General William T. Sherman advances against Confederate forces to capture and occupy Atlanta, Georgia, a Southern stronghold, beginning a crushing string of reverses that would cause the Confederacy’s collapse.
Abraham Lincoln is re-elected to the presidency, all but abolishing Southerners’ hopes for a political revolution in the North. Lincoln insists that peace will come only with emancipation and reunification.
Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment, eliminating slavery in the United States.
Along with a delegation of Confederate commissioners, Lincoln attends the ultimately fruitless Hampton Roads Peace Conference, intending to negotiate an end to the war. Southern officials refuse Lincoln’s terms – namely reunion and acknowledgement of the Thirteenth Amendment – and Lincoln brusquely declines to compromise.
Lincoln delivers his Second Inaugural Address, reflecting upon the “scourge of war” as divine punishment for America’s sinful, generations-long compliance with slavery. Lincoln muses that the war may continue until “every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword.”
Union troops capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy. In the final months of the war, General Ulysses S. Grant works to not merely pursue Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, but to intercept it. Grant successfully blocks Lee from veering south to join his comrades in North Carolina.
Union General Phillip H. Sheridan writes to Grant, “I see no escape for Lee.” After a harrowing, months-long campaign in northern Virginia, Northern forces obliterate the Confederacy’s hopes for a military resurgence.
Through a series of letters, sent by courier on April 6, 7, and 8, Grant and Lee informally discuss the prospect and potential terms of the Army of Northern Virginia’s surrender. Lee refrains from admitting defeat, but inquires as to Grant’s conditions: Grant insists that “the [Confederate] men and officers surrendered shall be disqualified from taking up arms again against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged.”
Union cavalry burn three supply trains intended for Lee’s army at the Battle of Appomattox Station. Resisting Grant’s appeals for surrender, Lee looks westward to Lynchburg, Virginia, where more supplies await – obstructed by Union troops. Amidst a failing attempt to reach Lynchburg, Lee convenes a council of war and agrees to a meeting with Grant the next morning.
Flags of truce appear among Confederate and Union troops as their commanders approach Appomattox Court House to negotiate the terms of Lee’s surrender. At the home of civilian Wilmer McLean, the pair confirms that Confederate soldiers will receive parole, none will be prosecuted or imprisoned for treason, and officers will keep their sidearms. With Lee’s signature, the Army of Northern Virginia surrenders.
