End of The Civil War: Confederate surrenders throughout the country... and world
We’re taught in school that the American Civil War ended when ConfederateGen. Robert E. Lee surrendered toUnion Gen. Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865 — 160 years ago Wednesday.
In fact, reality was a little more complicated than that. Lee surrendered only his army, the Army of Northern Virginia.
His was one of several Confederate armies operating throughout the South. Each would have to surrender on its own. If they chose to surrender at all ...
April 12, 1865: A Surrender in Virginia
After nine months under siege, the Confederate army protecting the capital city of Richmond, Virginia, was at its breaking point. Food and ammo were in short supply and Federal troops were finally breaking through Rebel lines.
Confederate Robert E. Lee led his army out of Richmond and westward in search of a promised supply train. On April 5, they found themselves cut off.
Federal soldiers rest in front of the McLean house at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, in April 1865. Source: Library of Congress
Thousands of Lee’s troops had been captured during his move out of Richmond, at the battles of Five Forks and Saylor’s Creek. Lee’s army was marching on empty stomachs, with the nearest hope of provisions another 104 miles away in Danville, Virginia.
With his move blocked by Federal cavalry, Lee realized his fight was over “There is nothing left (for) me to do but go and see Gen. Grant,” Lee told his men. “And I would rather die a thousand deaths.”
On the afternoon of April 9, Lee accepted Grant’s offer to meet — in the parlor of the McLean house in the village of Appomattox Court House. The house was owned by a man who had lived in Manassas, Virginia, in 1861 and whose home had been used for a general’s headquarters. He had moved to Appomattox in hopes of avoiding more military action.
Grant laid out terms for the surrender. Lee pointed out that the horses his men had used were owned by the men themselves. And planting season was coming up soon. Grant added orders that the men would be allowed to keep their horses. “This will have a very happy effect upon my men,” Lee said.
Lee also asked for food for his starving troops. Grant saw to it that the Confederates were given provisions for 25,000 men.
At the formal ceremony on April 12, Confederate soldiers laid down their arms and flags. Union soldiers solemnly saluted them.
APRIL 26, 1865: ... AND ANOTHER IN NORTH CAROLINA
Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman had spent much of the past year marching through Georgia and then the Carolinas, evading Confederate Joseph Johnston’s efforts to stop him — or, at the very least, to slow him down.
With Sherman occupying Raleigh, N.C., and the tattered Confederate government fleeing Richmond, Johnston decided the time was right to end the war.
Johnston and Sherman met three times in a farmhouse near what is now Durham, N.C., finally signing a surrender on April 26, 1865. Source: New York Public Library
Johnston’s Confederate army of 30,000 troops was the largest rebel force left. But he faced Sherman’s army of 80,000 and had little hope of stopping it.
Confederate President Jefferson had made it clear: He didn’t want a surrender. He wanted his military forces to fall back and reassemble further away from the front, to conduct a guerrilla war.
Johnston was alarmed by this. It wasn’t practical. It would also take an enormous toll on Southerners already stressed by four years of war.
After trading a number of letters with Sherman, Johnston overstepped his authority in their meeting on April 17, 1865, by arranging “terms for a permanent peace” — not a military agreement, but a political one.
Sherman, who had been ordered to offer the same terms Grant had offered, was intrigued. They brought in Confederate Secretary of War John Breckinridge the next day and worked out a generous plan that would allow the rebellious states to keep their governments and their munitions.
The treaty was sent to Washington, D.C., where officials mourning the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln on April 15 were in no mood for Sherman overstepping his instructions.
Sherman and Johnston met again at Bennett Place on April 26 to sign a scaled-back surrender.
Other Confederate Surrenders
There were dozens of other surrenders — brigades, units, vessels, even states and parts of states — over the next several weeks. Here are some of the most notable:
Very few Confederate troops or units heeded Davis’ plea on April 4 to simply melt away and reform later into guerrilla units and continue to fight.
May 4: Citronelle, Alabama
Confederate Gen. Richard Taylor — the son of former President Zachary Taylor and who commanded the last major army operating east of the Mississippi River — negotiated a 48-hour truce with Union Gen. Edward Canby.
After hearing of the surrender of Gen. Johnston in North Carolina, Taylor surrendered his army.
May 9: Gainesville, Alabama
Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest was told of Lee’s surrender to Grant and declared “any man who is in favor of a further prosecution of this war is a fit subject for a lunatic asylum. He surrendered his famed Cavalry Corps, moved back home to Memphis, Tennessee, and later became a prominent figure in the founding of the Ku Klux Klan.
May 10: Irwinville, Georgia
Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who had been fleeing Union troops, was captured in South Georgia.
A rumor spread that Davis had been disguised as a woman. An amused Secretary of War Edwin Stanton encouraged the spread of the story anyway.
Davis was imprisoned in Fort Monroe, Virginia — without trial — for two years.
May 26: New Orleans, Louisiana
Gen. Simon Bolivar Bucker surrendered his Army of the Trans-Mississippi — the last large Confederate army in the field.
On May 29, President Andrew Johnson declared a general amnesty for most citizens of the former Confederacy.
Buckner wasn’t allowed to reside in his home state of Kentucky until 1868. He was elected governor in 1887.
June 2: Galveston, Texas
On the advice of his colleague Gen. Taylor, Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith surrendered all the Confederate forces west of the Mississippi River.
On June 19, Union Gen. Gordon Granger landed at Galveston and informed the people of Texas of the Emancipation Proclamation. The day became celebrated as “Juneteenth.”
June 23: Fort Towson
Confederate Gen. Stand Watie, a Cherokee Indian whose family had owned slaves, surrendered his regiment of Creek, Seminole, Cherokee and Osage Native Americans at a fort located in the Oklahoma territory.
Watie became the final Confederate general in the field to surrender.
Most Cherokee had supported the Union during the war.
Nov 6: Liverpool, England
The Confederate raider ship CSS Shenandoah had captured 25 Union vessels between May 27 and June 28, 1865. It wasn’t until June that its commanders were aware of the Confederate surrenders.