History for the day

In Wilmer McLean's house (of whom it is said that the Civil War started in his front yard and ended in his front parlor) at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, on 9 April 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee (at left) and Union General Ulysses S. Grant (painting, at right) signed the armistice that ended the Civil War. The text of the armistice was written out by Ely S. Parker (at far right), a Tonawanda Seneca from western New York and a close friend of Grant. (The actual surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia occurred three days later, commanded by Union General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a hero of Gettysburg and winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor.)