The Surrender Ceremony

Throughout the day on April 12, 1865, shattered Confederate divisions marched into the village to surrender their weapons and flags as Union troops lined the Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road to beyond the McLean House. Confederates, many of them racked with tears, marched between the two Union lines to lay down their arms. Major Henry Kyd Douglas, CSA, recalled that as his decimated and ragged band with their bullet-torn banner marched into place, someone in the blue line called for three cheers for the last brigade to surrender, and that this soldierly generosity was more than they could bear. By day's end, about 22,000 Confederates had marched into the village and stacked arms. Hundreds more refused to do so and simply left their weapons in camp. From April 10 through 15, the Confederates received their paroles, and the long journey home, and the difficult road to reconciliation, began.

Appomattox, Virginia · United States