At Appomattox Court House, Grant offered generous terms of surrender to the defeated Confederate army. Soldiers were required to turn over their rifles, but officers were allowed to keep their pistols. Soldiers who had horses could keep them. Grant knew that southerners would need the animals for spring plowing. Finally, ordered Grant, “each officer and man will be allowed to return to his home, not to be disturbed by the United States authorities.”
As the Confederates surrendered, Union soldiers began to cheer. Grant ordered them to be silent. “The war is over,” he said. “The rebels are our countrymen again.”