USPS 150th Anniversary (1865-2015) of the American Civil War

USPS  on 9 April 2015 issued the final installment in their five-year series commemorating the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. Featured here is the Confederate Surrender at Appomattox stamp, postmarked with a first day cover cancellation from Appomattox, Virginia.  The cachet here depicts General Lee riding off from the courthouse where he surrendered.

Lee’s Surrender at Appomattox
On the morning of 9 April, as Federal troops blocked his path south and west, Lee attempted to reach the railroad at Appomattox Station to receive supplies sent there from Lynchburg. When Confederate General John B. Gordon sent word that his attack on Union cavalry blocking the stage road had failed, Lee replied, "There is nothing left for me to do but to go and see General Grant, and I would rather die a thousand deaths."

Grant and Lee met later that day at Appomattox Court House at the home of Wilmer McLean. Grant’s terms for surrender reflected President Lincoln’s views on avoiding vindictive conditions. He paroled the surrendered Confederates and allowed them to return to their homes, rather than face internment or the threat of trials for treason. At Lee’s request, Grant let men keep their horses “to put in a crop to carry themselves and their families through the next winter.” Lee believed this would “do much toward conciliating our people.”

Although other Confederate armies remained in the field, the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia—the force that had famously routed the Union’s Army of the Potomac at Manassas, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville — signaled an end to the war.

 

Source: USPS