<P> Leaving Atlanta, and his base of supplies, Sherman's army marched with an unknown destination, laying waste to about 20 percent of the farms in Georgia in his "March to the Sea". He reached the Atlantic Ocean at Savannah, Georgia in December 1864 . Sherman's army was followed by thousands of freed slaves; there were no major battles along the March . Sherman turned north through South Carolina and North Carolina to approach the Confederate Virginia lines from the south, increasing the pressure on Lee's army . </P> <P> Lee's army, thinned by desertion and casualties, was now much smaller than Grant's . One last Confederate attempt to break the Union hold on Petersburg failed at the decisive Battle of Five Forks (sometimes called "the Waterloo of the Confederacy") on April 1 . This meant that the Union now controlled the entire perimeter surrounding Richmond - Petersburg, completely cutting it off from the Confederacy . Realizing that the capital was now lost, Lee decided to evacuate his army . The Confederate capital fell to the Union XXV Corps, composed of black troops . The remaining Confederate units fled west after a defeat at Sayler's Creek . </P> <P> Initially, Lee did not intend to surrender, but planned to regroup at the village of Appomattox Court House, where supplies were to be waiting, and then continue the war . Grant chased Lee and got in front of him, so that when Lee's army reached Appomattox Court House, they were surrounded . After an initial battle, Lee decided that the fight was now hopeless, and surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865, at the McLean House . In an untraditional gesture and as a sign of Grant's respect and anticipation of peacefully restoring Confederate states to the Union, Lee was permitted to keep his sword and his horse, Traveller . </P> <P> On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth, a Southern sympathizer . Lincoln died early the next morning, and Andrew Johnson became the president . Meanwhile, Confederate forces across the South surrendered as news of Lee's surrender reached them . On April 26, 1865, General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered nearly 90,000 men of the Army of Tennessee to Major General William T. Sherman at the Bennett Place near present - day Durham, North Carolina . It proved to be the largest surrender of Confederate forces, effectively bringing the war to an end . President Johnson officially declared a virtual end to the insurrection on May 9, 1865; President Jefferson Davis was captured the following day . On June 2, Kirby Smith officially surrendered his troops in the Trans - Mississippi Department . On June 23, Cherokee leader Stand Watie became the last Confederate General to surrender his forces . </P>

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