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General Ulysses S. Grant receiving Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox.
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Appomattox Exposes the Dangers of Myths Replacing History

Historians have revealed that the story Americans long learned about the end of the Civil War was a myth.

General Lee’s Sword

A graphic retelling of Robert E. Lee surrender at Appomattox Court House.

BookChat with David Silkenat, Author of Raising the White Flag

The Civil War started with a surrender, ended with a series of surrenders, and had several of its major campaigns end in surrender.

Surrender in the American Civil War

During the Civil War, surrendering was an honorable way of accepting defeat — under the right circumstances.

The Unlikely Paths of Grant and Lee

The two men met at Appomattox. The loser would become a role model, the victor an embarrassment.

The Civil War Isn’t Over

More than 150 years after Appomattox, Americans are still fighting over the great issues at the heart of the conflict.
A collage of pages from the National Park service website, including one about Appomattox Court House and one about the Underground Railroad, showing language stricken out since Donald Trump's innauguration in 2025.

Amid Anti-DEI Push, National Park Service Rewrites History of Underground Railroad

Since Trump took office, the park service — charged with preserving American history — has changed how it describes key moments from slavery to Jim Crow.
A field of cotton.

What a Series of Killings in Rural Georgia Revealed About Early 20th-Century America

On the continuing regime of racial terror in the post-Civil War American South.
Gen. James Longstreet.

The Conquered General

The back-and-forth life of Confederate James Longstreet.
The sillhouette of a Civil War statue on a night sky.

The Spirit of Appomattox

Why is Shelby Foote's Civil War subject to so much contemporary debate?
Protesters in front of a Confederate monument hold a banner that reads "Take the statue down."

Ole Miss’s Monument to White Supremacy

New evidence shows what the 30-foot-tall Confederate memorial was actually meant to commemorate.  

An Unfinished Revolution

A new three-part PBS documentary explores the failure of Reconstruction and the Redemption of the South.
Trump smirking.

Was 2017 the Craziest Year in U.S. Political History?

A dozen historians weigh in.
Ulysses Grant

Ulysses Grant's America and Ours

Ron Chernow’s biography reminds our 21st-century selves of the distinction between character and personality.

The Hidden History Of Juneteenth

The internecine conflict and the institution of slavery could not and did not end neatly at Appomattox or on Galveston Island.

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