(EDITOR’S NOTE: Events related to the Civil War and the tragic assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in April 1865 are reported by John Bowman, a Wheeling author, steamboat model builder and one of West Virginia’s History Heroes.)

APRIL 1865, the war was over, the country was torn, jubilation for the North, despair for the South, and a nation in mourning for the loss of President Lincoln.

April 1 saw the defeat of General Robert E. Lee’s forces at the Battle of Five Forks culminating with the “Breakthrough” and Ulysses S. Grant’s capture of Petersburg and 12,000 Rebel soldiers April 2. That morning, Lee sent word to Confederate President Jeff Davis that he and the government should immediately evacuate Richmond and Lee with his remaining forces would evacuate Petersburg that evening.

April 3 – Union forces occupied Richmond, and the next day, President Lincoln left Grant’s Field Headquarters at City Point where he had met with Generals Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman and aboard the River Queen, steamed up the James River to Richmond. President Lincoln with a small group of soldiers, his son Tad and an entourage of former slaves visited the abandoned Confederate White House and State House and made a further visit to Libby Prison.

President Lincoln’s meeting with Generals Grant and Sherman, scribed by Admiral Porter, instructed each that if “Lee and Johnston surrendered, he considered the war ended.” Lincoln’s quote, “Let them surrender and go home … let them have their horses to plow with and, if you like, their guns to shoot crows with … Give them the most liberal and honorable of terms.” With this in mind, General Sherman returned to Goldsboro, North Carolina.

April 6 – General Lee’s army suffered a devastating loss at the “Battle of Sayler’s (Sailor’s) Creek,” where it became clear to Lee, the end was near, and his Army of Northern Virginia was disintegrating. Union Forces had captured one third of Lee’s remaining army, 7,700 men including six of his generals and April 7, Lee with the remainder of his army, 27,800, headed west where food supplies awaited him at Appomattox Station.

April 8 – Lee finding his army trapped, wrote to Grant asking for a peace deal. Grant replied with a letter to Lee setting out Lincoln’s terms and that Grant would parole Lee’s officers and men.

April 9 – Lee to Grant, “I have received your letter of this date containing the terms of surrender as proposed by you and they are accepted.”

The afternoon of April 9, at the Wilmer McLean House near the small village of Appomattox Court House, Lieutenant General Lee met with Lieutenant General Grant. Lee, neatly dressed in a spotless gray uniform rode in on a borrowed gray horse, accompanied by his Aide-de Camp, Colonel Charles Marshall, and Johns, his orderly. The two generals made small talk about their service in Mexico but quickly moved on with the terms of surrender, which Grant wrote out. Lee wrote out his formal acceptance and at 4 p.m., Lee signed the paper, rose and made his exit. Mounting his horse, Lee raised his hat respectfully to Grant and rode off to break the news to his Army. Grant announced the surrender to his joyous men, telling them, “The war is over; the Rebels are our countrymen again.”

April 14 – Washington, D.C., this War Department dispatch: “This evening about half past nine o’clock, at Ford’s Theatre, the President, while sitting in his private box with Mrs. Lincoln, Mrs. Harris and Major Rathbourn, was shot by an assassin, who suddenly entered the box, approached behind the President and shot him. The pistol ball entered the back of the President’s head, penetrating nearly through the head. The President has been insensible ever since it was inflicted and is now dying. Having fired the shot, the assassin then leaped upon the stage brandishing a large knife, and made his escape in the rear of the Theatre.” A hat belonging to John Wilkes Booth, was found in the President’s private box and identified by several persons and the spur which he dropped by accident, after he jumped to the stage, was identified as one of those which he had obtained from the stable where he hired his horse.

April 15 – The official announcement of the “Death of President Lincoln” Washington, April 15. “Abraham Lincoln died this morning at twenty-two minutes after seven o’clock.” E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War. “At eleven a.m., Chief Justice Chase swore Andrew Johnson into office as President of the United States.” President Johnson remarked, “The duties are mine.”

Stanton announced, “The President’s body was removed from the private residence of Mrs. Peterson, opposite Ford’s Theatre to the Executive mansion this morning at nine-thirty. An autopsy was held this p.m., over the body of President Lincoln by Surgeon General Barnes and Dr. Stone and the remains were embalmed. A few locks of hair were removed from the President’s head for the family, previous to the remains being placed in the coffin. The coffin is of mahogany and is covered with black cloth and lined with lead, the latter being covered with white satin.” A silver plate upon the coffin, over the breast bears the following inscription: “Abraham Lincoln, Sixteenth President of the United States, born July l2th, 1809, died April 15th, 1865.” President Lincoln’s funeral would be held April 19.

The Evening Star April 27 – A detachment of the 16th New York cavalry killed the assassin Booth having been traced to a barn near Port Royal. The barn was set afire and Booth making a bolt was shot in the neck by Sergeant Boston Corbett and died. Booth, before breathing his last, replied, “Tell my mother that I died for my country.” The body of Booth was taken to the Navy Yard.

April 26 -At the farm home of James Bennett, Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered 89,270 Confederate soldiers to Union General Sherman, the largest group, either side, to surrender during the Civil War.

April 27 – Boilers on the steamer Sultana with 1,886 Federal troops, ex-prisoners of war aboard, exploded, killing 1,547.

Wheeling where the “Child of the Rebellion” was born, sent soldiers to both sides during the war, which had cost the Nation, the lives of 360,000 Union and 260,000 Confederate soldiers.