This is a timeline of the conclusion of the American Civil War which includes important battles, skirmishes, raids and other events of 1865. These led to additional Confederate surrenders, key Confederate captures, and disbandments of Confederate military units that occurred after Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender on April 9, 1865.

The fighting of the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War between Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Potomac and Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was reported considerably more often in the newspapers than the battles of the Western Theater. Reporting of the Eastern Theater skirmishes largely dominated the newspapers as the Appomattox Campaign developed.

Lee’s army fought a series of battles in the Appomattox Campaign against Grant that ultimately stretched thin his lines of defense. Lee's extended lines were mostly on small sections of thirty miles of strongholds around Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia. His troops ultimately became exhausted defending this line because they were thinned out too much. Grant then took advantage of the situation and launched attacks on this thirty mile and poorly defended front. This ultimately led to the surrender of Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox.

The Army of Northern Virginia surrendered on April 9 around noon followed by Gen. St. John Richardson Liddell's troops some 6 hours later. Mosby's raiders disbanded on April 21, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and his various armies surrendered on April 26, the Confederate departments of Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana surrendered on May 4, and the Confederate District of the Gulf, commanded by Maj. Gen. Dabney Herndon Maury, surrendered on May 5. Confederate president Jefferson Davis was captured on May 10 and the Confederate Departments of Florida and South Georgia, commanded by Confederate Maj. Gen. Samuel Jones, surrendered the same day. Thompson's Brigade surrendered on May 11, Confederate forces of North Georgia surrendered on May 12, and Kirby Smith surrendered on May 26. The last battle of the American Civil War was the Battle of Palmito Ranch in Texas on May 12 and 13. The last Confederate surrender occurred on November 6, 1865, when the Confederate warship CSS Shenandoah was turned in. President Andrew Johnson formally declared the end of the war on August 20, 1866.

Surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia (April 9)

Gen. Robert E. Lee commanded the Army of Northern Virginia, while Maj. Gen. John Brown Gordon its Second Corps. Early in the morning of April 9, Gordon attacked, aiming to break through Federal lines at the Battle of Appomattox Court House, but failed, and the Confederate army was then surrounded. At 8:30 A.M. that morning, Lee requested a meeting with Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant to discuss surrendering the Army of Northern Virginia. Shortly after twelve o'clock, Grant's reply reached Lee, and in it Grant said he would accept the surrender of the Confederate army under certain conditions. Lee then rode into the little hamlet of Appomattox Court House, where the Appomattox county court house stood, and waited for Grant's arrival to surrender his army.

Surrender of Gen. St. John Richardson Liddell's troops (April 9)

The Confederates lost the city of Spanish Fort in Alabama at the Battle of Spanish Fort, which took place between March 27 and April 8, 1865 in Baldwin County. After losing Spanish Fort, the Confederates went on to lose Fort Blakely to Union forces at the Battle of Fort Blakely, between April 2 and April 9, 1865. This is considered to be the last major battle of the American Civil War involving large numbers of United States Colored Troops.

The Battle of Fort Blakely happened six hours after Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox. In the course of the battle, Brig. Gen. St. John Richardson Liddell was captured and surrendered his men. Out of 4,000 soldiers originally, Liddell lost 3,400 that were captured in this battle. About 250 were killed and only some 200 men escaped. The successful Union assault can be attributed in large part to African-American forces.

Union Capture of Columbus, Georgia (Easter Sunday, April 16)

Unaware of Lee's surrender on April 9 and the assassination of President Lincoln on April 14, General James H. Wilson's Raiders continued their march through Alabama into Georgia. On April 16, the Battle of Columbus, Georgia was fought. This battle is widely held to be the "last battle of the Civil War." Columbus fell to Wilson's Raiders about midnight on April 16, and most of its manufacturing capacity was destroyed on the 17th. Confederate Colonel John Stith Pemberton, the inventor of Coca-Cola was wounded in this battle which resulted in his obsession with pain-killing formulas, ultimately ending in the recipe for his celebrated drink.

Disbanding of Mosby's Raiders (April 21)

Mosby's Rangers, also known as the 43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry, were a special force of Confederate military troops who opposed the Union control of the Loudoun Valley area. Under the command of Gen. Robert E. Lee, John S. Mosby had formed the battalion on June 10, 1863, at Rector's Cross Roads near Rectortown, Virginia. Mosby practiced psychological as well as guerrilla warfare techniques to disrupt the Union stronghold. Mosby's men never formally surrendered and were disbanded on April 21, 1865, almost two weeks after Lee had surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant. On the last day of Mosby's striking force, a letter from him was read aloud to his men:

Soldiers!

