After Appomattox: The Collapse of the Confederacy in May, 1865

as I was reviewing how I wanted to approach this it occurred to me that this is really a good topic I hope I'm correct in my instinct for more of a seminar discussion some of you are veterans let's see how many of you there are who are veterans of so many of these that you remember the very first one we did in December of 2010 is anybody here for that remember we had the table Leo you are we have the talent the tables in a square and I handed out some documents relating to the secession of South Carolina and we discussed the documents because that's what brown bags were when I was in grad school it was their discussion not lectures and a couple of us actually did that for the first year so the brown bags we've been going to the lecture formats since but for this I think the discussion will work well because the topic is an amorphous one in a sense there's no wrong answer it's and what I want to be doing today is to collectively try to solve a problem about the history of the civil war and as you know these are sesquicentennial brown bags so May 1865 is our focus and it was it felt even better about it last week is last Friday's you know was May 8th the 70th anniversary of d---day victory in Europe the day in which authorities who had officers who had some Authority for the German government signed some papers that ended the war in Europe on May 8th 1945 very clear definitive end of the war over here we we hugged and kissed and celebrated in the streets because it was the end of the war in Europe everybody knew it ok so the challenge for today for all of us when did this American Civil War end what was what day and what was the occasion what determined what the end of the war was I want your thoughts again there's no wrong answer my goal here is to get out on the table for discussion and for elaboration I hope it's somewhat systematic elaboration some some candidates some days and some of the occasions for why why these might qualify as the occasion for the end of the Civil War yes sir you're not aware that ended so the so the the answer is and I wish you know we for a while we had a blackboard and it was lived it got moved from this room to this room to that room to the back storage room and I was the only person who ever hauled it out and he used it and I think the last time we hired a dumpster to go take away all the the relics of the past or any of that we don't want to keep the blackboard bit the dust and it's too darn bad because I would love to have that blackboard right about now so have an imaginary blackboard so answer number one the war didn't end and on what basis do you say that the pressure is on now yeah you had to open your big mouth and now and I'm gonna stand close to you so that you can pick up on the mic there's still discussion about when the Civil War ended so in that sense I think if no one can give a definitive answer maybe you will today but I'm particularly perplexed or interested in my perplexed by I like your answer about the issues that the issues are there there are still issues today such as right issues of states rights and racism still forever so implicit in what you're saying is that that what defines the end of a war matey is not necessarily when the shooting stops but when the causes of that brought on the war are resolved there anything that in the Constitution was there a constitutional amendment after the war that said once and for all the secession is not constitutional not allowed I think that before a state would secede seriously secede they have to take a look at the war I think if the word impractical comes to mind or not ill-advised how about that secession was was proven yeah what was your word bloom yes tell that the Texas exactly yeah well let's not mess with Texas the but yes have been ill-advised secession that's basically what ei Pollard the former that editor of the Richmond examiner said in his book the lost cause in 1866 while secession is is not constitutional I think the word he was used was impracticable or impractical so we in other words we learned a lesson we ain't trying that way again to you know as an expression of states rights but what he also said it was just what you did so session maybe impractical but that doesn't mean that that we agree we either defeated South agrees with the defeat of states rights the supremacy of the federal government over the state government in that we we intend to still uphold those rights and have ever since and there have been famous episodes in the last hundred and fifty years based on states rights so quite correct any other suggestions yes sir well let's go back here first certainly in terms of people I think this person is is correct I would just say states started basically returning to Congress okay so the resuming then that they the main cause of the war the main issue and war at least to begin with was the was small our reconstruction of the Union that's the states had left the Union that was the occasion for the war the state said that left the Union and they thought they had they insisted they had the right to do so and the federal government said no you don't and a war broke out in order to bring them back in the Union so as they came back that ended the war that settled the issue issues is there a particular date when that happened when when the nation based on that criteria that the nation was re reunited that the the the Union was was whole again I mean various states became Tennessee was represented in Congress all along by Andrew Johnson the president man who we'll be