The year was 1865 and General Robert E Lee surrendered his army to Grant in a town called Appomattox Court House, VA (that was town's actual name, it was not in a court house building) that effectively ended the war without the Army of VA in action.
The war's first battle started nearly 4 years earlier in a town called Bull Run, Virginia right by Manassas Creek. The Union soldiers were mainly from urban areas and named battles after nearby geographic locations so they called the first battle Manassas after the stream, the South named things after landmarks or man made structures and called it Bull Run after the rail depot.
A man named Wilmer McClean owned a house and the battle started right in front of it. He'd later move to Appomattox Court House, VA several miles away and was walking around town on April 9th 1865 and happened to be the first one Union officers spotted and they asked him where a suitable place for a signing ceremony would be.
He offered an abandoned building which was rejected, so he let him use his house. Wilmer McClean was able to say that the war started in his front yard and ended his parlour.
The Union officers ended up ransacking his house by taking mementos and keepsakes from the historic occasion. They tried to give him money but he was so upset he wouldn't outright take it and the officers ended up dropping cash on the floor.
There are many books about the four years of this war, I highly recommend Bruce Catton. While I find Shelby Foote endearing - and charming on the Ken Burns series - he wasn't a true historian and his works lack footnotes (and the controversy is he got a few things wrong, mainly what the war itself was about). Also the reconstruction period following the war all the way the through the Great Depression and up to WWII pre-Boom is a fascinating period of American History with many great books about it.
The war's first battle started nearly 4 years earlier in a town called Bull Run, Virginia right by Manassas Creek. The Union soldiers were mainly from urban areas and named battles after nearby geographic locations so they called the first battle Manassas after the stream, the South named things after landmarks or man made structures and called it Bull Run after the rail depot.
A man named Wilmer McClean owned a house and the battle started right in front of it. He'd later move to Appomattox Court House, VA several miles away and was walking around town on April 9th 1865 and happened to be the first one Union officers spotted and they asked him where a suitable place for a signing ceremony would be.
He offered an abandoned building which was rejected, so he let him use his house. Wilmer McClean was able to say that the war started in his front yard and ended his parlour.
The Union officers ended up ransacking his house by taking mementos and keepsakes from the historic occasion. They tried to give him money but he was so upset he wouldn't outright take it and the officers ended up dropping cash on the floor.
There are many books about the four years of this war, I highly recommend Bruce Catton. While I find Shelby Foote endearing - and charming on the Ken Burns series - he wasn't a true historian and his works lack footnotes (and the controversy is he got a few things wrong, mainly what the war itself was about). Also the reconstruction period following the war all the way the through the Great Depression and up to WWII pre-Boom is a fascinating period of American History with many great books about it.
