Background and Civil War Origins

• Civil War began due to tensions between industrial North and agricultural South dependent on slavery
• Mid-19th century: abolitionist sentiments grew, criticizing Southern states
• Dred Scott decision 1857: confirmed slavery legality
• John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia increased tensions
• Abraham Lincoln elected president November 1860
• Within 3 months: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas seceded
• April 12, 1861: Confederate forces fired first shots at Fort Sumter, Charleston South Carolina
• Major Robert Anderson surrendered fort
• More states joined Confederacy: Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee

Final Military Campaign Leading to Surrender

• March 25, 1865: General Robert E. Lee attacked Fort Stedman near Petersburg, Virginia
• April 1: General Grant counterattacked, forcing Confederate retreat from Richmond and Petersburg
• Lee's forces traveled Southwest, desperately low on supplies
• Needed train supplies from Lynchburg
• April 7: Grant wrote surrender letter to Lee citing "hopelessness of further resistance"
• Lee pressed on but asked for surrender terms details
• April 8: Union General Philip Sheridan's cavalry + two infantry corps blocked Lee at Appomattox Station
• Confederate soldiers deserting daily, thousands captured during retreat
• Lee cornered: Union cavalry/infantry ahead, two Union corps 3 miles behind at New Hope Church

Battle of Appomattox Court House

• April 9, before dawn: Confederate Major General John B. Gordon deployed 9,000 troops west of Appomattox
• Attacked Union cavalry but couldn't achieve victory without reinforcements
• Major General Bryan Grimes (North Carolina) pushed back Sheridan's cavalry
• More Union soldiers arrived from west and south
• 8:00 AM: Gordon's troops scattered toward village
• Lee's nephew Fitz Hugh's cavalry fled west
• 10:00-11:00 AM: Confederate lines waving white flags

Surrender Meeting at McLean House

• Lee contacted Grant about surrender offer
• Grant's headache miraculously disappeared upon receiving Lee's letter
• Staff officer Orville Babcock carried response with flag of truce
• Meeting place: Wilmer McLean's house (after rejecting abandoned house with no furniture)
• 1:00 PM: Lee arrived at McLean house
• 1:30 PM: Grant arrived
• Grant: field uniform streaked with mud; Lee: dressed formally with sash and sword
• Previously met briefly during Mexican War

Surrender Terms

• Confederates surrender weapons and military property
• Sign paroles, return to homes
• No prosecution if they don't take up arms again
• Confederate cavalry keep their horses (Lee's request)
• 25,000 rations provided to starving soldiers
• Each side appointed 3 officers to oversee parole process and prisoner exchanges
• 3:00 PM: Formal surrender letters signed and exchanged
• Grant and staff removed hats in farewell gesture
• Grant sent message to President Lincoln from Appomattox Station

Final Details and Formal Ceremony

• April 10, 10:00 AM: Grant and Lee met on horseback at town's eastern edge
• Final decisions:
  • Every Confederate soldier receives printed pass signed by officers
  • All cavalry and artillery men keep horses
  • Confederates traveling through Union territory get free federal railroad/vessel transportation
• April 12, 1865: Formal surrender of arms (4th anniversary of Fort Sumter)
• War not formally declared over for another 16 months

Wilmer McLean's Remarkable Coincidence

• McLean owned farm where First Battle of Bull Run occurred (first major Civil War battle)
• Moved from northern to central Virginia to escape conflict
• Eventually settled in Appomattox
• Remarked: "The war began in my front yard and ended in my front parlor"

Other Confederate Armies and Confusion

• Lee's surrender only covered his Army of Northern Virginia
• Other Confederate armies still active:
  • General Joseph E. Johnston's Army (North Carolina)
  • Lieutenant General Richard Taylor's forces (Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana)
  • Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith's men (west of Mississippi)
  • Brigadier General Stan W's unit (Far West)
• Major General Godfrey Weitzel (Union commander Richmond) sought clarification about Mosby
• Secretary of War Edwin Stanton requested clarification about Confederate forces in Loudoun County, Virginia
• April 10: Grant clarified surrender only applied to men present at time of surrender

