Existing comment:
Lee's Surrender
For nine months the armies of Grant and Lee were locked in a deadly siege around Petersburg. Eventually Lee's defense collapsed, and Union army captured of [sic] Petersburg and Richmond. Lee and his army fled westward, only to be trapped at Appomattox Court House. Lee surrendered on April 9. Over the next few weeks other Confederate armies surrendered bringing an end to armed resistance.
"Lee's Rebel Army surrendered -- yesterday about _ o'clock Lieutenant General Robert E. Lee of the Rebel Army surrendered his whole army to Lieutenant General United States Grant of the United States army.. all the Bells of our city are now ringing & have been for Several hours the whole town is in commotion."
-- Jacob Engelbrecht, Mayor of Frederick, April 10, 1865
Northern celebrations following the Union triumph at Appomattox, were cut short on April 14, when disaffected Southerner John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theater in Washington, DC.
Lincoln's Death:
The president died from his wounds at 7:22am on Saturday, April 15. A nation buffered by four years of bloody turmoil now confronted a shock unique in its history.
"Mourn Columbia, mourn -- By telegraph received this morning, we have melancholy information... that Lincoln is dead and Seward was about dying."
-- Jacob Engelbrecht, April 15, 1865 |