Conclusion
After the surrender of Lee's troops at Appomattox, the largest formal army the south had to offer was finished. The awkward silence after the surrender could only be outweighed by the shock, and grieving each side felt. As Gordon's troops passed by Chamberlain's Union lines, a smart salute was presented to the Confederates. Gordon ordered his troops to reply with an appropriate salute. Chamberlain wrote, "On our Part, not a sound of trumpet, nor a roll of drum; not a cheer nor word nor whisper of vain-glorying... but an awed stillness rather, and breath-holding, as if the dead were passing."
And thus ended the mighty Army of the Confederacy, with generous terms of surrender by Grant, they went home. Small fighting continued for a month, but all was lost for the Confederacy, and the Union was reunited.
On good Friday, General Anderson raised above Fort Sumter the same flag he had surrendered four years prior. Johnston proposed negotiations, and Lincoln and his wife watched Our American Cousin at the Ford theatre that night. During act three, scene two, John Wilkes Booth slipped in and shot Lincoln in the back of the head, grasped the hand rail, and flung himself onto the stage, where he escaped. Lincoln died the next morning
The next day, Sherman offered Johnston the same terms that Lee had accepted from Grant at Appomattox.
On April 26th, Federal troops located Booth in a barn, and burnt it to get him out. Thinking he was raising a gun, a Federal soldier fatally shot Booth.
Jefferson Davis was located and arrested on May 10th, and served a short jail term.
During May of 1865, President Johnson proclaimed general amnesty for all Rebels willing to take an oath of allegiance and accept the abolition of slavery
The people of the south were reunited, and despite the fire gutted, destroyed, plundered and overall decimated southern habitations, great happiness of reunion was spurred.
Although the war was over, only half of the challenge had been met. Reconstruction began, and slowly the people figured out how to get along with each other...
