Surrender Events After Appomattox

The Civil War did not come to in an immediate end with General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Instead, it concluded in a piecemeal fashion of four major Confederate military surrenders, along with various surrenders of smaller units. Grant’s victory over the primer Confederate Army of Northern Virginia signaled the end was near with Appomattox setting the tone for all succeeding surrenders.

Major Surrender Events After Appomattox:

April 14, 1865- President Lincoln is shot at Ford’s Theater. He dies the next morning, leaving many to wonder, would future surrender terms be as lenient?

April 26, 1865- After nearly two weeks of negotiation and re-negotiation Confederate General Joseph Johnston surrenders 30,000 troops from the Army of Tennessee to Federal General William T. Sherman near Durham, North Carolina. Johnston's surrender also includes nearly 50,000 additional troops under his command in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Sherman and Johnston had initially reached an agreement on April 18, but the terms were found to be too generous by the Lincoln Administration. The two generals met again on April 26, agreeing to terms following those used at Appomattox.

May 4, 1865- Confederate Lt. General Richard Taylor surrenders 40,000 troops of the Department of Mississippi, Alabama, and East Louisiana to Federal General Edward Canby under a large oak in Citronelle, Alabama. Canby and Taylor had initially agreed to the same terms as reached by Sherman and Johnston. After learning of the rejection by the Johnson Administration, Canby and Taylor met again, agreeing to terms following those used at Appomattox.

May 5, 1865- After being on the run from Federal forces, Confederate President Jefferson Davis meets with his cabinet at Washington, Georgia, and the group dissolves, leaving the Confederacy without a government.

May 10, 1865- Jefferson Davis is captured in Irwinville, Georgia. He was imprisoned for nearly two years at Fort Monroe before being released on bond.

June 2, 1865- Confederate General Kirby Smith surrenders the Department of theTrans-Mississippi. Word of the other surrenders caused his command to disintegrate. Against Taylor’s wishes, his subordinates surrendered the Department of Trans-Mississippi on May 26 in New Orleans following the same terms as Appomattox. Smith formally surrendered on June 2 to Federal General Edmund Davis, representing General Canby. Most of Smith’s troops had already disbanded, around 17,000 received paroles out of nearly 60,000 troops.

June 19, 1865- Federal troops arrive in Galveston, Texas, enforcing the freedom guaranteed over two years earlier in the Emancipation Proclamation. More than 250,000 enslaved people in the state were free by executive decree, ending the last stronghold of slavery in the former Confederacy. This day came to be known as Juneteenth.

November 6, 1865- The final Confederate unit in action formally surrenders in Liverpool England. The crew of the CSS Shenandoah turned their ship into British authorities. The ship had been in the North Pacific raiding whaling ships. Late in the summer of 1865, the crew received the news of the other surrenders from a neutral British ship. They decided to seek asylum in England, as the ship had been built in Liverpool two years earlier.

August 20, 1866- President Andrew Johnson issues a proclamation “Declaring that Peace, Order, Tranquility, and Civil Authority Now Exists in and Throughout the Whole of the United States of America,” marking the official end of the Civil War.