Conclusion of the American Civil War This is a timeline of the conclusion of the American Civil War which includes important battles , skirmishes , raids and other events of 1865 . These led to additional Confederate surrenders , key Confederate captures , and disbandments of Confederate military units that occurred after Gen . Robert E . Lee ’ s surrender on April 9 , 1865 . The fighting of the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War between Lieutenant General Ulysses S . Grant ’ s Army of the Potomac and Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia was reported considerably more often in the newspapers than the battles of the Western Theater . Reporting of the Eastern Theater skirmishes largely dominated the newspapers as the Appomattox Campaign developed . Lee ’ s army fought a series of battles in the Appomattox Campaign against Grant that ultimately stretched thin his lines of defense . Lee ' s extended lines were mostly on small sections of thirty miles of strongholds around Richmond and Petersburg , Virginia . His troops ultimately became exhausted defending this line because they were thinned out too much . Grant then took advantage of the situation and launched attacks on this thirty mile and poorly defended front . This ultimately led to the surrender of Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox . The Army of Northern Virginia surrendered on April 9 around noon followed by General St . John Richardson Liddell ' s troops some six hours later . Mosby ' s raiders disbanded on April 21 , General Joseph E . Johnston and his various armies surrendered on April 26 , the Confederate departments of Alabama , Mississippi and East Louisiana surrendered on May 4 , and the Confederate District of the Gulf , commanded by Major General Dabney Herndon Maury , surrendered on May 5 . Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured on May 10 and the Confederate Departments of Florida and South Georgia , commanded by Confederate Major General Samuel Jones , surrendered the same day . Thompson ' s Brigade surrendered on May 11 , Confederate forces of North Georgia surrendered on May 12 , and Kirby Smith surrendered on May 26 ( officially signed June 2 ) . The last battle of the American Civil War was the Battle of Palmito Ranch in Texas on May 12 and 13 . The last significant Confederate active force to surrender was the Confederate allied Cherokee Brigadier General Stand Watie and his Indian soldiers on June 23 . The last Confederate surrender occurred on November 6 , 1865 , when the Confederate warship CSS " Shenandoah " surrendered at Liverpool , England . President Andrew Johnson formally declared the end of the war on August 20 , 1866 . Surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia ( April 9 ) . General Robert E . Lee commanded the Army of Northern Virginia , while Major General John Brown Gordon commanded its Second Corps . Early in the morning of April 9 , Gordon attacked , aiming to break through Federal lines at the Battle of Appomattox Court House , but failed , and the Confederate Army was then surrounded . At 8 : 30 A . M . that morning , Lee requested a meeting with Lieutenant General Ulysses S . Grant to discuss surrendering the Army of Northern Virginia . Shortly after twelve o ' clock , Grant ' s reply reached Lee , and in it Grant said he would accept the surrender of the Confederate Army under certain conditions . Lee then rode into the little hamlet of Appomattox Court House , where the Appomattox county court house stood , and waited for Grant ' s arrival to surrender his army . Surrender of General St . John Richardson Liddell ' s troops ( April 9 ) . The Confederates lost the city of Spanish Fort in Alabama at the Battle of Spanish Fort , which took place between March 27 and April 8 , 1865 in Baldwin County . After losing Spanish Fort , the Confederates went on to lose Fort Blakely to Union forces at the Battle of Fort Blakely , between April 2 and 9 , 1865 . This is considered to be the last major battle of the American Civil War involving large numbers of United States Colored Troops . The Battle of Fort Blakely happened six hours after Lee ' s surrender to Grant at Appomattox . In the course of the battle , Brigadier General St . John Richardson Liddell was captured and surrendered his men . Out of 4 , 000 soldiers originally , Liddell lost 3 , 400 that were captured in this battle . About 250 were killed and only some 200 men escaped . The successful Union assault can be attributed in large part to African - American forces . Union Capture of Columbus , Georgia ( Easter Sunday , April 