It was on this day in 1865 that General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant, General of the United States Armies, thus bringing an end to the American Civil War. Much has been written about that historic day, but General Grant himself perhaps best captured the emotional complexity of the surrender in his Personal Memoirs written in 1885:
“What General Lee’s feelings were I do not know. As he was a man of much dignity, with an impassible face, it was impossible to say whether he felt inwardly glad that the end had finally come, or felt sad over the result, and was too manly to show it. Whatever his feelings, they were entirely concealed from my observation; but my own feelings, which had been quite jubilant on the receipt of his letter, were sad and depressed. I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse. I do not question, however, the sincerity of the great mass of those who were opposed to us.”
Above are images of the great generals: Lee on the right and Grant on the left. The UTC Special Collections owns the cartes de visite of Lee and the image of Grant is from the Library of Congress.