles west of Walker’s Church and will push forward to the front for the purpose of meeting you. Notice sent to me on this road where you wish the interview to take place will meet me.

Colonel Taylor went back to the Confederate lines, and only Colonel Marshall accompanied Lee, followed by a mounted orderly. They proceeded to the village of Appomattox Court House, where they met a man named Wilmer McClean. McClean led them to his own house. He ushered them into the living room to await the coming of Grant.

Grant arrived a little after 1 p.m. and walked into the room where Lee was sitting. The Federal officers could not miss the contrast between Lee’s fine uniform and Grant’s working clothes. The words then spoken have been read many times with intense interest. They are a memorable example of democratic exchange between victor and vanquished.

The surrender of troops took place on April 12, when General Gordon led the regiments to a field near Appomattox Court House, where they stacked arms and colors. General Lee did not witness the surrender, he rode out of camp that day with Colonels Taylor and Marshall.

Lee’s report to President Jefferson Davis of the circumstances of the surrender is dated April 12 and was probably prepared before he left camp. He describes the situation confronting the army when it arrived at Amelia Court House on April 4 and did not find the needed supplies awaiting it. After describing the movements to Appomattox and the resulting stalemate, Lee said he surrendered “that portion of the Army of Northern Virginia which was on the field.”

Lee’s army numbered 7,892 organized infantry with arms, with an average of 75 rounds of ammunition per man. The cavalry did not number more than 2,100. These men, in addition to the artillery, numbered in the neighborhood of 12, 000. The Federal army numbered in excess of 50,000.

Lee “deemed this course the best under all the circumstances by which we were surrounded.” In his words, the troops were “worn out and exhausted”. If the Army of Northern Virginia “could have forced our way one day longer, it would have been at a great sacrifice of life, and at its end I did not see how a surrender could have been avoided”.

The ragged and exhausted Confederate soldiers went home. Lee and Grant went on to their places in history. The Civil War was over.