THE REBELLION HAS ENDED! General Robert E. Lee has surrendered his sword to Lieutenant General Grant, and the mighty Army of Northern Virginia has ceased to exist. Chicago erupted in wild celebration Sunday night as news reached the city after 10 o'clock, with crowds thronging the streets in front of the Tribune office and Tremont House, church bells ringing, and rockets soaring skyward. Citizens chanted Miriam's hymn: 'Sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and the rider He hath thrown into the sea.' The official correspondence shows Lee's army surrendering at Appomattox Court-House on April 9th, with officers allowed to keep their side arms, horses, and baggage while all men receive paroles to return home. Meanwhile, President Lincoln has made another visit to Richmond with Mrs. Lincoln, Senators Sumner and Harlan, touring the fallen Confederate capital including the notorious Libby prison. Both white and black residents lined the streets with enthusiasm, with freed slaves reportedly hailing Lincoln as 'the second Messiah' and kneeling to thank God for their deliverance. Union cavalry has reportedly captured and burned Selma, Alabama, while Mobile remains under siege.

This front page captures the pivotal moment when America's bloodiest conflict effectively ended after four years of civil war. Lee's surrender at Appomattox didn't just defeat the Confederacy's most powerful army—it signaled the beginning of Reconstruction and the long, complex process of reuniting a fractured nation. The scenes of Lincoln touring Richmond, the former Confederate capital, symbolized the Union's triumph while hinting at the massive challenges ahead: how to rebuild the South, integrate four million freed slaves into society, and heal a country torn apart by war. The jubilant celebrations in Chicago reflected Northern cities' mixture of relief, triumph, and exhaustion after years of unprecedented carnage that claimed over 600,000 lives.

• A Confederate letter intercepted from rebel Adjutant General Cooper to his wife reveals the desperation in Richmond's final days: 'he hadn't a dollar in the world but Confederate money, which was worthless, and starvation stared them in the face'
• Richmond's jail examination revealed people imprisoned 'for no greater offense than stealing a loaf of bread when in a starving condition' who were immediately discharged by Union authorities
• Mrs. Lee, the general's wife, 'was in Richmond, and refused to go away' even as other Confederate officials' families fled the city
• A Memphis merchant learned of Selma's capture from a chance encounter with a rebel soldier who said 'I suppose you damned Memphis Yankees haven't heard yet that Selma was captured and burned the other day'
• The surrender terms specifically allowed Confederate officers to keep 'their private horses' - a crucial detail for men who would need transportation home to devastated Southern farms

• The Tribune mentioned rockets being fired to celebrate Lee's surrender - this was 1865 fireworks technology, likely simple gunpowder rockets that had been used for military signals during the war
• President Lincoln's tour of Libby prison was deeply symbolic - this notorious Confederate prison had held thousands of Union officers in horrific conditions, and now the President walked through as liberator
• The paper notes freed slaves called Lincoln 'the second Messiah' - within five days, Lincoln would be assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre, making this one of his final public appearances
• Grant's telegram reached Chicago via the Western Union line - the same telegraph network that had revolutionized war communications and allowed newspapers to report events within hours rather than days
• The mention of Fort Sumter excursion parties reflects how quickly the war's first battlefield was becoming a tourist destination - Americans were already turning battlefields into pilgrimage sites