The Surrender of Gen. Lee and His Army to Lieut. Gen. Grant

Published weeks after Appomattox, this full-page engraving—captioned in the plate itself as 'The Surrender of Gen. Lee and His Army to Lieut. Gen. Grant'—reconstructs the McLean House scene of April 9, 1865. Four uniformed figures occupy a spare parlor: two Union officers in dark coats face a white-haired Confederate in a lighter uniform, sword at his side, while a seated aide looks on. A framed landscape hangs above a writing table where terms were signed. The ornamental border carries the words UNION, Blessing of God, Constitution and Laws, and Armies of the Republic—a Unionist civic theology framing military fact as providential outcome. The banner caption, 'Honor the Illustrious Dead, and Heartily Sympathize with the Sufferings of Our Gallant Heroes and Their Families,' strikes a reconciliationist note conspicuously silent on enslaved people whose freedom the war decided—an editorial choice reflecting Harper's Weekly's postwar pivot toward sectional healing over Reconstruction accountability.