The Hampton Roads Conference
Realizing the end was near, Davis requested peace negotiations
in a final attempt to save the South. Lincoln agreed, and delegations from
both sides met at the Hampton Roads Conference in February 1865.
No peace agreement was reached, however, because Lincoln was insistent
on the South’s unconditional surrender, while Davis demanded full
independence.
Union Victory at Appomattox
In April 1865, Ulysses
S. Grant’s forces broke through Robert E. Lee’s defenses
and forced the Confederates to retreat. The Confederate forces burned
their capital city, Richmond, behind them as they retreated in order
to render it useless to the Union armies. His men malnourished and
heavily outgunned, Lee chose to surrender. Several days
later, on April 9, 1865,
Lee surrendered to Grant formally and unconditionally at Appomattox
Courthouse, Virginia. Grant accepted the surrender and provided
the Southerners food for their march home. Jefferson Davis and other
ranking Confederates, meanwhile, had been captured fleeing
Virginia. The Civil War was over.