talking about again later and some states were brought back into the Union or represented in Congress even before the shooting star stopped and of course then there is the radical Greek we're not going to be going in a radical reconstruction today by the way that's well be under may 65 and we don't have time for all the ins and outs of that so fear not but when the states were finally reconstructed and brought back into the Union once and for all in 1877 and that after that interim period of reconstruction not just when they were brought back into the Union originally in 1865 that happened piecemeal as well so there are exact dates but too many for us to play with here yes sir okay I was thinking the same thing when you were talking about governments rather than rather than armies or individuals so what date was that how well have you all know your what was that May 10 1869 some places Confederate Memorial Day is on May 10th it was also two years earlier when still while Jackson died but May 10th 1865 was when Stonewall Jackson when Jefferson Davis and his family were captured outside of urban de Ville Georgia so there we have a very definite date if the if when the head of state was captured constitutes the end of the war then in May 10th 1865 is our best candidate everyone here that in the last armed force surrendered the revolution that probably didn't end until someone who said it tell all of the states were readmitted to the union but if you talk about the causes in that freed slaves and probably many other disenfranchised people in the south certainly when they they get the right to vote okay so a couple of thoughts there one when the shooting stopped during the last military force we're gonna probe that more in a moment I'm gonna park that off to the side for now so also your point about the the continuity of the issues but you also mentioned about emancipation and voting rights so although the war really didn't start as a war emancipation it it did in the minds of those who wanted to be emancipated for sure they made it a war if emancipation almost immediately and by with the with Emancipation Proclamation announced in September of 1862 and even before that with the confiscation acts it became a war of emancipation certainly by January 1st 1863 with the Emancipation Proclamation so can we based on that criteria can we fix the particular date for when that end was achieved when you know and of course justice equality and racial equality a nation we've already determined that's that's still in the future but how about just is there a is there a benchmark a date in a particular benchmark that we could use for when the issue of emancipation constitutional amendments thirteen fourteen and fifteen so thirteenth amendment that ended slavery and involuntary servitude in this country ratified and by in December of 1865 to think about December 28th or late in December of 1865 and when those slaves who were in particularly in the state of Hucky we're in this limbo they were not covered by the Emancipation Proclamation and yet there there were slave states and they and they the rights property of their owners were being respected to the interest of keeping Kentucky on the Union side on Ron the clay so those slaves weren't freed behind Union lines if you will until December of 1865 so potentially the 13th amendment 15 14th and particularly the 15th get more into voting rights that you were talking about so 1870 for the ratification of the 15th amendment would give us another potential benchmark so I know there were many people in the south which of course that was in 1877 as a result when the federal armies left was in 1877 as a result of the so-called compromise of 1876 from the presidential election that year they were still federal troops in Louisiana South Carolina and Florida I believe at that point as a result of radical reconstruction and of course there were lots of federal troops in the south even after the war even before reconstruction began because of what was happening in Mexico and also because some troops that had been federal troops that had been mustered in for three years it had only hadn't been three years yet so they weren't allowed to go home that was especially true for the US Colored Troops who were mustered in later and weren't allowed to enlist until later and they were kept in the ranks until December of 1866 many of them mostly on the Texas Mexican border watch out after bunch of potential threat from the French interference in Mexico so if when troops mustered out is an issue then from the federal perspective then it's oh it's late 1866 when those who were raised for the war not just those who were in the US Army finally allowed to go home if that's not I'm kind of spinning what you said into a different direction how about when the last Confederate went home when was that when when did the last soldier demobilization it and of course on an individual basis the war ended when I get home safely that's when the war ends for me I don't care when they sign the surrender it's when I get home and when I'm allowed to go home and when was that for is there a particular date on which all the soldiers were allowed to go home almost exactly two years after he was captured with some Davis was released in May of 1867 and then late 1869 when the case was essentially in a really late December early January 69 when he was the case against him was quashed and he was free to go he would not he knew he would not be prosecuted but a lot of Confederate soldiers were still in prison ironically if you were captured at sailors Creek on April 