On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Ulysses S. Grant at Virginia's Appomattox Court House, effectively ending The Civil War. During the final, decisive battles of the war, many men lost their lives as the Confederacy desperately tried to fight against the Union troops that overran them. But on that fateful day in 1865, General Lee's surrender set the precedent for other massive surrenders that led to the official end of the war.