 Near the end of the Civil War, Robert E. Lee made a last attempt to reach the depot, hoping to transport the Army of Northern Virginia south by railroad to meet Joseph E. Johnston's larger Army of Tennessee, then located in Greensboro, North Carolina.The arrival of Federal troops and their blocking Lee's army from the depot led to Lee's surrender in the home of Wilmer McLean, on April 9.Johnston later surrendered 98,270 Confederate troops (the largest surrender of the war), marking the end of the conflict on April 26, 1865.