The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-08-15
WHEN DID THE CIVIL WAR END9
SURRENDER OF LEE TO GRANT
DID NOT MARX THE CLOSE.
Last Battle Fought In Texas-Last
Volley Fired By Colored Troops
Scene Was Palmetto Ranch-Im-
perialists of Mexico Were En-
gagged In It.

Copyright. 1897 the S. S. Mcclure &C

Copyright. 1897. the S. s. Mcclure Co
The surrender of Lee. to Grant OF
April 9, 1865, is almost universally Sc
as the end of the civil war. But if by
the end of the war we mean the re-
turn of peace, the civil war was still
many months from close in April
1865. The surrender of Lee, in fact, was
merely the beginning of the end.
1t was not until April 26 that Johns
ton surrendered to Sherman, but for
some time after Lees and Johnston's
armies had been paroled, bands not in
cluded in the capitulation waged war in
/ the east. 1t was not, in fact, until the
end of June that these hostile military
organizations had all surrender. Even
then guerrillas existed in various parts
of the mountains and in secluded vii
lagos, and Drowled about the towns.
/ General Halleck, who commanded the
military division of the James, after
Lees surrender, reported the presence
OF numbers of these bands in his vi
entity, but called them simply outlaws,
and he said, too, that in most cases
they were probably made uD as much
from deserters from the Union armies
as from rebel guerrilla bands.
Such a state of things was really to
be expected. The disbanding of the ar
mics threw great bodies of men adrift.
Those from the north went back to an
organized society. Shops, farms and
factories cried for them. The great
mass of men freed was absorbed almost
at once. Yet even in the north the eff
feet of the breaking up of the army
was visible in spots and uncomfortably
so for a time In the south tie cOnGf-
ton was thousand times ~. npli-
Gated. All those CONNER and in
dustrial enterprises which I'D the
men of the north were c Plan
tations were ruined, inC-.s dis
appeared. Most serious OF all, the
whole system of labor was disorgan-
lied. Men who had been property own
ers went back to their homes to find
hopeless desolatiOE waiting. Because
of their superior pluck and intelligence
they took hold of the task of recon-
struction Immediately. There was more
chance for them than for the thousands
Of men who before the war had lived
by salaries or on days wages For this
class there was almost no hope. The
men who had employed them were
forced to do their own clerical and
manual work now. Hundreds of these
men seeing no chance, kept uD their
warlike attitude. They found arms in
one way or another, and taking to the !
forests or the mountains for months 1
they carried on a buShwhacker' S war.
In the west he surrender of organ
lied forces was slower than in the east. /
1t was not until May 4 that General |
Richard TAYLOR, commanding in Mo
bile, surrendered his army, and the
Trans Mississippi region was much
more obstinate about giving in 1t
should be said for them, however. that
1t was some time before they knew of
Lees surrender. and even then their
was by rum0r only AS
ate as May II a battle of some impor-
.ance was fought in Texas. This en-
yagement is known as the battle of
Palmetto ranch. 1t came about in this
way:
Near the mouth of the Rio Grande is
In island known as BraZos, where, in
he spring of 1866, a considerable force
# federal troops were stationed. A
ew miles uD the river was a station,
Palmetto ranch, where confederate
orces guarded a quantity of cattle and
On the evening of Nav IL
ome men, all colored infantry, with a ;
mall detachment of unmounted cav
Try, was dispatched from Brazos San
iago against Palmetto ranch. Early