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Appomattox Day falls on Friday, April 9, 2027. That is 164 days away.

Appomattox is a small place in central Virginia with an outsized name in American history. At Appomattox Court House, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. The meeting is widely seen as the moment the Civil War began to close, even though other Confederate forces had not yet surrendered.

The surrender took place in the parlor of a private home owned by Wilmer McLean. Accounts describe a quiet, formal meeting. The terms Grant offered let the surrendering soldiers return home, allowed officers to keep their sidearms, and let men who owned horses take them back for farm work. A few days later, the Confederate soldiers stacked their weapons and furled their flags in a formal ceremony.

People mark the day mostly through reading, reflection and visits. The village is now preserved as Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, run by the National Park Service, where the McLean House has been reconstructed and the surrounding roads and buildings look much as they did. Others mark it closer to home, with a history book, a documentary, or a look through letters and photographs from the period.

The story invites slow reading. Many accounts of that week linger on ordinary details: tired men, borrowed paper, a shared meal of rations sent across the lines to hungry soldiers. The parlor itself was furnished like any comfortable home of its time, with a small table at the center of it all.

Ways to celebrate

• Read a firsthand account of the surrender at Appomattox Court House.
• Look through Civil War photographs in a library or online archive.
• Visit a local Civil War site, marker or museum.
• Watch a documentary about the final weeks of the Civil War.

Dates

All national days on April 9

Also on April 9

• National Gin and Tonic Day
• National Chinese Almond Cookie Day
• National Unicorn Day
• National Name Yourself Day
• National Cherish an Antique Day
• National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day
• National Winston Churchill Day

Categories: History days