I have summoned you together for the last time. The vision we have cherished of a free and independent country, has vanished, and that country is now the spoil of a conqueror. I disband your organization in preference to surrendering it to our enemies. I am no longer your commander. After association of more than two eventful years, I part from you with a just pride, in the fame of your achievements, and grateful recollections of your generous kindness to myself. And now at this moment of bidding you a final adieu accept the assurance of my unchanging confidence and regard.

Farewell.

John S. Mosby, Col.

With no formal surrender, however, Union Major General Winfield S. Hancock offered a reward of $2,000 for Mosby's capture, later raised to $5,000. On June 17, Mosby surrendered to Maj. Gen. John Gregg in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Surrender of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and his various armies (April 26)

The second and last major stage in the peace making process concluding the American Civil War was the surrender of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and his armies to Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman on April 26, 1865, at Bennett Place. Johnston's Army of Tennessee was among nearly one hundred thousand Confederate soldiers that were surrendered from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. The conditions of surrender were in a document called "Terms of a Military Convention" signed by Sherman, Johnston, and Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Raleigh, North Carolina.

The first major stage in the peace making process was when Lee's surrender occurred at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. This, coupled with Lincoln's assassination induced Johnston to act, believing: "With such odds against us, without the means of procuring ammunition or repairing arms, without money or credit to provide food, it was impossible to continue the war except as robbers." On April 17 Sherman and Johnston met at Bennett Place, and the following day an armistice was arranged, when terms were discussed and agreed upon. Grant had authorized only the surrender of Johnston's forces, but Sherman exceeded his orders by providing very generous terms. These included: that the warring states be immediately recognized after their leaders signed loyalty oaths; that property as well as personal rights be returned to the Confederates; the re-establishing the Federal court system; and that a general amnesty would be given. On April 24 the authorities in Washington rejected Sherman's proposed terms, and two days later Johnston agreed to the same terms Lee had received previously on April 9.

Gen. Johnston surrendered the following commands under his direction on April 26, 1865: the Department of Tennessee and Georgia; the Army of Tennessee; the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida; and the Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia. In doing so, Johnston surrendered to Sherman around 30,000 men. On April 27 his adjutant announced the terms to the Army of Tennessee in General Orders #18, and on May 2 he issued his farewell address to the Army of Tennessee as General Orders #22. The remaining parts of the Florida "Brigade of the West" surrendered with the rest of Johnston’s forces on May 4, 1865, at Greensboro, North Carolina.

There is a historical marker at the farm house in Durham, North Carolina, where Johnston surrendered his departments and armies.

Surrender of the Confederate departments of Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana regiments (May 4)

The documentation of the surrender of Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor's small force in Alabama was another stage in the process of concluding the American Civil War. The son of former U.S. President Zachary Taylor, Richard Taylor, commanded the Confederate troops in the Department of Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana of about ten thousand troops.^[23] On May 4 Taylor's subordinate Col. J.Q. Chenowith surrendered the Department to Union officer Col. John A. Hottenstein.

Mobile, Alabama, had fallen to Union control on April 12, 1865. Reports reached Taylor of the meeting between Johnston and Sherman about the terms of Johnston's surrender of his armies. Taylor agreed to meet with Maj. Gen. Edward R. S. Canby for a conference north of Mobile, and they settled on a 48 hour's truce on April 30. Taylor agreed to a surrender after this time elapsed, which he did on May 4 at Citronelle, Alabama.

Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest surrendered on May 9 at Gainesville, Alabama. His troops were included with Taylor's. The terms stated that Taylor could retain control of the railway and river steamers to be able to get his men as near as possible to their homes. Taylor stayed in Meridian, Mississippi, until the last man was sent on his way. He was paroled May 13 and then went to Mobile to join Canby. Canby took him to his home in New Orleans by boat.

Surrender of the Confederate District of the Gulf (May 5)

The Confederate District of the Gulf was commanded by Maj. Gen. Dabney Herndon Maury. On April 12 Maury retreated with his troops after the two major Confederate forts of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely were lost to the Union forces. He declared Mobile, Alabama, an open city after these battles. Maury went to Meridian, Mississippi, with his remaining men. He wanted to join the remains of the Army of Tennessee in North Carolina. However, hearing of Johnston's surrender to Sherman on April 26 he soon ran out of options. Ultimately Maury surrendered Mobile's military infantry soldiers and artillery of about four thousand men to the Union army on May 5 at Citronelle, Alabama. It was the last of the Confederate forces to surrender east of the Mississippi River.

