The Battle of Appomattox Court House , fought in Appomattox County, Virginia , on the morning of April 9, , was one of the last, and ultimately one of the most consequential, battles of the American Civil War — Lee, having abandoned the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia , after the nine-and-a-half-month Siege of Petersburg and Richmond, retreated west, hoping to join his army with Confederate forces, the Army of Tennessee in North Carolina.
Union infantry and cavalry forces under General Philip Sheridan pursued and cut off the Confederates' retreat at the central Virginia village of Appomattox Court House. Lee launched a last-ditch attack to break through the Union forces to his front, assuming the Union force consisted entirely of lightly armed cavalry. When he realized that the cavalry was now backed up by two corps of federal infantry, he had no choice but to surrender with his further avenue of retreat and escape now cut off.
The signing of the surrender documents occurred in the parlor of the house owned by Wilmer McLean on the afternoon of April 9. On April 12, a formal ceremony of parade and the stacking of arms led by Confederate Maj. John B. Gordon to Union Brig. Joshua Chamberlain marked the disbandment of the Army of Northern Virginia with the parole of its nearly 28, remaining officers and men, free to return home without their major weapons but enabling men to take their horses and officers to retain their sidearms swords and pistols , and effectively ending the war in Virginia.
This event signaled the end of the four-year-long war. Grant — laid siege to Petersburg , south of Richmond, intending to cut the two cities' supply lines and force the Confederates to evacuate.
In the spring of , Confederate States Army Gen. Robert E. Lee — , waited for an opportunity to leave the Petersburg lines, aware that the position was untenable, but Union troops made the first move.
