The War Ends                                                              

                                                            By: J.D.

      Ulysses S. Grant sent General William Tecumseh Sherman to lead the Union Army in Tennessee. In September 1864, Sherman captured Atlanta; the Union navy also captured Mobile Bay in Alabama. Sherman’s Army marched from Atlanta to the coast and into South Carolina; He ordered his troops to use total war so the southerners would give up.  His soldiers destroyed any resources the Confederacy could use to fight they stole food and killed livestock, the wrecked factories and railroad lines, they burned homes and barns. While Sherman’s army marched through Georgia and South Carolina in 1864, General Grant led a huge army toward Richmond, VA.  They were opposed by Robert E. Lee and his army.                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

         The union army suffered many casualties, but Grant kept attacking.   Lee was forced to retreat farther south.  In June 1864, the two armies   faced each other near Richmond.  They fought for almost a year. Grant’s army was getting stronger, while Lee’s army was getting weaker from lack of supplies. In April 1865, Grant captured Richmond. On April 9, 1865 Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House.            

                                     Source: Houghton Mifflin Company