Question

Why did Robert E. Lee surrender after the fall of Petersburg?

Answer 1

Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Overland Campaign resulted in Robert E. Lee's Confederate army retiring to the vicinity of Richmond and Petersburg, where they checked Grant's progress. After a long siege, Grant captured Petersburg and Richmond in early April 1865. As the fall of Petersburg became imminent, on Evacuation Sunday(April 2), President Davis, his Cabinet, and the Confederate defenders abandoned Richmond and fled south on the last open railroad line.

The retreating soldiers were under orders to set fire to bridges, the armory, and warehouses with supplies as they left. The fire in the largely abandoned city spread out of control, and large parts of Richmond were destroyed

The initial engagement on July 18, 1861 of what would become the First Battle of Bull Run took place on McLean's farm, the Yorkshire Plantation, which was used as a Confederate headquarters for Confederate Brigadier General P. G. T. Beauregard, and a cannonball dropped through the kitchen fireplace. He moved to protect his family from a repetition of their combat experience. In the spring of 1863, he and his family moved about 120 miles (200 km) south to Appomattox County, Virginia, near a dusty, crossroads community called Appomattox Court House.

On April 9, 1865, the war revisited Wilmer McLean. Confederate General Robert E. Lee was about to surrender to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant. He sent a messenger to Appomattox Courthouse to find a place to meet. On April 8, 1865, the messenger knocked on McLean's door and requested the use of his home. Lee surrendered to Grant in the parlor of McLean's house, effectively ending the Civil War.Later, McLean is supposed to have said "The war began in my front yard and ended in my front parlor"