Joseph Renier’s medal, commissioned by the Civil War Centennial Commission, memorializes the four years of hostilities between North and South one hundred years before. It depicts Confederate general Robert E. Lee, who surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant, also shown here, at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, in 1865. “Let Us Have Peace” became Grant’s presidential campaign slogan in 1868. At Appomattox, Lee released his officers and soldiers, bidding them return home with “a consciousness of duty faithfully performed.”
