Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1885-05-14
THE LAST FIGHT IN THE FIELD.
Of the War of the Rebellion.

Richmond, the Confederate Capital,
was captured and occupied by the Union
forces on the morning of April 3, 1865,
its garrison having abandoned it during
the night preceding. Hostilities, how
ever went on with vigor in Virginia, as
well as elsewhere, until April 9, when
the Army Of Northern Virginia surren-
dered at AppOmattOx. But that date
does not mark the end of the war. The
week following was busy and saDguin-
ary one in many quarters. On that same
9th of April Candy, whose army, with
the aid of the fleet, had been investing
the defense of Mobile, captured Spanish
Fort and its dependencies, with many
guns and several hundred prisoners.
Before night Fort Blakely was carried
by assault, with; twenty guns and 2.4O0
prisoners. A few days later Mobile was
evacuated, and on the 14th Granger's
forces occupied the city. The Union loss
in these operations at Mobile was about
$500 men killed and wounded, besides
five or six vessels, which were blown up
by torpedoes.
Steneman was meanwhile carrying on
vigorous operations in a portion OF
North Carolina. On the 18th of April,
three days after Lees surrender, he at
tackled the enemyIs lines around Sails
bury, capturing fourteen pieces of artil-
lor,
prisoners, together with great stores Of
ammunition, army blankets. clothing,
bacon, salt, rice, wheat and cotton.
Thence he moved to S'atersville, deS
troying railroad tracks and bridges.
Wilson, with cavalry force of great
magnitude, was continuing, during this
same period, his memorable operations
in Alabama and Georgia. After his capr
ture of Selma, on the End of April, he
had moved eastward, occupying Mont
gomery and all prominent points on the
road to Macon. On the 10th of April,
in the last combat of the war east of the
Mississippi, he carried Columbus aud
West Point; and on the 21st of April
Macon surrendered, with three+scoTe
field pieces and ten or twelve thousand
Georgia militia.
Shermans march to Raleigh was begun
as late as April 10. and on the evening
of the 18th Fitzpatrick was lighting Wade
Hampton's rear guard, while Raleigh
was reached and entered on the 18th.
Negotiations for Johnston's surrender
were next begun, and the 6Tst memo
randum for that purpose, made near
Durham Station, was dated April IS.
This, however was rejected by President
Lincoln, and the final agreement was
signed on the 26th. AS late as April %
the Sixth Corps was put on the march
for Danville, in order to cut off the pos
sibility of Johnston's escape, and Cen
eral Sheridan's cavalry were engaged in
the same occupation. Between the 18th
and 22d there were military expeditions
in Tennessee.
But even the surrender of JOhnstOn's
army left many confederate forces in
the field, and it was clearly possible for
these to carry on guerrilla operations,
or even to prolong regular warfare for a
time west of the Mississippi. The troops
of General jeff Thompson did not sur
render until May IL, and the actual as
sembling and paroling of his men took
place May 25 at Wittsburgh, on the st.
Francis River, and June at Jackson
port, on the White. The entire force
paraded numbered 7,454 officers and
men. The surrender of Lieutenat Gen.
Ell al Richard Taylor's much larger army
was made at Citronelle, in Alabama, on
the 4th day of May. The surrender of
Commodore Farrand's squadron of u
Confederate vessels in the Tombigbee
River, with their officers and men, was
agreed upon at the same time, and took
place on May g. The following day Cen
eral McCook, of Wilson's corps, received
at Tallahassee the surrender of Jones
Florida forces, eight thousand strong.
Mean while there had been threats OF
very serious resistance by some of the
trans-Mississippi forces, which expected
to be Joined by Jefferson Davis. then a
fugitive in Georgia. The unremitting
search for Davis kept Wilson's forces
busy throughout the earlier part of May
and until his capture, at Irwinsville, on
an the 10th. Long before this event
General Kirby Smith, at Shreveport, in
Louisiana, had issued an order to his
army announcing Lees surrender and
his own purpose to carry on the war be
yond the Mississippi On the oath of
April General Magruder, at Houston.
addressed great war meeting to the
same effect On the sth of May the eitt
izens of Fort Bend County resolved that
''in no event viii we ever consent to re-
construction" and proposed that thhty
thousand recruits should be added to the
forces of Smith and Magruder. These
are examples to which others might be
added, of the hostile feelings prevailing
at that time in Arkansas and Texas.
On the 18th of May body of Union
troops under Colonel Barrett had sharp
skirmish at Palmetto Ranch, about tif+
teen miles above Brazos. in Texas. The
ConfedeTates, under command of General
Slaughter, aided by Colonel Ford's cav
airy and three field pieces, drove back.
Barrett's command toward BraZOs, with
a reported Union loss of about seventy
or eighty in killed, wounded and miss
ing. Thus the last combat of the war.
somewhat curiously, goes into the record
as Confederate success. However. in