16 ) . Unaware of Lee ' s surrender on April 9 and the assassination of President Lincoln on April 14 , General James H . Wilson ' s Raiders continued their march through Alabama into Georgia . On April 16 , the Battle of Columbus , Georgia was fought . This battle - if erroneously - is widely held to be the " last battle of the Civil War . " Columbus fell to Wilson ' s Raid ers about midnight on April 16 , and most of its manufacturing capacity was destroyed on the 17th . Confederate Colonel John Stith Pemberton , the inventor of Coca - Cola , was wounded in this battle which resulted in his obsession with pain - killing formulas , ultimately ending in the recipe for his celebrated drink . Disbanding of Mosby ' s Raiders ( April 21 ) . Mosby ' s Rangers , also known as the 43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry , were a special force of Confederate military troops who opposed the Union control of the Loudoun Valley area . Under the command of General Robert E . Lee , John S . Mosby had formed the battalion on June 10 , 1863 , at Rector ' s Cross Roads near Rectortown , Virginia . Mosby practiced psychological and guerrilla warfare techniques to disrupt the Union stronghold . Mosby ' s men never formally surrendered and were disbanded on April 21 , 1865 , almost two weeks after Lee had surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant . On the last day of Mosby ' s striking force , a letter from him was read aloud to his men : With no formal surrender , however , Union Major General Winfield S . Hancock offered a reward of $ 2 , 000 for Mosby ' s capture , later raised to $ 5 , 000 . On June 17 , Mosby surrendered to Major General John Gregg in Lynchburg , Virginia . Surrender of General Joseph E . Johnston and his various armies ( April 26 ) . The second and last major stage in the peace making process concluding the American Civil War was the surrender of General Joseph E . Johnston and his armies to Major General William T . Sherman on April 26 , 1865 , at Bennett Place . Johnston ' s Army of Tennessee was among nearly one hundred thousand Confederate soldiers that were surrendered from North Carolina , South Carolina , Georgia , and Florida . The conditions of surrender were in a document called " Terms of a Military Convention " signed by Sherman , Johnston , and Lieutenant General Ulysses S . Grant at Raleigh , North Carolina . The first major stage in the peace making process was when Lee ' s surrender occurred at Appomattox on April 9 , 1865 . This , coupled with Lincoln ' s assassination induced Johnston to act , believing : " With such odds against us , without the means of procuring ammunition or repairing arms , without money or credit to provide food , it was impossible to continue the war except as robbers . " On April 17 Sherman and Johnston met at Bennett Place , and the following day an armistice was arranged , when terms were discussed and agreed upon . Grant had authorized only the surrender of Johnston ' s forces , but Sherman exceeded his orders by providing very generous terms . These included : that the warring states be immediately recognized after their leaders signed loyalty oaths ; that property and personal rights be returned to the Confederates ; the reestablishment of the Federal court system ; and that a general amnesty would be given . On April 24 the authorities in Washington rejected Sherman ' s proposed terms , and two days later Johnston agreed to the same terms Lee had received previously on April 9 . General Johnston surrendered the following commands under his direction on April 26 , 1865 : the Department of Tennessee and Georgia ; the Army of Tennessee ; the Department of South Carolina , Georgia , and Florida ; and the Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia . In doing so , Johnston surrendered to Sherman around 30 , 000 men . On April 27 his adjutant announced the terms to the Army of Tennessee in General Orders # 18 , and on May 2 he issued his farewell address to the Army of Tennessee as General Orders # 22 . The remaining parts of the Florida " Brigade of the West " surrendered with the rest of Johnston ’ s forces on May 4 , 1865 , at Greensboro , North Carolina . There is a historical marker at the farm house in Durham , North Carolina , where Johnston surrendered his departments and armies . Surrender of the Confederate departments of Alabama , Mississippi and East Louisiana regiments ( May 4 ) . The documentation of the surrender of Lieutenant General Richard Taylor ' s small force in Alabama was another stage in the process of concluding the American Civil War . The son of former U . S . President Zachary Taylor , Richard Taylor commanded the Confederate troops in the Department of Alabama , Mississippi and East Louisiana of about ten thousand troops . On May 4 Taylor ' s subordinate Col . J . Q . Chenowith surrendered the Department to Union officer Col . John A . Hottenstein . Mobile , Alabama , had fallen to Union control on April 12 , 1865 . Reports reached Taylor of the meeting between Johnston and Sherman about the terms of Johnston ' s surrender of his armies . Taylor agreed to meet with Major General Edward R . S . Canby for a conference north of Mobile , and they settled on a 48 hour ' s truce on April 30 . Taylor agreed to a surrender after this time elapsed , which he did on May 4 at Citronelle , Alabama . Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest surrendered on May 9 at Gainesville , Alabama . His troops were included with Taylor ' s . The terms stated that Taylor could retain control of the railway and river steamers to be able to get his men as near as possible to their homes . Taylor stayed in Meridian , Mississippi , until the last man was sent on his way . He was paroled May 13 and then went to Mobile to join Canby . Canby took him to his home in New Orleans by boat . Surrender of the Confederate District of the Gulf ( May 5 ) . The Confederate District of the Gulf was commanded by Major General Dabney Herndon Maury . On April 12 Maury retreated with his troops after the two major Confederate forts of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely were lost to the Union forces . He declared Mobile , Alabama , an open city after these battles . Maury went to Meridian , Mississippi , with his remaining men . He wanted to join the remains of the Army of Tennessee in North Carolina . However , hearing of Johnston ' s surrender to Sherman on April 26 he soon ran out of options . Ultimately Maury surrendered Mobile ' s about four thousand men to the Union army on May 5 at Citronelle , Alabama . It was the last of the Confederate forces to surrender east of the Mississippi River . Andrew Johnson ' s May 10 declaration ( May 10 ) . Despite the fact that there were still small pockets of resistance in the south , the president declared that the armed resistance was " virtually " ended and that nations or ships still harboring fugitives would be denied entry into U . S . ports . Also that persons found aboard such vessels will no longer be given immunity from prosecution of their crimes . Capture of President Davis ( May 10 ) . On May 10 , Union cavalrymen , under Major General James H . Wilson , captured Confederate President Jefferson Davis after he fled Richmond , Virginia , following its evacuation in the early part of April 1865 . On May 5 , 1865 , in Washington , Georgia , Davis had held the last meeting of his Cabinet . At that time , the Confederate Government was declared dissolved . The sequence of events that led to Davis ' capture began early in May 1865 , when the 4th Michigan Cavalry was set up in an encampment of tents at Macon , Georgia . The military unit of several battalions was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin D . Pritchard . On May 7 , he was given orders to join many other units searching for the Confederate president . Pritchard ' s troops scouted through the country along the Ocmulgee River , and by the next day the Michigander s had come to Hawkinsville , Georgia , about fifty miles south of Macon , from where they continued along the river to Abbeville , Georgia . There , Pritchard learned from Lieutenant Colonel Henry Harnden that his First Wisconsin Cavalry was hot on Davis ' s trail . After a meeting between the two colonels , Harnden and his men headed off towards Irwinville , some twenty miles south of their position . Pritchard received word from local residents that on the night before a party , probably including the Confederate President , had crossed the Ocmulgee River just north of Abbeville . Since there were two roads to Irwindale , one of which had been taken by Harnden and his men , Pritchard decided to take the other , to see if he could capture Davis . He took with him about a hundred and forty men and their horses , while the balance of the Michiganders stayed on the Ocmulgee River near Abbeville . Some seven hours later , at 1 A . M . on May 10 , Pritchard arrived at Irwindale . There was no evidence of Harnden ' s men being there yet . Pritchard learned from local residents that about a mile and a half to the north there was a military camp . Not knowing whether this was Davis and his group or