Taylor was given command of the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana. After General John Bell Hood's disastrous campaign into Tennessee and near destruction of his army at the Battle of Franklin, Taylor was briefly given command of the Army of Tennessee, until most of its remnant was sent to contest Sherman's march further north through the Carolinas from Savannah. He surrendered his department at Citronelle, Alabama, the third and last major Confederate force remaining east of the Mississippi, to Union General Edward Canby on May 4, 1865, almost a month after Appomattox Courthouse and was paroled three days later. The rest of his command was paroled on May 12, 1865 in Gainesville, Alabama.