“When this cruel war is over,  praying then to meet again,” went the chorus of a popular Civil War song written by Henry Tucker in 1863. Those words encapsulated so much of what the war was to so many on the war front and at home: a seemingly endless period of waiting, worrying, and hoping. Yet the war in 1863 was only half over. The American Civil War stretched on and on, for four long, bloody years. The beginning of April 1865, though, 150 years ago, marked the Civil War’s decline with decisiveness.

Union victory seemed relatively assured after General Sherman’s March to the Sea in the autumn of 1864. By early 1865, the South did not have the numbers, nor the wealth or resources of the North, to sustain the rebellion much longer. Continue reading 150 Years Ago, in the American Civil War: Lee surrenders to Grant →