the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry , he approached cautiously . He soon identified the camp as Davis ' s . At first dawn , Pritchard charged the camp , which was so surprised and overwhelmed that it offered no resistance and yielded immediately . About ten minutes after the surrender , Pritchard heard rapid gunfire to the north . He left Davis and the captured men in the hands of his 21 - year - old adjutant . Once he had approached the gunfire , he realized it was the 4th Michigan and the 1st Wisconsin shooting at each other with Spencer repeating carbines , neither realizing who they were shooting at . Pritchard immediately ordered his men to stop and shouted to the 1st Wisconsin to identify the parties . In the five - minute skirmish , the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry had suffered eight men wounded , while the 4th Michigan Cavalry had lost two men killed and one wounded . Back at camp , Pritchard ' s adjutant was almost fooled into letting Davis escape by a ruse . Davis ' s wife had persuaded the adjutant to let her " old mother " go to fetch some water . The adjutant allowed this , and walked away from their tent . Mrs . Davis and a person dressed as an old woman then left the tent to go for the water . One of the other ranking officers noticed the " old woman " was wearing men ' s riding boots with spurs . Immediately , they were stopped and the woman ' s overcoat and black head shawl were removed , to reveal Davis himself . The plan of escape thus failed . The Confederate president was subsequently held prisoner for two years in Fort Monroe , Virginia . Surrender of the Confederate Department of Florida and South Georgia ( May 10 ) . In 1864 , Major General Samuel Jones commanded the Departments of Florida , South Carolina , and South Georgia , with his headquarters in Pensacola , Florida . His primary orders were to guard the coastal areas of these states and to destroy Union gunboats . He also destroyed all the machinery and sawmills that would be beneficial to the Union armies . In the early part of 1865 , Jones was transferred to Tallahassee , soon after Savannah had fallen to Sherman and the Union forces in December 1864 . There , Jones headquartered the District of Florida . On May 10 , at Tallahassee , he surrendered about eight thousand troops to Brigadier General Edward M . McCook . In military action east of the Mississippi River , the city of Tallahassee was the only Confederate state capital not captured during the Civil War . Surrender of the Northern Sub - District of Arkansas ( May 11 ) . Confederate Brigadier General " Jeff " Meriwether Thompson commanded Thompson ' s Brigade . Wittsburg , Arkansas ( the county seat of Cross County from 1868 through 1886 ) , would witness one of the final acts in the American Civil War . This happened after the collapse of Confederate forces east of the Mississippi . Major General Grenville M . Dodge sent Lieutenant Colonel Charles W . Davis of the 51st Illinois Infantry on April 30 , 1865 , to Arkansas to seek the surrender of Thompson , commander of Confederate troops in the northeast portion of Arkansas . Davis , arriving at Chalk Bluff ( now non - extant ) in Clay County , Arkansas , on the St . Francis River , sent communications to Thompson asking that they have a conference . These two officers met on May 9 to negotiate a surrender . Thompson requested from Davis two days to work out the details of the surrender with his officers . The Confederates under the command of Thompson agreed to surrender all the troops in the area on May 11 . They picked Wittsburg and Jacksonport , Arkansas , as the sites where Thompson ' s five thousand military troops would gather to receive their paroles . Ultimately Thompson surrendered about seventy - five hundred men all total that were under his command consisting of 1 , 964 enlisted men with 193 officers paroled at Wittsburg on May 1865 and 4 , 854 enlisted men with 443 officers paroled at Jacksonport on June 6 , 1865 . Surrender of Confederate forces of North Georgia ( May 12 ) . The surrender of between 3000 and 4000 soldiers under Brigadier General William T . Wofford ' s command took place at Kingston , Georgia , and was received by Brig . Gen . Henry M . Judah on May 12 , 1865 . There were several letters between the various generals involved in the negotiation of this surrender , including Wofford , Judah , William D . Whipple and Robert S . Granger . Colonel Louis Merrill kept the Headquarters Department of the Cumberland in Nashville , Tennessee informed and according to a letter he wrote on May 4 , 1865 , there were about 10 , 