6 1865 you were sent to prison camp if you managed to get past sailors Creek to Appomattox who were released more or less upon getting their parole in a couple of days by the 12th of April you were released if you were captured at sailors Creek at the battle you likely didn't get home until late June you weren't released from prison until late June 1865 after these surrenders well let's go back to what you said about the when the shooting stopped because that that is more germane to May of 1865 you have on your screen on the screen here and I have bunches of slides in case you all weren't willing to talk but happily you are so I don't need to make this into a slideshow after all and I'm not I don't really intend to do so but you have the the famous moment captured never on film of course so all speculative between Lee and grant at Appomattox the end of the war so let's keep ourselves for the time being I just to explore this little corner of the topic when the shooting stopped when the last armed forces gave up appomattox any votes for Appomattox no that's what but you know after Appomattox before automatics even today reading the newspapers become attentive to this as we all have since we opened up our began working on our Museum out at Appomattox the number of times even today when news reporters will talk about the South since Appomattox things since that mean since Appomattox is in metaphors as an idiom is the end of the war everybody knows it that's most American citizens at least until the education system started going downhill with no Appomattox you know that isn't one of the most recognized names and everybody in America where the sixth-grade education would know that Appomattox means the end of the Civil War but was it okay so what else how many men surrendered at Appomattox what what force surrendered at Appomattox Army of Northern Virginia excellent about 28,000 men the number of kind of shifts we don't know for sure keep adding to the list as people established that they were there they just didn't get their names on a parole list for whatever reason so after Appomattox anymore surrenders North Carolina Joseph Johnston I think I can go to that slide without having to shop around another fanciful sketch looks like courier brought to you by courier knives do not believe the war do not think of the war through the that through courier and I just don't it's not this is a picture of Joseph Johnson looking as he did in 1860 stuck on a Confederate uniform but this is the the Bennett farm surrender April 18th or 26 26th is what it says but I I'm gonna hold out for April 18 1865 they they signed a surrender document that day Johnston in Sherman as most of you know a very generous one similar to the terms of Appomattox but also offered allowed the state governments to continue to exist and kind of dealt in the political realm and they sent that to their respective heads of state and Abraham Andrew Johnson Lincoln was dead by this time and of course his assassination hung over the all of what happened to the next month they were rejected the terms were rejected by the US government back to the drawing board a u.s. grant even came down to talk to his protege and basically said to Sherman what you thinking what are you thinking because Sherman was had gotten in some deep doo-doo with the public as being too soft on the Confederates so they stood sign the final a second agreement at the Bennett farm on April 26 1865 surrendering 37 men of the army of Tennessee and the forces with Johnston in North Carolina but Johnston was also the head he was the not only the commander of the army of the of Tennessee here in North Carolina that so-called Western theater in Allen North North Carolina between raha is surrounding Brown Greensboro but also the head of the department of South Carolina Georgia and northern Florida and all those men were surrendered that day to to the effect of 90,000 men the single largest surrender of Confederate forces occurred where was it Durham Bennett farm or was it at Greensboro I was Durham was where this occurred in your Durham and you can visit Bennett farm the reconstructed Bennett house and peace memorial but we have an original sketch in our collection of the negotiations occurring outside of it and the Perot lling of the forces but notice this parole of Archer Anderson Greensboro May 2nd 1865 so we get into May my topic gets us into May because that's when all the paroles occurred so unlike Appomattox when the Confederate armies and the Union Army were right there in the same little village and they had a surrender parade a couple of days later and they paroled them all right then and there in North Carolina and elsewhere it was the agreement signed at near Durham station 30-some miles west and but 40 miles spread out were Confederate troops in many camps as far away as High Point North Carolina not in one place and they they took there rolls pretty much without any only the Baltimore Orioles games a few weeks ago they didn't they played on their own without any audience around without a crowd at all they were paroled on their own and paroled in an office paroled just and they left there they stacked their arms without Union armies around them because the Union armies were 40 miles away so the very different kinds of situation physically Johnston's army was not threatened he was not surrounded he was not the way Lee was it was the surrender that occurred without he could have walked away they could continue to fight there was no reason that Johnston had to surrender at Greensboro or at Durham and then his men to be