Grape & Canister: Appomattox Surrender Edition

Today is the 158th anniversary of the surrender of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865

“Peace in Union” by Thomas Nast

Announcements

On Tuesday I head down to Atlanta to speak to the Atlanta Civil War Round Table on the subject of new new book project about Robert Gould Shaw. I am going to focus on his time in the Second Massachusetts Regiment.

On Thursday I will interview my good friend and fellow historian Peter Carmichael. Pete is the director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College. We are going to talk about the challenges of interpreting Civil War battlefields like Gettysburg from a War & Society perspective. Our conversations are always lively and thought provoking. You are not going to want to miss it, though please remember that it will be available to paid subscribers only.

Mark your calendars! Our next book group meeting will be on May 21 at 7pm. We will discuss Erin Thompson’s book, Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America’s Public Monuments. A zoom link will be emailed to paid subscribers a few days in advance.

News

Writer Steve Phillips wants to see April 9 recognized as a national holiday.

April 9 should be a national holiday in the United States, but the wrong people are celebrating. On this day in 1865, Confederate Gen Robert E Lee surrendered to Union forces – marking the effective defeat of the Confederacy and the triumph of those who opposed the idea that this should be a white nationalist nation where Black bodies could be bought and sold on the open market. Yet rather than celebrate this seminal milestone in defending and creating a multi-racial democracy, the country’s leaders ignore the occasion, creating a vacuum into which the champions of white nationalism happily goose-step.

Videos

The surrender ceremony at Appomattox has been depicted many times in film and television. Here is just a small sample.

First up is a short clip from a recent documentary about Ulysses S. Grant that aired on History.

Steven Spielberg’s 2022 film Lincoln includes a brief scene covering the surrender.

For this next clip we have to go all the way back to 1982 and the television series “The Blue and the Gray.”

Here is Ken Burn’s take on the surrender at Appomattox from The Civil War, which aired in 1990.

Finally, enjoy this short reference to Appomattox from Family Guy.

Books

Looking for a good book about the events surrounding Appomattox?

Chris Calkins, “No One Wants To Be the Last to Die”: The Battles of Appomattox, April 8-9, 1865 (Savas Beatie, 2023).

Caroline E. Janney, Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee’s Army after Appomattox (University of North Carolina Press, 2021).

William Marvel, A Place Called Appomattox (University of North Carolina Press, 2000).

William Marvel, Lee’s Last Retreat: The Flight to Appomattox (University of North Carolina Press, 2002).

Elizabeth Varon, Appomattox: Victory, Defeat, and Freedom at the End of the Civil War (Oxford University Press, 2014).