Troop engagements of the American Civil War , 1865 This is a list of battles and skirmishes of the American Civil War during the year 1865 , the final year of the war . During the year , Union forces were able to capture the last major Confederate ports still open to shipping , along with the Confederate capital , and forced the surrender of the four major Confederate commands . History . In the Eastern Theater , a combined Union army and naval force , commanded by Major General Alfred H . Terry and Rear Admiral David D . Porter , captured Fort Fisher at the mouth of the Cape Fear River on January 15 , which led to the evacuation of other Confederate fortifications along the coastline near Fort Fisher . The capture of Fort Fisher closed the port of Wilmington , North Carolina to Confederate blockade runners , although the Confederates still held the city in order to remove the government supplies stored there and also to prevent Terry from reinforcing William T . Sherman ' s army , which was then marching north through the Carolinas . After repairing Fort Fisher , Terry was reinforced by the XXIII Corps under Major General John M . Schofield , who took overall command of Union operations in North Carolina . Schofield started his advance towards Wilmington in mid - February with Terry ' s corps along the east bank , making a demonstration against the main Confederate force there while the XXIII Corps , supported by Porter ' s gunboats , moved along the west bank of the Cape Fear River . The capture of Fort Anderson on February 19 forced the Confederates to evacuate their defensive positions south of the city ; following several more skirmishes , Union forces entered Wilmington on February 22 . On April 1 and 2 , Union forces commanded by Lieutenant General Ulysses S . Grant launched a series of attacks on the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia near Petersburg , Virginia , overrunning the Confederate fortifications and cutting the supply lines south of the city . As a result , General Robert E . Lee was forced to evacuate both that city and Richmond , ending the nine month long Siege of Petersburg . Lee first moved west along the Richmond & Danville Railroad , planning to flee southwards to North Carolina to unite with other Confederate forces . The Confederate army had a head start over the Union army but Lee was forced to wait at Amelia Court House , due to the Confederate units in Richmond being delayed in crossing the Appomattox River ; this allowed Union cavalry and infantry to arrive in Jettersville ahead of the Confederates , which forced Lee to march farther west than he had planned before attempting to turn south . Over the next few days , the Union army continued to press the Confederates from the south and the west , forcing Lee to retreat farther westward . At Appomattox Court House , Grant managed to surround Lee and forced him to surrender on April 9 . In the Carolinas , Major General William T . Sherman started north from Savannah , Georgia , in late February , planning to unite with U . S . Grant ' s armies near Petersburg , Virginia . Driving the Confederates from South Carolina through a series of flanking maneuvers , Sherman ' s forces reached North Carolina in early March , divided into two parts commanded by Henry W . Slocum and Oliver O . Howard . The Confederate commander in the Carolinas was General P . G . T . Beauregard , but both Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Robert E . Lee considered him unable to handle the situation ; on February 22 they appointed General Joseph E . Johnston commander of all Confederate forces in North Carolina , which included the Army of Tennessee . He concentrated his available forces together near Smithfield , hoping to attack and defeat one part of Sherman ' s army before the other part arrived to its assistance . Johnston launched his attack in the Battle of Bentonville on March 19 , hitting Slocum ' s wing but the Confederates were unable to gain a decisive victory before Howard ' s wing arrived that evening . After waiting at Bentonville for an additional two days , Johnston retreated back to Smithfield . Sherman united with Schofield ' s force at Goldsboro on March 23 ; he then spent the next three weeks resting and refitting his command and repairing the railroad to Wilmington . During this time , Johnston remained near Smithfield and also rested and reorganized his force ; he also communicated with Lee and agreed to unite the two forces in the hope of defeating either Sherman and Grant before the Union forces could combine . Sherman started advancing against Johnston on April 10 , forcing the Confederates to evacuate Smithfield and retreat towards Greensboro ; the Union army captured the state capital of Raleigh on April 13 . After he received news of Lee ' s surrender , Johnston surrendered both his army and the remaining Confederate forces in the Department of South Carolina , Georgia , and Florida at the Bennett Place , North Carolina on April 26 . In the Western Theater , Major General James H . Wilson led his cavalry corps in a raid through Alabama and Georgia starting on March 22 , destroying Confederate manufacturing plants . The Confederate commander in the region , Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest , had been forced to scatter his cavalry command across northern Mississippi and Alabama during the previous winter and had difficulty concentrating it against Wilson . During the evening of April 1 , Forrest concentrated his forces in the defenses of Selma , Alabama ; Wilson attacked and defeated him in the Battle of Selma , then continued to the east towards Georgia . Around Mobile , Alabama ( the last port still held by the Confederates ) , Major General Edward Canby started siege operations against the forts protecting the city on March 31 , first capturing Spanish Fort on April 8 and Fort Blakely the following day . The Confederates evacuated the city of Mobile without a fight on April 11 . The capture of Mobile freed additional Union troops to assist Wilson ' s cavalry to the north . Both this and word of the Confederate surrenders in Virginia and North Carolina convinced Richard Taylor , commander of the Confederate Department of Alabama , Mississippi , and East Louisiana , to surrender to Canby at Citronelle , Alabama , on May 4 . Forrest followed with the surrender of his cavalry command on May 9 . Due to slow communications , the Confederate forces in the Trans - Mississippi Theater did not receive word of the Confederate surrenders in the east for several weeks . The last organized engagement of the war was fought at Palmito Ranch , Texas on May 13 and 14 and resulted in a Confederate victory . Confederate Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith , commander of the Trans - Mississippi Department , surrendered his forces at Shreveport , Louisiana , on June 2 , while Confederate forces in the Indian Territory surrendered on June 23 . The Confederate raider CSS " Shenandoah " , which had been in the Pacific Ocean during the months of April and May , only received word of the end of the war on August 2 from a British ship . Fearing execution as pirates if it surrendered to Union forces , the ship instead sailed to Liverpool , United Kingdom , and surrendered to British authorities on November 6 .