When two great generals from opposing sides met to end the long struggle of the Civil War, the arrangement between victor and vanquished was to have far-reaching effects on the repair of relations between the North and South.

On April 9, 1865, Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant accepted the surrender of General Robert E. Lee and his army of Northern Virginia. This momentous event took place at the village of Appomattox Court House VA, three miles from the present-day Appomattox, in the parlor of the McLean House. General Grant's generous terms went far in repairing the rift between North and South. After four years of bitter conflict, the Civil War had finally ended.

With Grant are (left to right) Major-General Philip H. Sheridan, Colonel Orville E. Babcock, Lieutenant-General Horace Potter, Major-General Edward O.C. Ord, Major-General Seth Williams, Colonel Theodore S. Bowers, Colonel Ely S. Parker and Major-General George A. Custer. Accompanying Lee is Colonel Charles Marshall, his military secretary. - TL