LEE'S SURRENDER.--Meanwhile, Lee, having only the wreck of that proud array with which he had dealt the Union army so many crushing blows, hurried west, seeking some avenue of escape. Grant urged the pursuit with untiring energy. Sheridan, "with a terrible daring which knew no pause, no rest," hung on his flanks. Food now failed the Confederates and they could get only the young shoots of trees to eat. If they sought a moment's repose, they were awakened by the clatter of pursuing cavalry. Lee, like a hunted fox, turned hither and thither; but at last Sheridan planted himself squarely across the front. Lee ordered a charge. His half-starved troops, with a rallying of their old courage, obeyed. But the cavalry moving aside, as a curtain is drawn, revealed dense bodies of infantry in battle line. The Civil War was about to end in one of its bloodiest tragedies, when the Confederate advance was stopped. General Grant had already sent in a note demanding the surrender of the army. Lee accepted the terms; and, April 9th, eight thousand men--the remains of the Army of Virginia--laid down their arms near Appomattox Court House, and then turned homeward, no longer Confederate soldiers, but American citizens. [Footnote: The officers and men were allowed to go home on their paroles not to take up arms against the United States until exchanged, and the former to retain their private baggage and horses. After the surrender had been concluded, General Lee said that he had forgotten to mention that many of his soldiers rode their own horses. Grant at once replied that such should keep their horses to aid them in their future work at home--That the two armies so fiercely opposed for four years could have parted with no words but those of sympathy and respect was an assured presage of a day when all the wounds of the restored Union should be fully healed.] _The Effect_.--This closed the war. The other Confederate armies--Johnston's, Dick Taylor's, and Kirby Smith's--promptly surrendered. Jefferson Davis fled southward, hoping to escape, but was overtaken near Irwinsville, Georgia (May 11), and sent a prisoner to Fortress Monroe. [Footnote: The last fight of the war happened near Brazos Santiago, Texas, May 13. A small expedition sent out to surprise a Confederate camp was overtaken, on its return, by a larger force and defeated with a loss of eighty men.]