On April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. The surrender effectively ended the American Civil War, which had lasted four years and claimed approximately 620,000 lives. The war preserved the Union, ended slavery through the 13th Amendment, and fundamentally transformed American society, though the struggle for racial equality would continue for generations.
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