Eighth Grade Social Studies: The End of the War: Appomattox Court House and the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
The final months of the American Civil War brought the military collapse of the Confederacy, the surrender of Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, the constitutional abolition of slavery, and the tragic assassination of Abraham Lincoln on the threshold of national reunification.
The Siege of Petersburg and the Fall of Richmond
By the summer of 1864, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant had locked General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia into a desperate, grinding war of attrition around the cities of Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia. Petersburg was the vital railway hub through which all supplies flowed to the Confederate capital of Richmond, twenty miles to the north.
Unable to take Petersburg by frontal assault, Grant settled into a ten-month siege that stretched from June 1864 to April 1865. The siege was not a traditional encirclement, but a brutal, thirty-mile war of trenches, earthworks, and subterranean mining (such as the disastrous Battle of the Crater). Grant used his superior numbers and inexhaustible logistics to constantly extend his siege lines to the south and west, forcing Lee to stretch his thinning Confederate lines to the breaking point.
By March 1865, Lee’s men were starving, barefoot, and shivering in icy trenches. Desertions accelerated daily as soldiers received desperate letters from home describing starving families. On April 1, 1865, Union cavalry commanded by General Philip Sheridan and infantry under General Gouverneur Warren shattered Lee's right flank at the Battle of Five Forks, severing the Southside Railroad—Lee's final supply artery into Petersburg.
The following morning, April 2, Grant launched a coordinated general assault along the entire Petersburg front, breaching Confederate defenses. Lee dispatched an urgent telegram to President Jefferson Davis in Richmond: "I think it is absolutely necessary that we should abandon our position tonight."
Receiving the telegram while seated in his pew at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Davis evacuated the Confederate government, boarding a train south. Confederate troops set fire to military warehouses, tobacco stockpiles, and bridges; the flames spread out of control, consuming large sections of downtown Richmond. On April 3, 1865, Union troops entered Richmond, extinguishing the blazes and hoisting the Stars and Stripes over the Confederate Capitol building. The following day, President Abraham Lincoln walked the streets of the conquered capital unescorted, mobbed by thousands of weeping, formerly enslaved African Americans who fell to their knees shouting blessings upon "Father Abraham."
THE COLLAPSE OF THE CONFEDERACY (APRIL 1865)
April 1: Battle of Five Forks; Union cuts Lee's last railroad
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April 2: Grant breaches Petersburg lines; Lee abandons Richmond
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April 3: Union forces enter burning Richmond; raise Stars & Stripes
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April 4: Lincoln walks streets of Richmond; mobbed by freedmen
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April 9: Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court House
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April 14: Lincoln shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre
The Surrender at Appomattox Court House (April 9, 1865)
Following the evacuation of Petersburg, Lee led his 30,000 exhausted men on a desperate westward retreat toward Amelia Court House, hoping to receive rations by rail and march south into North Carolina to link up with General Joseph E. Johnston’s army.
However, Grant’s cavalry and infantry pursued relentlessly, marching day and night to outflank and box in the retreating Confederates. At the Battle of Sailor’s Creek on April 6, Union forces cut off and captured one-third of Lee’s army, including eight generals.
By the morning of April 9, 1865 (Palm Sunday), Lee reached the village of Appomattox Court House, Virginia. When a final Confederate attempt to break through federal cavalry revealed two solid corps of Union infantry deployed behind them, Lee recognized that further military resistance was impossible. Surrounded on three sides and out of rations, Lee declared with heavy heart: "There is nothing left for me to do but to go and see General Grant, and I would rather die a thousand deaths."
THE SURRENDER AT THE McLEAN HOUSE
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| DATE: Palm Sunday, April 9, 1865 |
| LOCATION: Parlor of Wilmer McLean's home, Appomattox Court House|
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| PARTICIPANTS: |
| - Gen. Robert E. Lee: Immaculate dress uniform, ceremonial sword|
| - Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant: Mud-spattered private's uniform |
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| SURRENDER TERMS: |
| - All Confederate officers and men paroled upon pledge of peace |
| - No imprisonment or treason prosecutions |
| - Retain private horses and mules for spring plowing |
| - Officers keep sidearms; 25,000 rations distributed to rebels |
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The Meeting in the McLean House
The two commanders met in the parlor of a brick home owned by Wilmer McLean—a merchant whose previous home in Manassas had served as Beauregard’s headquarters during the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861, prompting the historical truism that the war began in McLean's front yard and ended in his front parlor.
Lee arrived dressed in an immaculate, new gray dress uniform with a red sash and ceremonial gold-hilted sword. Grant arrived wearing an unbuttoned private’s flannel uniform spattered with mud, carrying only his general’s shoulder straps. The two men chatted amiably about their service together in the Mexican-American War before turning to the terms of surrender.
Reflecting Lincoln’s instructions to let the defeated soldiers "down easy," Grant offered terms of extraordinary generosity:
1. Military Paroles: All Confederate officers and soldiers were paroled upon signing a pledge not to take up arms against the United States again until properly exchanged.
2. No Treason Prosecutions: As long as paroled soldiers obeyed their paroles and the laws in force where they resided, they would not be disturbed or prosecuted for treason by federal authorities.
