Union forces under Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant began the final push to break the Petersburg siege, opening the Appomattox Campaign as operations shifted southwest of Petersburg to cut Confederate supply and retreat routes.
Union cavalry and infantry won at Five Forks, a key road junction near the South Side Railroad. The defeat severed Lee’s defensive flank and made continued Confederate defense of Petersburg and Richmond untenable.
The Union assault known as the Third Battle of Petersburg (the “Breakthrough”) ruptured Confederate lines on April 2, forcing Lee to abandon the Richmond–Petersburg defensive position and begin a westward retreat.
As Confederate forces withdrew, the Confederate government fled Richmond and Union troops entered the city on April 3, marking the fall of the Confederate capital during the final week of the war in Virginia.
Union forces struck portions of Lee’s retreating army near Sailor’s (Sayler’s) Creek and captured thousands, eliminating a large share of remaining Confederate combat power and accelerating the collapse of the retreat.
Engagements around High Bridge (April 6–7) centered on attempts to destroy or save crossings over the Appomattox River. The struggle affected pursuit routes and helped keep Union forces close on Lee’s retreat.
At Cumberland Church on April 7, Confederate rear-guard action helped delay parts of the Union pursuit north of Farmville, but did not restore Lee’s strategic options as Union forces continued to close in.
Union cavalry under Brig. Gen. George A. Custer seized Confederate supply trains and artillery at Appomattox Station, denying Lee urgently needed rations and further blocking escape routes on the South Side Railroad.
After a final attempt to break through Union lines, Gen. Robert E. Lee met Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House and surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia, effectively ending major fighting in the East.
Following the surrender, parole documents were produced for Confederate soldiers, enabling them to return home as paroled prisoners under the terms agreed at Appomattox.
The most visible ceremony of surrender occurred as Confederate infantry stacked arms (with staged surrenders of cavalry and artillery over preceding days), symbolizing the disbanding of Lee’s army under the parole system.
Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman signed a surrender agreement near Durham Station, North Carolina, ending major Confederate resistance across a broad swath of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida.
Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor surrendered the Confederate Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and Eastern Louisiana to Maj. Gen. Edward R. S. Canby at Citronelle, a major capitulation east of the Mississippi after Appomattox.
Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith’s May 26 military convention with Union authorities ended the Confederacy’s last major organized departmental command west of the Mississippi River.
Brig. Gen. Stand Watie, a Cherokee leader serving the Confederacy, surrendered on June 23—often cited as the last Confederate general in the field—marking the end of one of the final organized Confederate commands.
Appomattox Campaign and the Confederate Surrenders (March–April 1865)
