Background: Appomattox
Unit 3: Appomattox Classroom Resources Background: Appomattox During the Civil War, the Confederacy had its own constitution, its own president, and its own capital city in Richmond, Virginia. The Confederate government met there, and President Jefferson Davis lived in a mansion called the White House of the Confederacy. Three years into the war, Ulysses S. Grant led a massive campaign to capture this city, believing it would defeat the South for good. Grant chose not to attack the well-defended capital directly. Instead, he focused on Petersburg, about 20 miles to the south. Most of Richmond’s supplies came through this city. Beginning in the summer of 1864, Union forces lay siege to Petersburg, destroying highways, railroads, and bridges. Confederate forces under General Robert E. Lee defended Petersburg from a line of trenches, but they were badly outnumbered. The Confederate Congress debated whether to arm slaves to fight as soldiers, which would have increased the size of the Army dramatically, but the decision to do so came too late to affect the outcome of the war. In March 1865, General Lee proposed to Jefferson Davis that the Army abandon Petersburg, sacrifice Richmond, and escape to merge with General Joe Johnston’s 20,000 troops in North Carolina. Free of the need to defend the cities, the combined force could continue the war for as long as it took to win. This is just what Grant feared might happen as he continued the siege of Petersburg. On March 30 and 31, 1865, Federal forces tried repeatedly to destroy the last rail link from Petersburg to Richmond.
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