3. Property and Horses: Confederate soldiers surrendered all public military property and artillery, but officers were permitted to keep their sidearms and personal baggage. Crucially, Lee noted that southern cavalrymen and artillerymen owned their own horses and mules; Grant agreed to allow every man who claimed a horse or mule to take it home "to put in a crop" for the spring plowing.
4. Food for Starving Troops: Grant ordered 25,000 federal rations immediately distributed to Lee’s starving men.
When Union artillery began firing celebratory salutes outside, Grant immediately ordered them silenced, declaring: "The war is over. The rebels are our countrymen again, and the best sign of rejoicing after the victory will be to abstain from all demonstrations." Three days later, during the formal stacking of arms, Union General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain ordered his troops to carry arms—a soldier’s salute of honor to the surrendering Confederates. Over the next two months, remaining Confederate armies across North Carolina, Alabama, and Texas surrendered, bringing armed conflict to a close.
Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address and the Vision for Peace
One month prior to Appomattox, on March 4, 1865, Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office for his second presidential term. Speaking beneath the newly completed iron dome of the United States Capitol, Lincoln delivered his Second Inaugural Address, widely regarded as the greatest theological and moral reflection on national suffering in American political history.
Rather than boasting of impending military triumph, Lincoln sought to heal the fractured nation. He acknowledged that both sides had contributed to the outbreak of war and shared responsibility for the sin of chattel slavery:
"Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other... The Almighty has His own purposes... If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come... and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came..."
Lincoln concluded with an immortal paragraph outlining his compassionate vision for post-war Reconstruction:
"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."
THE MORAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL CLOSURE
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| 1. SECOND INAUGURAL (March 1865): "With malice toward none..." |
| Compassionate reconciliation without harsh punitive vengeance|
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| 2. THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT (Passed Congress Jan 1865, Ratified Dec)|
| Abolished chattel slavery PERMANENTLY across all states |
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| 3. LINCOLN'S FINAL SPEECH (April 11, 1865): |
| Publicly endorsed voting rights for African American veterans|
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The Abolition of Slavery: The Thirteenth Amendment
Lincoln and congressional Republicans recognized that the Emancipation Proclamation was a temporary wartime military decree that might be overturned by conservative courts or rescinded by future presidents once peace was restored. To make emancipation permanent and irrevocable, slavery had to be eradicated by a constitutional amendment.
In January 1865, Lincoln used all his political capital, federal patronage, and personal persuasion to secure the necessary two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives to pass the Thirteenth Amendment. Ratified by the required three-fourths of the states in December 1865, Section 1 of the amendment officially eradicated human chattel bondage across the entire United States forever:
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
With a single sentence, four million human beings were liberated from legal bondage, extinguishing an institution that had existed on the North American continent for nearly 250 years.
The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (April 14, 1865)
On the evening of April 11, 1865, two days after Lee’s surrender, President Lincoln addressed a celebrating crowd outside the White House. In his speech, Lincoln outlined his initial thoughts on reconstructing the southern states and publicly endorsed granting voting rights to certain African Americans—specifically educated Black men and those who had served in the Union armed forces.
Standing in the audience on the White House lawn was John Wilkes Booth, a handsome, twenty-six-year-old stage actor and fanatical Confederate sympathizer from Maryland. Enraged by Lincoln’s endorsement of Black voting rights, Booth turned to his conspirator Lewis Powell and muttered: "That means nigger citizenship. Now, by God! I'll put him through. That is the last speech he will ever make."
Booth had previously organized a conspiracy to kidnap Lincoln and ransom him for Confederate prisoners of war; with the Confederacy collapsing, Booth’s plot escalated into an audacious conspiracy of simultaneous political assassinations. Booth aimed to decapitate the federal government by murdering President Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William H. Seward, hoping to plunge the North into chaos and revive the Confederate cause.
THE BOOTH ASSASSINATION CONSPIRACY
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| OBJECTIVE: Decapitate federal executive; revive the Confederacy |
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| TARGET 1: | | TARGET 2: | | TARGET 3: |
| Abraham | | Andrew | | William |
| Lincoln | | Johnson | | Seward |
| (Ford's Th.) | | (Kirkwood Htl)| | (Bedridden) |
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| ASSASSIN: | | ASSASSIN: | | ASSASSIN: |
| J.W. Booth | | George Atzerodt| | Lewis Powell |
| [FATAL SHOT] | | [LOST NERVE] | | [WOUNDED] |
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The Night at Ford's Theatre
On Good Friday evening, April 14, 1865, President Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd Lincoln attended a performance of the British comedy Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, accompanied by Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris.
Familiar with the theater layout and dialogue of the play, Booth slipped into the unguarded presidential box during the third act, timing his move to coincide with a line guaranteed to elicit loud laughter from the audience. Creeping up behind the seated president, Booth drew a small, single-shot .44 caliber derringer pistol and fired directly into the back of Lincoln’s head at point-blank range.