Capture of President Davis (May 10)

On May 10, Union cavalrymen, under Maj. Gen. James H. Wilson's command, captured Confederate President Jefferson Davis after he fled Richmond, Virginia, following its evacuation in the early part of April 1865. On May 5, 1865, in Washington, Georgia, Davis had held the last meeting of his Cabinet. At that time, the Confederate Government was declared officially dissolved.

The sequence of events that led to Davis' capture began early in May 1865, when the 4th Michigan Cavalry was set up in an encampment of tents at Macon, Georgia. The military unit of several battalions was commanded by Lt. Col. Benjamin D. Pritchard. On May 7, he was given orders to join many other units searching for the Confederate president. Pritchard's troops scouted through the country along the Ocmulgee River, and by the next day the Michiganders had come to Hawkinsville, Georgia, about fifty miles south of Macon, from where they continued along the river to Abbeville, Georgia. There, Pritchard learned from Lt. Col. Henry Harnden that his First Wisconsin Cavalry was hot on Davis's trail. After a meeting between the two colonels, Harnden and his men headed off towards Irwinville, some twenty miles south of their position.

Pritchard received word from local residents that on the night before a party, probably including the Confederate President, had crossed the Ocmulgee River just north of Abbeville. Since there were two roads to Irwindale, one of which had been taken by Harnden and his men, Pritchard decided to take the other, to see if he could capture Davis. He took with him about a hundred and forty men and their horses, while the balance of the Michiganders stayed on the Ocmulgee River near Abbeville. Some seven hours later, at 1 A.M. on May 10, Pritchard arrived at Irwindale. There was no evidence of Harnden's men being there yet.

Pritchard learned from local residents that about a mile and a half to the north there was a military camp. Not knowing whether this was Davis and his group or the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry, he approached cautiously. He soon identified the camp as Davis's. At first dawn, Pritchard charged the camp, which was so surprised and overwhelmed that it offered no resistance and yielded immediately.

About ten minutes after the surrender, Pritchard heard rapid gunfire to the north. He left Davis and the captured men in the hands of his twenty-one year old adjutant. Once he had approached the gunfire, he realized it was the 4th Michigan and the 1st Wisconsin shooting at each other with Spencer repeating carbines, neither realizing who they were shooting at. Pritchard immediately ordered his men to stop and shouted to the 1st Wisconsin to identify the parties. In the five minute skirmish, the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry had suffered eight men wounded, while the 4th Michigan Cavalry had lost two men killed and one wounded.

Back at camp, Pritchard's adjutant was almost fooled into letting Davis escape by a ruse. Davis's wife had persuaded the adjutant to let her "old mother" go to fetch some water. The adjutant allowed this, and walked away from their tent. Mrs. Davis and a person dressed as an old woman then left the tent to go for the water. One of the other ranking officers noticed the "old woman" was wearing men's riding boots with spurs. Immediately, they were stopped and the woman's overcoat and black head shawl were removed, to reveal Davis himself. The plan of escape thus failed. The Confederate president was subsequently held prisoner for two years in Fort Monroe, Virginia.

Surrender of the Confederate Department of Florida and South Georgia (May 10)

In 1864, Maj. Gen. Samuel Jones commanded the Departments of Florida, South Carolina, and South Georgia, with his headquarters in Pensacola, Florida. His primary orders were to guard the coastal areas of these states and to destroy Union gunboats. He also destroyed all the machinery and sawmills that would be beneficial to the Union armies.

In the early part of 1865, Jones was transferred to Tallahassee, soon after Savannah had fallen to Sherman and the Union forces in December 1864. There, Jones headquartered the District of Florida. On May 10, at Tallahassee, he surrendered about eight thousand troops to Brig. Gen. Edward M. McCook. In military action east of the Mississippi River, the city of Tallahassee was the only Confederate state capital not captured during the Civil War.

Surrender of Thompson's Brigade (May 11)

Confederate Brig. Gen. "Jeff" Meriwether Thompson commanded Thompson's Brigade. The county seat of Wittsburg, Arkansas (the county seat of Cross County from 1868 through 1886), would witness one of the final acts in the American Civil War. This happened after the collapse of Confederate forces east of the Mississippi. Maj. Gen. Grenville M. Dodge sent Lt. Col. Charles W. Davis of the 51st Illinois Infantry on April 30, 1865, to Arkansas to seek the surrender of Thompson, commander of Confederate troops in the northeast portion of Arkansas. Davis, arriving at Chalk Bluff (now non-extant) in Clay County, Arkansas, on the St. Francis River, sent communications to Thompson asking that they have a conference. These two officers met on May 9 to negotiate a surrender.

