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(VIDEO) This Day In History, April 9th, 2020 – “With Malice Towards None”



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Check out the video highlighting the events that happened on “This Day In History:”

It was just 155 years ago today, April 9, 1865, when General Robert E. Lee, Commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, surrendered his forces to General U.S. Grant, Commander of the Union Army of the Potomac. For years, America had fought a bloody Civil War, cities and towns had been wiped off the map, weapons changed from single shot rifles, to faster repeaters, wooden ships were replaced by Ironclads. Yet on this date, an eerie, awful silence fell upon the land around a small town named Appomattox Court House.

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Lee had left the Confederate Capitol of Richmond to the Yankees, and tried to make it out west to join the Rebel forces of the Army of the Tennessee. However, Union Commander Phillip Sheridan cut off his retreat. With minor skirmishes all around, Lee admitted defeat, the war had lasted longer than it should have, it was time to surrender his sword. In the parlor room of Wilmer Mclean, Lee and his staff met with Union officers, Grant was not yet present. Finally, upon Grant’s arrival, the two made small talk. These two great officers had actually met each other during the Mexican-American War. Lee, worried about more fighting breaking out, wanted to cut right to the chase. Grant offered a simple surrender. All officers would be allowed to go home, and to carry their swords and pistols, and take their animals. All Confederate soldiers would be allowed to go home, but would have to surrender their rifles. They too would be able to take any of their animals’ home. Grant would also give the defeated Confederates food and other needed supplies to help them rebuild. Basically, Grant paroled all the Confederates, remembering what Lincoln said in his second inaugural address, “with malice towards none”. If America was going to rebuild, it needed to start here and now. Though the war wound not officially end until May 9, and small Confederate forces would fight later into June, the surrender at Appomattox Court House is often looked upon as the end of the war, and the beginning of reconstruction.


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