he Battle of Appomattox Court House fought on the morning of April 9 1865 was the final engagement of Confederate States Army General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia before it surrendered to the Union Army under Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and one of the last battles of the American Civil War. Lee having abandoned the Confederate capital of Richmond Virginia after the ten-month Siege of Petersburg retreated west hoping to join his army with the Confederate forces in North Carolina. Union forces pursued and cut off the Confederate retreat at the village of Appomattox Court House.