Major Rathbone lunged at Booth, but the assassin slashed Rathbone’s arm to the bone with a large hunting knife. Booth then leaped twelve feet from the box onto the stage below, catching his riding spur in the American flag decorating the box, fracturing his left fibula. Brandishing his bloody dagger, Booth shouted to the stunned audience Virginia’s state motto: "Sic semper tyrannis!" ("Thus always to tyrants!") and added: "The South is avenged!" before limping out the backstage door and escaping on horseback.
Lincoln, unconscious and breathing heavily, was carried across Tenth Street into the modest boarding house of William Petersen. Doctors quickly determined the wound was fatal. Surrounded by his weeping wife, cabinet officers, and congressmen, Abraham Lincoln died at 7:22 AM on the morning of April 15, 1865. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton broke the silence, uttering the immortal epitaph: "Now he belongs to the ages."
Manhunt and the Cost of War
A colossal twelve-day federal manhunt ensued, involving thousands of cavalry troops and detectives. On April 26, 1865, Union cavalry cornered Booth and conspirator David Herold in a tobacco barn near Port Royal, Virginia. Herold surrendered, but Booth refused. Cavalrymen set the barn ablaze; as Booth moved inside the burning structure, Sergeant Boston Corbett shot him through the neck. Booth died on the porch hours later, his final words as he looked at his paralyzed hands being: "Useless, useless." Four co-conspirators—Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt—were convicted by a military tribunal and executed by hanging on July 7, 1865, with Surratt becoming the first woman executed by the federal government.
The nation plunged into unprecedented mourning. Lincoln’s body was placed aboard a special nine-car funeral train that retraced his 1,600-mile journey from Washington back to Springfield, Illinois. Over seven million Americans lined the railroad tracks in silence, weeping, singing hymns, and standing under torches to pay final homage to the savior of the Union.
The American Civil War was the costliest conflict in American history:
- Over 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers died from combat and disease—roughly two percent of the total population, equivalent to over six million deaths today.
- Hundreds of thousands were permanently maimed or disabled.
- The southern economy and infrastructure were left in smoking ruins.
- However, the war achieved two monumental, irreversible outcomes: it settled forever that the American Union was perpetual and indivisible, and it destroyed the evil institution of chattel slavery through constitutional amendment.
With Lincoln dead and the fiery, impetuous Andrew Johnson elevated to the presidency, the reunited nation embarked on the turbulent, contested era of Reconstruction.
Chapter Exercises
Exercise 1: Describe the strategic conditions surrounding the Siege of Petersburg in early 1865, explaining how the Battle of Five Forks led to the fall of Richmond.
Exercise 2: Summarize the terms of surrender offered by General Ulysses S. Grant to General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House, detailing how these terms reflected President Lincoln's vision of national reconciliation.
Exercise 3: Analyze the central moral message of Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, explaining his perspective on the divine purpose of the Civil War.
Exercise 4: Explain why the Thirteenth Amendment was deemed legally necessary despite the existence of the Emancipation Proclamation, detailing what the amendment constitutionally established.
Exercise 5: Trace the details of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, identifying John Wilkes Booth's motivations and the broader scope of his conspiracy.
Solutions and Explanations
Solution 1: Petersburg was the vital rail junction supplying the Confederate capital of Richmond. For ten months, Grant stretched his siege lines, starving Lee's defenders. On April 1, 1865, Union cavalry under Sheridan won the Battle of Five Forks, cutting Lee’s last railroad into Petersburg. The next day, Grant broke the Petersburg lines, compelling Lee to evacuate both Petersburg and Richmond. Confederate forces burned warehouses as they fled, and Union troops occupied the Confederate capital on April 3.
Solution 2: At Appomattox on April 9, 1865, Grant offered generous terms: all Confederate soldiers were paroled upon promising not to fight again, with a guarantee against treason prosecution as long as they obeyed laws. Officers kept sidearms, and men who owned horses or mules were allowed to take them home for spring plowing. Grant also provided 25,000 rations to feed Lee’s starving troops and forbade celebratory gunfire, treating the defeated rebels as fellow countrymen.
Solution 3: In his Second Inaugural Address, Lincoln rejected triumphalism, viewing the war as a divine judgment on both North and South for the collective national sin of American slavery. He suggested that God had permitted the bloodshed as punishment to both sections. Rather than demanding vengeance, Lincoln urged the nation to proceed "with malice toward none, with charity for all" to bind up the nation's wounds and achieve an enduring, compassionate peace.
Solution 4: The Thirteenth Amendment was necessary because the Emancipation Proclamation was a temporary executive war measure that applied only to rebellious territory; it did not touch slavery in the loyal border states and might have been struck down by federal courts after the war. Passed by Congress in January 1865 and ratified in December 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment permanently abolished chattel slavery and involuntary servitude (except as criminal punishment) throughout the entire United States.
Solution 5: Actor John Wilkes Booth was a passionate Confederate sympathizer enraged by Lincoln’s endorsement of Black voting rights. Booth orchestrated a conspiracy to decapitate the federal government by simultaneously killing Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward. On April 14, 1865, Booth shot Lincoln in the back of the head at Ford's Theatre during a play, leaping to the stage and shouting "Sic semper tyrannis!" Lincoln died the next morning, leaving the nation in shock and depriving Reconstruction of its greatest leader.