April 26 · This Day in America
At a small farm owned by James and Nancy Bennett, near Durham Station, Confederate General Joseph Johnston signs away the largest army still in the field — nearly 90,000 men across the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida, more than Lee surrendered at Appomattox. The two generals had met here once before and reached for too much; Washington said no. Now they meet again and keep it simple, on the same terms Grant gave Lee. Lincoln has been dead eleven days. Booth dies this same morning in a Virginia barn. The country is exhausted and grieving and unsure what peace will even feel like. But here, in a borrowed parlor, with a farm family waiting outside their own door, the largest part of the war quietly ends. Not with a battle. With two tired men agreeing it is finished.
Source: www.battlefields.org
Also on this day · 1607
After more than four months at sea, three small ships make landfall at Cape Henry on the Virginia coast. The men go ashore, plant a cross in the sand, and look around at a continent they barely understand. Within weeks they will move up the James River and build a fort they call Jamestown — the first English settlement in America that does not vanish. Almost everything that follows starts here, on this beach, with tired men and a wooden cross.
Source: www.nps.gov