On 9 April 1865, after a failed dawn breakout, Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia; his men were paroled and sent home. On 9 April 1241, the Mongols defeated and killed Duke Henry II the Pious of Silesia at Legnica.
Lee surrenders at Appomattox
Before dawn on 9 April 1865, about 9,000 Confederates under John B. Gordon and Fitzhugh Lee formed west of the village of Appomattox Court House, Virginia, to break open the road for Robert E. Lee's army. Their attack, launched before 8 a.m., drove back the outnumbered Union cavalry, but Union infantry of the Army of the James and Charles Griffin's Fifth Corps, after marching through the night, came up and closed the road. Flags of truce went out from the Confederate lines between 10 and 11 a.m., and Lee decided to surrender rather than sacrifice his soldiers to no purpose. The cavalry fight for the railroad station the evening before is told on the 8 April page.1
That afternoon Lee and Ulysses S. Grant met in the parlor of Wilmer McLean's house in the village. Grant wrote out the terms: the Confederates would give up their arms, artillery and public property, officers would keep their side arms, private horses and baggage, and every man would be paroled and allowed to go home, "not to be disturbed by United States authority" as long as he kept his parole. When Lee pointed out that his cavalrymen and artillerists owned their horses, Grant agreed that the men could take their horses and mules home, though he left the written terms unchanged.2
About 28,000 Confederates were paroled at Appomattox, and on 12 April the infantry marched up the Stage Road and stacked their arms in a formal ceremony. Lee had surrendered only his army, not the Confederacy, but the remaining Confederate forces surrendered on much the same terms over the following weeks. Our article on Appomattox Court House tells the whole campaign.3
Battle of Legnica, 1241: when the Mongols reached Europe
9 April 1241 · 785 years ago
In April 1241, near Legnica in Silesia, a Mongol force defeated the army of Duke Henry II the Pious, who was killed in the battle. The victors then turned south through Moravia to join the main Mongol army in Hungary.
Read the full story of Battle of Legnica, 1241: when the Mongols reached Europe ›Appomattox, 1865
9 April 1865 · 161 years ago
On 9 April 1865, after a failed dawn breakout at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant in Wilmer McLean's parlor. Grant's terms paroled the men and let them go home; the formal laying down of arms followed on 12 April.
Read the full story of Appomattox, 1865 ›Battle of Arras, 1917: the British offensive of Easter Monday
9 April 1917 · 109 years ago
Near Arras in northern France, British troops attacked German defenses on the Western Front in World War I. The opening advance was the longest since trench warfare began, but the offensive soon bogged down into a costly deadlock.
Read the full story of Battle of Arras, 1917: the British offensive of Easter Monday ›Battle of Bataan, 1942: the hungry stand that ended in captivity
9 April 1942 · 84 years ago
After three months of defending the Bataan peninsula on Luzon on dwindling rations, Major General Edward King surrendered his Filipino and American Luzon Force to the Japanese 14th Army. About 75,000 prisoners, most of them Filipinos, were then marched north toward Camp O'Donnell in what became known as the Bataan Death March.
Read the full story of Battle of Bataan, 1942: the hungry stand that ended in captivity ›
