Which Confederate general surrendered at Appomattox?

Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House. He formally surrendered to Union General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865.

The meeting took place in the home of Wilmer McLean in the village of Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Lee's army had been retreating west after Union forces broke through Confederate lines around Petersburg and Richmond. Surrounded and short of supplies, Lee concluded that further resistance would needlessly sacrifice his remaining soldiers.

Grant offered generous terms: Confederate soldiers could return home with their horses and personal property, and officers could retain their sidearms. The surrender did not instantly end the Civil War, since other Confederate forces remained in the field, but it effectively ended the Confederacy's principal army and accelerated additional surrenders. Jefferson Davis was the Confederate president, not the general who surrendered, while Stonewall Jackson had died in 1863.