Mosby's Guerrilla Unit

• Chief of Staff General Henry W. Halleck: "Mosby will not be paroled"
• April 16: Mosby contacted Major General Winfield Scott Hancock about armistice
• April 18: Meeting planned, ceasefire began
• April 21: Mosby disbanded unit rather than surrender
• Addressed men: "I disband your organization in preference to surrendering it to our enemies"
• Hancock offered $2,000 reward for Mosby's capture
• Mosby hid near Lynchburg, Virginia with younger brother
• June 16: Mosby's parole accepted after Grant's direct intervention
• June 17: Mosby turned himself in

Lincoln's Assassination and Johnson's Proclamation

• April 15, 1865: President Abraham Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at theater
• May 2: President Andrew Johnson issued proclamation
• Blamed Jefferson Davis and others for Lincoln's murder and Seward assassination attempt
• Rewards offered:
  • $100,000 for Jefferson Davis arrest
  • $25,000 each for Clement C. Clay, Jacob Thompson, George Sanders, Beverly Tucker
  • $10,000 for William C. Cleary

Johnston's Surrender in North Carolina

• General William T. Sherman pursued Johnston's Confederate Army through Carolinas
• April 10: Sherman's army marched toward Raleigh, North Carolina
• April 11: Sherman learned of Lee's surrender
• April 13: Sherman's forces entered Raleigh
• April 14: Johnston requested suspension of military operations
• April 17: Sherman and Johnston met near Durham Station
• Initial agreement: applied to all Confederate armies still in existence
  • Troops surrender arms, return to state capitals
  • Federal courts reestablished
  • Political rights guaranteed including person and property
• Sherman's proposal rejected by Washington
• Second meeting: military-only agreement approved
• Largest Confederate Army surrendered: Army of Tennessee plus Johnston's forces in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida

Remaining Confederate Surrenders

• May 2: Lieutenant General Richard Taylor (son of former President Zachary Taylor) met Major General Edward R.S. Canby in Alabama
• Outdoor lunch with food, drinks, live music
• May 4: Taylor accepted same terms as Lee, surrendered
• May 10: Jefferson Davis captured in Irwinville, Georgia
• Triggered surrenders of remaining small armies in Florida, Georgia, Arkansas

Trans-Mississippi Department

• Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith continued fighting west of Mississippi
• May 12, 1865: Last battle of Civil War at Palmito Ranch, Texas
• Union Colonel Theodore Barrett attacked Confederate Colonel John S. Ford
• Ford's force half size of Barrett's but defeated Union forces
• May 26: Smith surrendered command to Union
• Smith fled to Cuba to avoid treason prosecution
• November 1865: Smith returned to Virginia

CSS Shenandoah - Last Confederate Surrender

• Confederate raider ship, originally trade vessel from Bombay region
• Purchased in England 1864 by Confederate
• Sailed England to Madeira, Portugal
• Confederate crew led by James Waddell replaced English crew
• Trade vessel outfitted as warship
• Name changed from Sea King to CSS Shenandoah
• June 1865: In Bering Sea, attacked Union whaling fleets
• August 1865: Captured or destroyed 38 ships (primarily whalers and merchant vessels)
• Learned war was over from British ship
• Sailed back to England
• November 6, 1865: Last Confederate surrender in Liverpool, England
• Ship turned over to British Prime Minister, then to Americans
• Ship never reached American soil, eventually sold to Sultan of Zanzibar

Official End of Civil War

• August 20, 1866: President Johnson issued final proclamation
• Declared insurrection in Texas at an end
• Proclaimed peace, order, tranquility, and civil authority throughout entire United States
• Official end of American Civil War

Reconstruction Era Preview

• Nation divided cannot easily be put back together
• Reconstruction Era followed with continued tensions
• Reintegration of Confederacy into United States
• Aftermath of emancipation of 4 million slaves
• Progress and enfranchisement of newly freed Black Americans
• Violent backlash and emergence of Ku Klux Klan
• Conflict far from over despite war's end