There was no decisive battle, no grand gesture that suddenly ended the Civil War. The beginning of the end began in late 1864 when Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman created a strategy of War intended to destroy the spirit of the South. Called the March to the Sea, union battalions swept through the south, destroying Atlanta and Columbia, terrorizing innocent civilians in their wake. Public buildings were looted and burnt. Private homes were not exempt from  the destruction. Think Tara in Gone With the Wind, which the author Margaret Mitchell based on local plantations in Jonesborough,Ga.

After the South’s huge losses during Grant’s Overland Campaign through Virginia, the Confederate Army barely had enough men left to fight. Food and money were in scarce supply and starving and disgusted Confederate soldiers tired of being marched to their deaths soon began deserting in massive numbers.

On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army  to General Ulysses S. Grant at the McLean House in Appomattox Court House, Virginia. 

On June 30,1865 after more than 660 days as a Union soldier and just 16, a young but world weary George T. Ulmer  was honorably discharged from the Union Army. Happily, his brother Charley now 21, was discharged after being promoted to Full 2nd Lieutenant. Both brothers served their country bravely, with honor and even humor. There are so many heart breaking Civil War stories of brothers dying side by side on the battlefield. It is with a sigh of relief that I can report that George and Charley were able to finally go home to their quiet corner in Maine.

Next Up: Going Home