You Are There | Lee and Grant at Appomattox | B4TV Radio History Theater

On April 9, 1865, two exhausted armies and two legendary commanders met at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, where General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant.

In this episode of You Are There, CBS Radio brings listeners inside one of the defining moments at the close of the American Civil War. Presented in the series’ signature “live news from history” format, the surrender at Appomattox unfolds as if radio correspondents were reporting from the scene in real time.

The meeting took place in the parlor of the McLean House. According to the National Park Service, Lee arrived around one o’clock, with Grant arriving about half an hour later. The two men made a striking contrast: Lee in a new uniform, Grant in a mud-spattered field uniform.

The surrender at Appomattox did not instantly end every military action of the Civil War, but it marked the effective collapse of the Confederacy’s most important army and became one of the symbolic closing moments of the conflict. This episode captures not only the military significance of the surrender, but the human weight of two generals meeting after years of bloodshed.

This B4TV presentation features “Lee and Grant at Appomattox,” commonly listed in circulation as a You Are There episode originally broadcast November 7, 1948, dramatizing the events of April 9, 1865.

For fans of old-time radio, American history, Civil War history, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, CBS radio drama, historical reenactments, and Golden Age broadcasting, this episode presents the surrender at Appomattox not as a distant textbook scene, but as breaking news from the past.

Presented by B4TV — preserving the Golden Age of Radio for a new generation.

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