Appomattox is an opera in English based on the surrender ending the American Civil War, composed by Philip Glass, with a libretto by the playwright Christopher Hampton.

The work had its world premiere at the San Francisco Opera on October 5, 2007, with a cast that included Dwayne Croft as Robert E. Lee and Andrew Shore as Ulysses S.

Mary Todd Lincoln appears and asks her black servant Elizabeth Keckley to interpret a nightmare her husband, the President, has had.

News of a successful retaking of a Confederate-held fort is brought in by Brigadier General John Rawlins and Colonel Ely S. Parker of the day's battle; Grant then orders the final assault on Richmond.

Lee reflects on his reason for joining the Confederacy despite having been offered the leadership of the Union forces: his invincible loyalty to his home state of Virginia.

General Howell Cobb arrives to give a report and confronts Lee over a bill he supports, one that will recruit slaves to fight for the Confederacy, a bill that Cobb believes undermines the entire revolution: If slaves make good soldiers, where does that leave the theory of slavery?

Scene 3 Julia Grant, on the eve of the Union's attack on Richmond, reflects on the hard years of her husband's earlier life, including his business failures and alcoholism, but she recalls her mother's prophecy that he would rise to be the highest in the land.

Lee's initial response is equivocal, only inquiring as to the terms Grant might propose, and later suggesting they meet to discuss "peace" rather than "surrender".

T. Morris Chester enters and, obviously traumatized, reports the infamous Colfax massacre, in which a hundred black militiamen were cut down by the Ku Klux Klan and White League.

Grant accedes to Lee's request that all his men, not just the officers, be allowed to keep their horses, so that they can return home to work their farms.

After Lee bows and leaves, he approaches his troops and confirms the surrender; they can go home now, and if they are as good citizens as they were as soldiers, then he will be proud of them.

Edgar Ray Killen, a Klan member now in jail for his role in the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner in 1964, appears.

Now an old man who uses a wheelchair, he sings in short, barking phrases of his pride in ordering the death of two Jewish civil rights workers and their black driver, and relives the murder in enthusiastic detail.