Ends Of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee's Army After Appomattox

Virginia Museum of History & Culture Podcast

On November 11, 2021 historian Caroline E. Janney had a discussion about her book on Lee’s army after Appomattox. In her dramatic new history of the weeks and months after Appomattox, Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee’s Army after Appomattox, Caroline E. Janney reveals that Lee’s surrender was less an ending than the start of an interregnum marked by military and political uncertainty, legal and logistical confusion, and continued outbursts of violence. Janney takes readers from the deliberations of government and military authorities to the ground-level experiences of common soldiers. Ultimately, what unfolds is the messy birth narrative of the Lost Cause, laying the groundwork for the defiant resilience of rebellion in the years that followed. Dr. Caroline E. Janney is the John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War and Director of the John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History at the University of Virginia. She is the author and editor of several books, including Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation; Cold Harbor to the Crater: The End of the Overland Campaign (with Gary W. Gallagher); Petersburg to Appomattox: The End of the War in Virginia; and, most recently, Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee’s Army after Appomattox. The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.