Image Gallery

Ruins of Mayo’s Bridge, by which Confederate troops left Richmond April 2–3. Photo of May, 1865.

Chicago Historical Society

Dead Confederate gunner at Fort Malone, April 2. Much of his equipment is captured, bearing the insignia “U.S.”

Chicago Historical Society

General George E. Pickett, CSA.

National Archives

General Bryan Grimes, CSA.

Library of Congress

General William Mahone, CSA.

National Archives

Henry A. Wise, when he was Governor of Virginia.

National Archives

Colonel William Pegram, the 23-year-old gunner who was fatally wounded at Five Forks, April 1.

Confederate Museum

General John B. Gordon, the unquenchable Confederate who survived Sayler’s Creek and was stoutly defiant three days later at Appomattox.

Library of Congress

Phoebe Yates Pember, the courageous matron of Chimborazo Hospital.

Confederate Museum

General Ambrose Powell Hill, killed by a Federal infantryman April 2, then carried in a macabre funeral procession.

Confederate Museum

General James Longstreet, though nearly insubordinate in earlier stages of the war, was almost the last to accept surrender at Appomattox.

Cook Collection, Valentine Museum

Admiral Raphael Semmes, master of the famed Alabama, and at the last commander of foot sailors and a train thief.

Confederate Museum

W. H. F. (Rooney), top, and G. W. Custis, the general-sons of R. E. Lee, both taken in the Confederate collapse. Custis was captured at Sayler’s Creek.

Cook Collection, Valentine Museum

Their cousin, Fitz Lee, escaped Appomattox with some of his cavalry to retain a few days of freedom.

Cook Collection, Valentine Museum

General Thomas T. Munford, a gifted cavalry commander during the final scenes, and able postwar controversialist.

Cook Collection, Valentine Museum

General Thomas Rosser, the dashing cavalryman whose shad bake at Five Forks became famous. A fighter to the last.

Cook Collection, Valentine Museum

General Seth Williams, who carried the truce messages from Grant to Lee.

National Archives

Colonel Ely S. Parker, Grant’s Indian aide.

National Archives

General U. S. Grant at his City Point headquarters, with his son, Jesse, and his wife, Julia Dent Grant.

Library of Congress

Lincoln’s famed telegram of April 7 to Grant: “Gen. Sheridan says ‘If the thing is pressed I think that Lee will surrender.’ Let the thing be pressed.” Grant’s certificate of authenticity at the bottom. Original in the Chicago Historical Society.

Chicago Historical Society

Varina H. and Jefferson Davis, whose flight from Richmond took them out of the path of the armies, to temporary safety.

Confederate Museum, Cook Collection, Valentine Museum

Libby Prison in Richmond, 1865.

The McLean House, Appomattox, with the McLean family on the porch.

Library of Congress

Appomattox Court House, a posed scene with Federal soldiers who are already stiffly aware of the presence of history in the village.

National Archive