Final Combat

Late on the morning of April 9, 1865, the Army of Northern Virginia engaged in its final combat. Before flags of truce passed along the entire line, and as Confederates withdrew through the village, the two sides exchanged scattered last shots. Some of the last cannons discharged were fired from the yard of the Peers House. The cannon in the Peers yard caused some of the last casualties of the war in Virginia as Confederate guns fired at Union infantry advancing across the distant ridge. The identity of the last man killed in the fighting there is not known, but all of the men who died during the final battle at Appomattox Court House suffered a cruel and ironic fate.

Appomattox, Virginia · United States