paroled and that's a theme that we'll hear again and again as we go into some of these other surrenders so may 2nd in some ways is the the magic date for the surrender of the armies that's new Johnston surrendered but then again Tallahassee Florida one of the only capitals one of two the other one being often not occupied by federal troops during the war was occupied on may tenth and formally surrendered on May 20th as a result of Johnston's surrender so if you're in Florida May 20th becomes the date when your state capital was was finally captured and occupied all the troops to be surrendered this did this end it all yeah who else was left Stan wait E or waiting you know we've never gotten a definitive pronunciation on that so Stan wait he's saying waiters art is our is our CEO the wait Stan wait II Rawls no quick but the Indian trips will be Sean Kane's topic next month so I don't want to intrude on Sean but the Indian surrender and in the last of the Indian War and Sean's going to talk about the Indian War which is a really little-known part of the Civil War is the topic for next month's Brown Bag but suffice it to say June 23rd in dogsville for Towson Oklahoma then called Indian Territory the last of the land troops to be surrendered but anything between Greensboro Durham station and then Kirby Smith Edmund Kirby Smith and let's take him a chronological order so I don't have to go through the slides too much but let's park Kirby Smith off to the side for a moment anybody else before him Richard Taylor he was the relative by marriage of the President of the United States and the son of the President of the United States of Zachary Taylor a Yale graduate no military experience became a lieutenant general and a fine one at bat who commanded the Department of Alabama Mississippi and Eastern Louisiana after the forces at Mobile the Confederates evacuated Mobile on April 12th the kind he knew the gig was up and entered in negotiations with his counterpart Edward SRS can be but terms of surrender the he he liked Johnston that is Taylor like Johnston knew that the surrender of Lee's army essentially met meant the end of resistance a de facto end of the war I'm going to state that now in case I get crunched for time and I forget to say it later that is also a repeated theme of this whole month of 1865 of May and April of 1865 was the impact the Domino impact of the surrender of Lee's army Kayla had a good-sized apartment and a lot of forces around Meridian Mississippi and Demopoulos Alabama and they the forces North laid out on the mobile and Ohio Railroad north of mobile but he knew that resistance was futile and he wanted to see what kind of terms he could get from candy so they negotiated a settlement and a little house called a Magee house on the 24th of April 1865 but after the rejection of the terms of Sherman and Johnston they said well we better do this again so they got back together that's April 24th I don't think I'm right on that I think it was April later in April but on May 1st they learned that the terms had been rejected they got back together under an oak tree the only outdoor surrender for the you keeping score in Citronelle Alabama and negotiated the terms of surrender very similar again to the terms of Lee and grant at Appomattox and then the Perot lling began a couple of days later again these Confederate forces are not in one little village they're all over the map this you'll see when you get your magazine by the way which has just gone out like and you'll see a long article by me with a lot of these things in there including this horribly printed I didn't do this this is not my usual bad scanning job this is the way it looks but the terms of the capitulation and here is a rare example of a Meridian or is it meridian here parole this soldiers got their yeah Meridian Mississippi on the eleventh day of May and another one of immobile on the 22nd day of May these paroles of the the department in eastern of Alabama Mississippi Eastern Louisiana several tens of thousands of them that occurred that we're all over depends on where the trips were they weren't all in one little village like a thematics say where they occurred where all over and they're very rare these these pearls by the way and the number was somewhere the Meridian there were eleven thousand eight hundred and forty nine men total of Taylor's army about forty thousand men were paroled and one of another thing about the template here the with all these surrenders the commanders issued farewell addresses I will I'll read you some all heart try to husband my time wisely and you read you something that will surprise you because we're all familiar with General Orders number nine please farewell address you've after four years of arduous service marked binds the past fortitude and complimenting the man I surrendered through no lack of faith in you but to avoid more useless bloodshed which would be to no end but to lose lives thank you go home be citizens you've been wonderful you know the show's over that's the tenor of most of these farewell addresses for Johnston the same thing we have a manuscript copy that you'll find in your Museum magazine for those of you who are members and a wonderful very similar message as did Dabney Mauri the commander from Virginia who commanded troops and mobile these nice friendly thank you for your service go home be good citizens you've been loyal soldiers but that's not always the case let's go back to Kirby Smith Edmund Kirby Smith who commanded what became known later as Kirby Smith 'dom the trans-mississippi cut off after the capture