Lee Surrenders
The Confederate army along with the southern states, admit defeat because they can no longer support the war effort. Robert E. Lee is confronted by General Grant's army but has no food or ammunition. Lee rides on his horse to meet General Grant in full dress uniform with pride and honor. General Grant accepts Lee's surrender with the words "lay down your arms and go home." Near Appomattox, Virginia, General Robert E. Lee and the Confederate army are trapped with no means of escape and their train cars full of food supplies have been stolen. Lee has no alternative but to surrender his army and along with it, the chance of a Confederate victory. In broad daylight, Robert E. Lee, rides into the middle of the battlefield and requests to meet General Ulysses S. Grant. After he requests for General Grant, he is told by the Union army that Grant cannot be found and that for his safety he should move. The Union army does not attack and General Grant is eventually found. At a farm house, Grant accepts the surrender of the Confederate army. Although normally customary, General Grant does not take Lee's ceremonial sword, he respectfully gives the instruction to surrender their weapons and go home.
General Sherman's March
From November 15 to December 21, 1864, in an effort to break the spirit of the south, General Sherman is given permission to attack. General Sherman marches from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia using a "scorched earth" tactic by destroying many things in his path. This march was meant to emotionally defeat the south, and the southern way of life.
Lincoln's Assasination
On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, went to the Ford’s Theatre for a relaxing night of entertainment. Lincoln and his wife arrived late to the production and sat in a box above the stage with army officer; Henry Rathbone and his fiancée; Clara Harris. John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor in his time, slipped into Lincolns box a fired a .44-caliber single shot derringer in the back of Abraham Lincoln’s head. Booth then stabbed Rathbone in the arm and jumped from the box onto the stage. He yelled “Sic semper tyrannis!” (Thus ever to tyrants) and ran out of the theatre. The audience thought that this was part of the show but they realized their mistake once they heard Mrs. Lincoln’s scream. Lincoln was taken to a small house across the street where he died the next morning. The search for John Wilkes Booth was one of the largest manhunts in history. There were about 10,000 troops, police, and detectives tracking the location of Booth.