It is the afternoon of April, 1865 at the Appomattox Court House after a battle that morning that saw the Union surround what was left of the Army of Northern Virginia. The attempt to break out the butternut line came one more time. The union was backed up not only with a cavalry corps, Sheridan's, but one or two infantry regiments that had marched all night and were on the field.
The guns momentarily paused, and then they fell silent. The two men meeting at Appomattox Courthouse (you know them very well) Ulysses Grant, the commander in chief of all the armies of the Union, and Robert E. Lee, the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia.
I welcome Michael Vorenberg, professor at Brown University and most importantly, the author of the new book, Lincoln's Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War.
Here at Appomattox Courthouse is an event about to spill out that I was taught, (and to my knowledge everyone educated in the 20th century was taught) was the end of the Civil War. However…
We're watching Lee and Grant sit together waiting for a draft of their resolution that day.
What are we watching for? And what is the debating point about the end of the war?
Watch the full conversation above, or listen to an audio version below:
LINKS:
Lincoln's Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War by Michael Vorenberg on Amazon
The John Batchelor Show on Apple Podcasts:
The opinions expressed on this website and on The John Batchelor Show are those of John Batchelor and guests, and not those of CBS News.
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