Talk:Correspondence Between Grant and Lee Discussing Surrender Terms at Appomattox

Context

I am not an American. As a non-American I suggest this article would benefit from a lead paragraph, that offers more context.

What was Appomattox? Was it a town? Was it the place of a final surrender? Was there a Treaty of Appomattox?

Did Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis sign a Treaty of Appomattox?

If not, on what authority did Lee surrender the entire CSA? Had there been earlier invitations for the CSA to surrender that the CSA rebuffed?

Was the CSA's surrender an unconditional surrender? Was this a surrender of all CSA forces, on all fronts? If this was a final surrender, of all CSA forces, and the final dissolution of the CSA, were Union forces authorized to feed the demobilized CSA soldiers? Geo Swan (talk) 15:27, 22 December 2025 (UTC)

Good questions. Sometimes I forget that not everyone is American or knows what Appomattox is. I agree that more context is needed, perhaps here or in American Civil War. It could be that I'm too obsessed with WWII, neglecting the Civil War. :)

Appomattox was the town where the Army of Northern Virginia was finally cornered. Following the fall of Petersburg and Richmond, Lee was maneuvering to escape south and try to link up with General J.E. Johnston in North Carolina, combine forces and attack Grant and Sherman individually before they could coordinate. Basically the same thing Napoleon was attempting at Waterloo and Rommel in Tunisia. Enki (talk) 16:32, 22 December 2025 (UTC)

The documents signed basically just guaranteed that the Army of Northern Virginia could go home. Officers could keep their sidearms and personal belongings. Soldiers promised not to fight again unless exchanged. Prison camps were pretty awful around that time so it was a big deal just to be allowed to go home.

Jefferson Davis wanted Johnston to keep fighting, but he also surrendered shortly after. There were some holdouts in Texas that lasted for a few more weeks. That's a good question about the CSA government. I think they sort of ran away and dissolved, rather than signing anything formal. The decisions whether to try top officials were very complicated and most just got sent home and disqualified from public office for a while.

The other big question is whether Lee could have escaped into the mountains and fought a guerilla-style resistance. I think that would have been a disaster, with death on a scale like was seen in Paraguay around the same time. Enki (talk) 17:00, 22 December 2025 (UTC)

Provenance

These are public domain documents. I pulled them from CivilWarWiki which had some great resources but seemed unmaintained at the time. Also CC-by-SA for any formatting improvements. Just trying to help share history. Enki (talk) 17:10, 22 December 2025 (UTC)