Thompson requested from Davis two days to work out the details of the surrender with his officers. The Confederates under the command of Thompson agreed to surrender all the troops in the area on May 11. They picked Wittsburg and Jacksonport, Arkansas, as the sites where Thompson's five thousand military troops would gather to receive their paroles. Ultimately Thompson surrendered about seventy-five hundred men all total that were under his command consisting of 1,964 enlisted men with 193 officers paroled at Wittsburg and 4,854 enlisted men with 443 officers paroled at Jacksonport.

Surrender of Confederate forces of North Georgia (May 12)

The surrender of between 3000 and 4000 soldiers under Brig. Gen. William T. Wofford's command took place at Kingston, Georgia, and was received by Brig. Gen. Henry M. Judah on May 12, 1865. There were several letters between the various generals involved in the negotiation of this surrender, including Wofford, Judah, William D. Whipple and Robert S. Granger.

Col. Louis Merrill kept the Headquarters Department of the Cumberland in Nashville, Tennessee informed and according to a letter he wrote on May 4, 1865, there were about 10,000 soldiers under Wofford's command, "on paper." These consisted of all the Confederate troops in northwestern Georgia, however only about a third could actually be collected as the rest were deserters. From this group there were a number of soldiers that resisted General Wofford's efforts to make them follow his commands.

There is a Georgia historical marker in Kingston, Georgia, in Bartow County at the intersection of West Main Street and Church Street to denote where this surrender took place. It further explains that the Confederate soldiers were given rations after their release.

Disbandment after the Battle at Palmito Ranch (May 13)

The last land battle of the Civil War is obscurely recorded as being in a remote corner of Texas near Brownsville, and it was won by the Confederates. The Confederates held the city of Brownsville in the early part of 1865. In January or February Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace was sent by the Union government to Texas. He was sent on an "inspection mission," which in reality was a mission to get Confederate support along the Rio Grande River for the Mexican government, whose president at the time was Benito Juárez. On March 11 Wallace had a meeting with the two major Confederate commanders of the region, Brig. Gen. James Slaughter and Col. John "Rip" Ford, under the premise that the official purpose was the "rendition of criminals." The real reason was to agree that any fighting in the region would be pointless and negotiate an unofficial indefinite cease fire. Slaughter and Ford, at this point in time, occupied Fort Brown near Brownsville.

In May Col. Theodore H. Barrett was in temporary command of Union troops at Brazos Santiago Island. He had little military field experience and desired, it is surmised, "to establish for himself some notoriety before the war closed." Barrett knew that an attack on Fort Brown was in violation of orders from headquarters, since the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia already surrendered by Lee at Appomattox on April 9 and many other Confederate forces had surrendered or disbanded by then. In spite of these known facts Barrett decided anyway to go ahead with his plans.

On May 12, Barrett instructed Col. David Branson of the 34th Indiana Veteran Volunteer Infantry to attack the Confederate encampment at Brazos Santiago Depot near Fort Brown. Barrett commanded the 62nd United States Colored Infantry and the 2nd Texas Cavalry, and advanced towards Fort Brown with the intention of reoccupying Brownsville with Union forces thinking they would not encounter any problems, assuming all the Confederates surely had heard of Lee's surrender by this time. To their surprise they encountered Confederates that did not know of Lee's surrender.

A ferocious battle erupted at Palmito Ranch, about twelve miles outside Brownsville. Union forces were outmaneuvered and overrun, and by the next day the Confederate cavalry had all but slaughtered most of the Union troops. The battle was lost by Barrett's Union regiments mainly because the Confederates outnumbered them five to one. In addition, the Confederates cavalry had artillery as well as infantry, while the Union army consisted only of foot soldiers.

History records show that of the original three hundred Union troops that fought at Palmito Ranch, they lost over one third that were killed with several additional captured or seriously injured. Only about eighty managed to escape. From the captives the Confederates learned that Lee surrendered in April and this was the first major step in the peace making process of healing the nation. The Texas Confederates had won the last battle of the war and shortly thereafter disbanded.

