<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> <P> Though the Confederacy hoped that Britain and France would join them against the Union, this was never likely, and so they instead tried to bring Britain and France in as mediators . The Union, under Lincoln and Secretary of State William H. Seward worked to block this, and threatened war if any country officially recognized the existence of the Confederate States of America . In 1861, Southerners voluntarily embargoed cotton shipments, hoping to start an economic depression in Europe that would force Britain to enter the war to get cotton, but this did not work . Worse, Europe developed other cotton suppliers, which they found superior, hindering the South's recovery after the war . </P> <P> Cotton diplomacy proved a failure as Europe had a surplus of cotton, while the 1860--62 crop failures in Europe made the North's grain exports of critical importance . It also helped to turn European opinion further away from the Confederacy . It was said that "King Corn was more powerful than King Cotton", as U.S. grain went from a quarter of the British import trade to almost half . When Britain did face a cotton shortage, it was temporary, being replaced by increased cultivation in Egypt and India . Meanwhile, the war created employment for arms makers, ironworkers, and British ships to transport weapons . </P>

North and south states during the civil war