Excerpt from Reminiscences of the Civil War Covering events from April 1865; published in 1903; reprinted on
Documenting the American South (Web site)

An ex-Confederate general remembers the end of the Civil War

"They knew that burnt homes and fenceless farms, poverty and ashes, would greet them on their return from the war."

The American Civil War (1861–65)—a bloody struggle described by Northerners as a rebellion, and by Southerners as a fight for independence—drew to a close April 9, 1865, with the surrender of Confederate general Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) and his troops in Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia. The Southern troops were surrounded and outnumbered, and in many ways they were too weak to continue fighting. About twenty-five thousand Confederates were gathered at Appomattox, and Southern general John Brown Gordon (1832–1904)...