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WHEREAS, April 9, 2015, is the 150th anniversary of the surrender of Robert E. Lee to Ulysses S. Grant in Appomattox, Virginia, marking the effective end of the American Civil War, and since the Pittsburgh region played a major role in winning the war to preserve the union by both the blood of its soldiers and the massive production by its workers of the implements of war; and,
WHEREAS, in late December 1860, immediately following the secession of South Carolina, the citizens of Pittsburgh initiated the first act of Northern resistance to the dissolution of the Union when many thousands of them occupied Grant Street, physically blocking the movement of large cannons from the Arsenal in Lawrenceville to the Monongahela wharf. This act of popular intervention stopped the shipment of numerous armaments to Southern costal forts; and,
WHEREAS, Grant Street is the seat of both Pittsburgh City and Allegheny County government as well as the location of other important public buildings and corporate headquarters; and,
WHEREAS, Grant Street is not named for Ulysses S. Grant, as most citizens of Pittsburgh presume, but for Major James Grant, a soldier in the service of the King of England, who on September 14, 1758, defied explicit military orders and led an advance force of General Forbes' army on a disastrous attack on Fort Duquesne that resulted in the death of nearly half his command and his capture; and,
WHEREAS, the surrender of Robert E. Lee to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, marked the triumph of the Union in the American Civil War and achieved the fulfillment of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation ending slavery in our nation; and,
WHEREAS, the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution vigorously supported and signed by President Grant restored suffrage to the black male citizens of Pittsburgh;
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NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Council and Mayor of Pittsburgh declare that from April 9, 20...
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