Reconstruction eraOn the 9th of April 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House.
Grand Army of the RepublicDr. Benjamin F. Stephenson stood in Decatur, Illinois on the 6th of April 1866 to establish a new fraternal order for Civil War veterans.
Lost Cause of the ConfederacyThe term Lost Cause first appeared in the title of an 1866 book by Virginian journalist Edward A. Pollard, The Lost Cause: A New Southern History of the War…