where did the confederacy surrender to the union
Turning point of the American Civil War Gettysburg was the first major defeat suffered by Lee. The three-day battle witnessed Union forces decisively repel his second invasion of the North and inflicted serious casualties on his Army of Northern Virginia. In fact, the National Park Service marks the point at which Pickett's Charge collapsed, a copse of trees on Cemetery Ridge, as the high-water mark of the Confederacyâ€”the northernmost point reached by any major Confederate military incursion. From this point onward, Lee attempted no more strategic offensives. Although two more years of fighting and a new, more aggressive general-in-chief (Grant) was required to fully subdue the rebellion, the Army of the Potomac gained an indomitable initiative at Gettysburg that makes the eventual end at Appomattox Court House in 1865 seem inevitable in hindsight. While Gettysburg was seen by military and civilian observers at the time as a great battle, those in the North had little idea that two more bloody years would be required to finish the war. Lincoln was distraught at Meade's failure to intercept Lee's retreat, believing that to have done so would have ended the conflict.[8]