000 soldiers under Wofford ' s command , " on paper . " These consisted of all the Confederate troops in northwestern Georgia , however only about a third could actually be collected as the rest were deserter s . From this group there were a number of soldiers that resisted General Wofford ' s efforts to make them follow his commands . There is a Georgia historical marker in Kingston , Georgia , in Bartow County at the intersection of West Main Street and Church Street to denote where this surrender took place . It further explains that the Confederate soldiers were given rations after their release . Disbandment after the Battle at Palmito Ranch ( May 13 ) . The last land battle of the Civil War took place near Brownsville , Texas , and it was won by the Confederates . The Confederates held the city of Brownsville in the early part of 1865 . In January or February Major General Lew Wallace was sent by the Union government to Texas . On March 11 Wallace had a meeting with the two major Confederate commanders of the region , Brigadier General James Slaughter and Colonel John " Rip " Ford , under the premise that the official purpose was the " rendition of criminals . " The real reason was to agree that any fighting in the region would be pointless and negotiate an unofficial indefinite cease fire . Slaughter and Ford , at this point in time , occupied Fort Brown near Brownsville . In May Colonel Theodore H . Barrett was in temporary command of Union troops at Brazos Santiago Island . He had little military field experience and desired , it is surmised , " to establish for himself some notoriety before the war closed . " Barrett knew that an attack on Fort Brown was in violation of orders from headquarters , since the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia already surrendered by Lee at Appomattox on April 9 and many other Confederate forces had surrendered or disbanded by then . In spite of these known facts Barrett decided anyway to go ahead with his plans . On May 12 , Barrett instructed Colonel David Branson of the 34th Indiana Veteran Volunteer Infantry to attack the Confederate encampment at Brazos Santiago Depot near Fort Brown . Barrett commanded the 62nd United States Colored Infantry and the 2nd Texas Cavalry , and advanced towards Fort Brown with the intention of reoccupying Brownsville with Union forces thinking they would not encounter any problems , assuming all the Confederates surely had heard of Lee ' s surrender by this time . To their surprise they encountered Confederates that did not know of Lee ' s surrender . A ferocious battle erupted at Palmito Ranch , about 12 miles outside Brownsville . The battle was lost by Barrett ' s Union regiments mainly because they were outmaneuvered and overrun . Of the original 300 Union troops that fought at Palmito Ranch , they lost over one third , mostly to capture with a few killed or seriously injured . Surrender of Kirby Smith ( May 26 ) . General Kirby Smith tried to send reinforcements from his Army of the Trans - Mississippi east of the Mississippi River to relieve Vicksburg , Mississippi , in the spring of 1864 following the Battle of Mansfield and the Battle of Pleasant Hill . This was not practicable due to the Union naval control of the Mississippi River . Smith instead dispatched Major General Sterling Price and his cavalry on an invasion of Missouri that was ultimately not successful . Thereafter the war west of the Mississippi River was principally one of small raids . By May 26 a representative of Smith ' s negotiated and signed surrender documents with a representative of Major General Edward Canby . Canby in Shreveport , Louisiana , then took custody of Smith ' s force of 43 , 000 soldiers when they surrendered , by then the only significant Confederate forces left west of the Mississippi River . With this ended all organized Southern military resistance to the Union forces . Smith signed the surrender papers on June 2 on board the U . S . S . " Fort Jackson " just outside Galveston Harbor . Surrender of Cherokee chief Stand Watie ( June 23 ) . Cherokee Brigadier General Stand Watie commanded the Confederate Indians when he surrendered on June 23 . This was the last significant Confederate active force . Watie formed the Cherokee Mounted Rifles . He was a guerrilla fighter commanding Cherokee , Seminole , Creek , and Osage Indian soldiers . They earned a notorious reputation for their bold and brave fighting . Yearly , Federal troops all over the western United States hunted for Watie , but they never captured him . He surrendered June 23 at Fort Towson in the Choctaw Nations