After four years of bloody fighting, the American Civil War came to a close on April 9, 1865, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. The surrender of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia marked the effective end of the war, as the remaining Confederate armies soon surrendered as well. The war had taken a heavy toll on the United States, with an estimated 620,000 soldiers killed and countless civilians dead or displaced. But the Union had prevailed, and slavery had been abolished.
The surrender at Appomattox Court House was a significant event in American history, and it is still remembered today as a symbol of the end of the Civil War and the beginning of a new era for the United States.