The Confederate army, diminished by casualties and desertions, was much smaller than Grant's. Union forces defeated the decisive battle of Five Forks on April 1, forcing Lee to evacuate Petersburg and Richmond. The Confederate capital fell into the hands of the XXV Corps of the Union, composed almost exclusively by black soldiers, on April 3. The remaining Confederate troops fled to the west and, after a defeat at Sayler's Creek, Lee realized that it was tactically and logistically impossible to continue the fight against the United States.
Lee surrendered his Virginia army on April 9, 1865, at the Appomattox Court House. In a rare gesture that showed Grant's respect for Lee, and in anticipation of the return of the Confederate states to the Union, Lee was allowed to keep possession of his officer's saber and his horse, Traveler. On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was shot and killed in the head by a southern supporter. Andrew Johnson became president. Twelve days later, on April 26, Johnston surrendered his troops to Sherman in Durham (North Carolina). On June 23 Stand Watie signed a ceasefire treaty with representatives of the Union, becoming the last Confederate general to be defeated. The last naval unit of the confederation to surrender was the CSS Shenandoah, on November 4, 1865, in Liverpool, England.
