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After Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, many Americans wondered whether
Lincoln had realized that his nation would survive the war, would continue, and would become
one both in name and in spirit.
There was a sign in April of that year, and it occurred just two days before his passing. On April
9, 1865, at the surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, General Ulysses S. Grant insisted
that all of the Confederate soldiers would have to surrender their weapons before they could go
home. So on April 12, just two days before the assassination, the Army of Northern Virginia, for
the very last time, marched in formation, toward the place where they would have to relinquish
their
rifles. Before they reached that place, they had to pass in between rows and rows of Union
soldiers. And when they approached the men in blue, a quiet order was given, and those Union
soldiers saluted. These very same men, who had been firing upon each other just five days
before, turned around and gave each other full military honors.
For at least these two armies, the war ended, not with shame on one side and exultation on the
other, but it ended, as Abraham Lincoln wanted it to end, "with malice toward none, and with
charity for all."
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