Did Lee collapse after Confederacy finally surrendered? (7)
I believe the answer is:
yielded
'surrendered?' is the definition.
(surrendering is a kind of yielding)
'did lee collapse after confederacy finally' is the wordplay.
'collapse' is an anagram indicator.
'after' says to put letters next to each other.
'finally' indicates one should take the final letters.
The last letter of 'confederacy' is 'y'.
'did'+'lee'='didlee'
'didlee' with letters rearranged gives 'ielded'.
'ielded' after 'y' is 'YIELDED'.
(Other definitions for yielded that I've seen before include "Returned" , "succumbed" , "was paid" , "Produced, provided" , "Gave way under pressure" .)