CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
General George A. Custer
Custer fights while BY JOHN A. PUNOLA
W
ith the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia commanded by General Robert E Lee, April 9, 1865, at the Appomattox Court House in Virginia to Gen Ulysses S Grant, soon General Joseph Johnson surrendered his army in North Carolina. That began a domino effect of Confederate army surrenders that eventually led to a total stoppage of fighting, the Civil War was finally over. The war was done for the thousands of men who fought for the Union and Confederacy, and they were discharged and began the journey back to their 50 • CATSKILL-DELAWARE, SPRING 2020
homes. It seemed like the fighting might never end, and in fact it did not. With the Civil War over, the Union now turned its attention to the war with the Native Americans in the Western part of the country. The Black soldiers of the Union were dispatched to the Southwest where they would be retrained and organized into a unit called the “Buffalo Soldiers.” They served with honor and distinction in their battles with the Native American tribes who were targeted for relocation to new and distant reservations. The confederation of the Native American tribes proved to be tough and skilled fighters,
