Today is the 160th anniversary of the Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse.
It was Palm Sunday.
General Lee had abandoned Richmond a week earlier, followed by Petersburg four days later. Retreating west, attempting to meet supply lines and reinforcements, his men starving, Lee sent a letter to Grant to request peace terms. Grant replied, with generosity.
Unlike the unarmed protesters of J6, the entire Army of Northern Virginia were not imprisoned, not one man, not for one day. Not only that, every man was allowed to keep his sidearms and horses. Their lands were not confiscated. Lincoln would never have allowed for this, nor Sherman, but Grant wanted the healing to begin straight away.
If you grew up in the North, and you think you know the history and causes of the Civil War, think again. Start with the fact that Lincoln was dead set on war from the outset. Look into the reasons for secession, and you will find that the breaking point for many states was Lincoln’s forced conscription of their citizenry to fight their own countrymen. That proved to be too much for the various governors and legislatures. Search and read their written responses to this executive tyranny.
“I have always thought it appropriate that the national nightmare we call the Civil War ended during Holy Week 1865. Two remarkably decent men, Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant, began the process of healing so desperately needed for America on Palm Sunday, April 9, 1865 at Appomattox. We take their decency for granted, but it is the exception and not the rule for the aftermath of civil wars in history. The usual course would have been unremitting vengeance by the victors, and sullen rage by the defeated, perhaps eventually breaking out in guerilla war. The end of the Civil War could so very easily have been the beginning of a cycle of unending war between north and south. Instead, both Grant and Lee acted to make certain as far as they could that the fratricidal war that had just concluded would not be repeated. All Americans owe those two men a large debt for their actions at Appomattox.”
https://the-american-catholic.com/2025/04/09/april-9-1865-palm-sunday-at-appomatox/
I grew up near Springfield, IL. I now live in the South. As you can imagine, I’ve heard a wide range of history on the civil war.
I’m curious – does anyone have an opinion on an unbiased and factual book about the civil war?
Thank you for this post. It was one of the greatest tragedies in American history. I would like to point out that by definition, it was not a civil war since the Confederacy did not want to replace the federal government. They simply wanted to leave the Union. May Our Lord have mercy on all those perished on both sides.
A civil war means simply means a war between people in the same country. So yes, it was a civil war.
“… a war between people in the same country.” What country are you referring to?
“Chris,” It wasn’t the same country. The sovereignty of the states being the rule of law, The Confederate States of America were established as a republic on 8 February 1861, with their own Constitution and their own Federal Government at Richmond. Thanks for proving my point.
“Mark”, since there was no mechanism in the constitution for a sovereign state leaving the union, and since there was no agreeable way for any state to do so, and remember these states agreed to be in the union, making it a kind of contract, they were, indeed, in the United States.
When any group within a country tries to rebel/secede whatever, that’s a civil war. Indeed,the US revolution was a civil war. The only way the CSA would be legal is if a)they won, b)the US recognized it or c)Both.
When the US won the war, the Brits grudgingly accepted the US government.
You can say you are a sovereign citizen and be laughed at on the internet when you tell that to a cop. Our founders, as brilliant as they were, completely avoided the slavery issue and thus avoided how to leave the union, which I imagine they felt was via an amendment.
At any rate, the CSA existed as a rebel state within the United States, and it failed. Just like many civil wars, the rebels established governance. Whooppee. Ergo, using logic it was indeed a civil war, taking place entirely in the US.
Now listen to some Shelby Foote and get teary eyed, but those are the facts.
600,000 dead. The Civil War did not have to be fought. But that could be said of many wars. Lincoln is not my favorite, but when he was murdered, the door was opened for the Radical Republicans to raid the South.
Well, the Radical Southern Democrats fought to preserve slavery. They fought to get slaves counted as enough of a human being so they could increase their Congressional representation but not actually be free. They split families up, they raped, they murdered. Like Newton’s Third Law every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Sherman was too kind.
Lincoln: I convinced 600,000 Americans to kill each other.
Fauci: Hold my beer.
Also Fauci: No shots fired, only injected. Not my first rodeo of murder (AIDS)
Fauci Again:. I never participated in the farce of Demockracy, but commanded the obedience of elected know-nothings for decades.
The entire reason why the veterans of the Civil War were able to shake hands and march together side-by-side on the fields they once fought over – was because Lee the honorable was willing to give up his life and die in dishonor, and Grant the unwilling butcher was willing to show mercy and give him his life back.
The true character of these men, and the true meaning of that meeting on that Palm Sunday, are why we were granted peace, despite the war-crimes of the Federals and the horrors of Reconstruction. Nothing like it ever happened before; nothing like it is ever likely to happen again.
It is, quite literally, the Christian Illiad; except Achilles had Hector on his knees, and spared him.
The Constitution did not prohibit secession. Infact, several states would only ratify the Constitution with the understanding that they reserved the right to secede if they deemed it necessary. That provision was accepted.
The Confederacy was not illegal.
A civil war occurs when two or more factions fight for supremacy e.g. the English Civil War of the 1640s and the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939. To name a few. The Confederacy wanted independence not dominance.