SURRENDER AND ASSASSINATION
General Robert E. Lee, as commander in chief of Confederate forces, surrenders his 27,000 man army to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the four years of Civil War conflict. Additional troops under southern command would continue to surrender until May 26. The McLean House is the location for the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse.
Abraham Lincoln is assassinated in Ford’s Theatre, Washington, D.C.. five days after the signing at Appomattox of the Confederate surrender. The shot, fired by actor John Wilkes Booth, during the play “Our American Cousin,” ends the life of the president who presided over the War of Rebellion and the end of slavery. Lincoln would die one day later.