Surrender of Kirby Smith (May 26)

Gen. Kirby Smith tried to send reinforcements from his Army of the Trans-Mississippi east of the Mississippi River to relieve Vicksburg, Mississippi, in the spring of 1864 following the Battle of Mansfield and the Battle of Pleasant Hill. This was not practicable due to the Union naval control of the Mississippi River. Smith instead dispatched Maj. Gen. Sterling Price and his cavalry on an invasion of Missouri that was ultimately not successful. Thereafter the war west of the Mississippi River was principally one of small raids. By May 26 a representative of Smith's negotiated and signed surrender documents with a representative of Maj. Gen. Edward Canby. Canby in Shreveport, Louisiana, then took custody of Smith's force of 43,000 soldiers when they surrendered, by then the only significant Confederate forces left west of the Mississippi River. With this ended all organized Southern military resistance to the Union forces. Smith officially signed the surrender papers on June 2 on board the U.S.S. Fort Jackson just outside Galveston Harbor.

Surrender of Cherokee chief Stand Watie (June 23)

Cherokee Brig. Gen. Stand Watie Watie commanded the Confederate Indians when he surrendered on June 23. This was the last significant Confederate active force. Watie formed the Cherokee Mounted Rifles. He was a guerrilla fighter commanding Cherokee, Seminole, Creek, and Osage Indian soldiers. They earned a notorious reputation for their bold and brave fighting. Yearly, Federal troops all over the western United States hunted for Watie, but they never captured him. He surrendered June 23 at Fort Towson in the Choctaw Nations area at the village of Doaksville (now a ghost town) of the Oklahoma Territory, being the last Confederate general to surrender in the American Civil War.

Surrender of CSS Shenandoah (November 6)

The CSS Shenandoah was commissioned by the Confederacy to interfere with Union shipping to hinder their efforts in the American Civil War. It was a Scottish-built merchant ship originally called the Sea King, secretly purchased by the Confederate forces in 1864. Captain James Waddell commanded the Confederate warship CSS Shenandoah after the Sea King was converted to a warship out in International waters in October, weeks after leaving England. William Conway Whittle, Waddell's right hand man, was the ship's executive officer.

The Shenandoah then sailing west and north into the South Pacific was in Micronesia at the Island of Ponape (called Ascension Island by Whittle) when the American Civil War came to terms with the surrender of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia to the Union forces in April 1865.

The Shenandoah continued up to the Aleutians and into the Bering Seas. In the Bering Seas she demolished twenty-four non-combantant Union whaling ships. She then traveled north crossing the Arctic Circle on June 19. Continuing then south along the coast of Alaska the Shenandoah came upon a fleet of Union ships whaling on June 22. She opened fire continuously, destroying a major portion of the Union whaling fleet. Capt. Waddell took aim at a Union whaling ship and at his signal, the gunner jerked a wrist strap and fired at the fleeing ship Sophia Thornton, being the last two shots of the American Civil War.

From an English barque, Bark Barracouta, in the process of sailing from San Francisco bound for Liverpool they eventually got word on August 2 that in fact Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865 — some four months earlier. In the log of the Shenandoah was written that day a long entry that started with the words "The darkest day of my life." The captain realized then in his grief that they were taking innocent unarmed Union whaling ships as prizes when the rest of the country had ended hostilities.

He knew that they were now being hunted as pirates and that pirates could be hanged, and so as they traveled south off the coast of South America they stayed far away from any mainland and went into the South Pacific. Waddell immediately then converted the warship back to a merchant ship (she was known previously as the Sea King). From then on they saw no land for another 17,000 miles until they arrived back in England, logging a total of over 44,000 miles around the world in a year's travel — the only Confederate ship to do a round-the-world trip.

At this point all Waddell wanted to do was surrender the Shenandoah and the proper place to do this, in his mind, was at a European port. He decided on the Port of Liverpool. The last Confederate surrender did not occur until November 6, 1865, when the notorious ship under Capt. Waddell's command surrendered at Liverpool to Capt. R.N. Paynter, commander of HMS Donegal of the British Royal Navy. The Shenandoah was surrendered by letter to the English Earl of Russell.

Presidential proclamation ending the war

On August 20, 1866, President Andrew Johnson signed a Proclamation—Declaring that Peace, Order, Tranquillity [sic], and Civil Authority Now Exists in and Throughout the Whole of the United States of America. It cited the end of the insurrection in Texas, and declared

... that the insurrection which heretofore existed in the State of Texas is at an end and is to be henceforth so regarded in that State as in the other States before named in which the said insurrection was proclaimed to be at an end by the aforesaid proclamation of the 2d day of April, 1866.

And I do further proclaim that the said insurrection is at an end and that peace, order, tranquillity, and civil authority now exist in and throughout the whole of the United States of America.