Meanwhile, the Confederacy was collapsing. On April 3,
Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital, fell to the
Union Army. On April 9,
General Robert E. Lee and his
Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to
General Ulysses S. Grant and his
Army of the Potomac after the
Battle of Appomattox Court House. Confederate President Jefferson Davis and other Confederate officials had fled. Nevertheless, Booth continued to believe in the Confederate cause and sought a way to salvage it; he soon decided to assassinate Lincoln.