area at the village of Doaksville ( now a ghost town ) of the Indian Territory , being the last Confederate general to surrender in the American Civil War . Surrender of " CSS Shenandoah " ( November 6 ) . The CSS " Shenandoah " was commissioned as a commerce raider by the Confederacy to interfere with Union shipping and hinder their efforts in the American Civil War . A Scottish - built merchant ship originally called the " Sea King " , it was secretly purchased by Confederate agents in September 1864 . Captain James Waddell renamed the ship " Shenandoah " after she was converted to a warship off the coast of Spain on October 19 , shortly after leaving England . William Conway Whittle , Waddell ' s right hand man , was the ship ' s executive officer . The " Shenandoah " , sailing south then east across the Indian Ocean and into the South Pacific , was in Micronesia at the Island of Ponape ( called Ascension Island by Whittle ) at the time of the surrender of Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia to the Union forces on April 9 , 1865 . Waddell had already captured and disposed of thirteen Union merchantmen . The " Shenandoah " destroyed one more prize in the Sea of Okhotsk , north of Japan , then continued to the Aleutians and into the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean , crossing the Arctic Circle on June 19 . Continuing then south along the coast of Alaska the " Shenandoah " came upon a fleet of Union ships whaling on June 22 . She opened continuous fire , destroying a major portion of the Union whaling fleet . Capt . Waddell took aim at a fleeing whaler , " Sophia Thornton " , and at his signal , the gunner jerked a wrist strap and fired the last two shots of the American Civil War . " Shenandoah " had so far captured and burned eleven ships of the American whaling fleet while in Arctic waters . Waddell finally learned of Lee ' s surrender on June 27 when the captain of the prize " Susan & Abigail " produced a newspaper from San Francisco . The same paper contained Confederate President Jefferson Davis ' s proclamation that the " war would be carried on with re - newed vigor " . " Shenandoah " proceeded to capture a further ten whalers in the following seven hours . Wadell then steered " Shenandoah " south , intending to raid the port of San Francisco which he believed to be poorly defended . En route they encountered an English barque , " Barracouta " , on August 2 from which Wadell learned of the final collapse of the Confederacy including the surrenders of Johnston ' s , Kirby Smith ' s , and Magruder ' s armies and the capture of President Davis . The long log entry of the " Shenandoah " for August 2 , 1865 , begins " The darkest day of my life . " Captain Waddell realized then in his grief that they had taken innocent unarmed Union whaling ships as prizes when the rest of the country had ended hostilities . Waddell immediately converted the warship back to a merchant ship , storing her cannon below and repainting the hull . At this point all Waddell wanted to do was surrender the " Shenandoah " and the proper place to do this , in his mind , was at a European port . Surrendering in an American port carried the certainty of facing a court with a Union point of view and the very real risk of a trial for piracy , for which he and the crew could be hanged . Sailing south around Cape Horn and staying well off shore to avoid shipping that might report " Shenandoah ' s " position , they saw no land for another 9 , 000 miles until they arrived back in England , having logged a total of over 58 , 000 miles around the world in a year ' s travel — the only Confederate ship to do a round - the - world trip . The last Confederate surrender did not occur until November 6 , 1865 , when the notorious ship under Capt . Waddell ' s command surrendered at Liverpool to Capt . R . N . Paynter , commander of of the British Royal Navy . The " Shenandoah " was surrendered by letter to the British Prime Minister , the Earl Russell . Ultimately , after an investigation by the British Admiralty court , Waddell and his crew were exonerated of doing anything that violated the laws of war and were unconditionally released . " Shenandoah " herself was sold to Sultan Majid bin Said of Zanzibar in 1866 and renamed " El Majidi " . Presidential proclamation ending the war . On August 20 , 1866 , President Andrew Johnson signed a " Proclamation — Declaring that Peace , Order , Tranquillity , and Civil Authority Now Exists in and Throughout the Whole of the United States of America " . It cited the end of the insurrection in Texas , and declared