Wednesday, April 9th. This day in 1865 was Palm Sunday — and a day in which one of the darkest chapters in American history drew to a close. At the Appomattox courthouse in Virginia, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the four-year long bitter struggle of the Civil War. As the Confederates stacked their arms, one witness said there was an awed stillness — as if it were the passing of the dead. Some 3 million men served on both sides. Battle deaths and disease claimed at least 364,000 on the Union side alone. Confederate losses are unknown. By comparison, in all of World War II, just over 400,000 American servicemen died in battle and from other causes — out of more than 16 million in uniform.