of Vicksburg in Port Hudson in 1816 July of 1863 essentially autonomous command of the trans-mississippi department of the Confederacy run essentially by the gun generals along with the governor's in tandem they had to be more or less quasi independent when they learned that the armies east of the Mississippi had surrendered it became something of a problem they could continue to fight they knew that Jefferson Davis was heading in their direction they had heard that through the grapevine that he was kind of he was trying to make it out to the trans-mississippi to continue the war so while Smith himself said I'd like to surrender he fell honor bound to keep up the fight his subordinates insisted on it his men did not what are we doing why are we continuing the fight well I should be so there was a lot of discontent putting it mildly and this is the kind of thing you never read about in the lost cause treatments of the Civil War the number of men who deserted on mas who looted warehouses who mutant need for all intents and purposes against Confederate authority you can't hold us here come on everybody knows the war is over Lee surrendered forget it Johnson surrendered Taylor surrendered is one Domino after the other cell the men in the trans-mississippi wondered why they were being held to service some some rumors were that Kirby Smith was ready to surrender another part of the rumor mill was that the Kirby Smith was going to take his army deep into Texas and continue to fight a lot of men wrote their families hang I may not see you for a while because God knows where we're going but we seem to be the ones who are going to keep up the fight and a lot of them as I say rebel general Churchill's division of our Kansans mutiny according to a letter in our collection from Shreveport became so dangerous that Kirby Smith took his headquarters to hew and because most of the Louisianians who were in shreveport the headquarters of that department just left I'm sorry so the majority of the art this army was gone before on May 26 a proxy General Simon Bolivar Buckner whom you know for best as the surrender man who had the misfortune had to surrender to grant at Fort Donelson three years before what negotiated surrender at a hotel in New Orleans with the ER esque with a ers can be once again and then he they came back and reported to Kirby Smith who decided I sure don't like a good idea and he did on a ship the Fort Jackson in Galveston Harbor on June 2nd 1865 so May 26th or June 2nd will be the date that the trans-mississippi Department was surrendered the total number of men surrendered was 58,000 650 in that surrender at at either New Orleans or Galveston and but very few of those men were with the ranks those were just the men who were basically on paper ten thousand maybe who were there to receive their paroles and as similar kinds of surrender in Arkansas an isolated division in Arkansas surrendered at a place called chalk Bluff Arkansas they were surrounded by the commander Jeff Thompson in May 9th or May 11th 1865 and then received their paroles in the following weeks and going into June 5th at Jackson port Arkansas at both there in Kirby Smith and in Galveston their commanders gave them farewell addresses but of a very different kind then we're used to from General Orders number 9 and ahreally so here's an excerpt of the published farewell order from Kirby Smith to his troops given in Houston on May 30th 1865 I believed God would give us yet the victory I reached here to find the Texas troops disbanded and hastening to their homes they had forsaken their colors and their commanders and had abandoned the cause for which they were struggling and appropriated the public property to their personal use soldiers I am left a commander without an army a general without troops you have made your choice it was unwise and patriotic but it is final I pray you may not live to regret it the enemy will now possess your country and dictate his own laws he then advised the men to be obedient to Authority and may God in His mercy direct your right and heal the wound of your distracted country he basically chastised them no worse than then Jeff Thompson did when he he really read on the riot act dressing them directly in the streets of Jackson port telling them be good citizens and then those of you who have been good home hones and you have been good and brave soldiers have been have nothing to fear but I warn those of you who have been nothing but sneaking cowardly jayhawkers cutthroats and thieves that are just retribution awaits you and I hope to god that the federal authorities will hang you wherever and whenever they find you and they'll do it sure how's that for a farewell address to Curtis in other words the way the war ended in places like the trans-mississippi in Arkansas we're really different than what we think of the war ending in Virginia in a thematic mathematics you've seen a sort of a template but it really wasn't in many ways it was very different than the fact the compactness of the armies in one place that the this the the neatness of it elsewhere there was a lot of chaos a looting of supplies and stores and men making their own decisions going home and why was that because about the Maddox indirectly because everyone recognized there were so many people north and south recognized that Lee's army was the most effective force really in so many ways it was the only force keeping the Confederacy alive when Lee's army surrendered at Appomattox most people in north and south recognized it de facto as the end in resistance was futile and even fatal yeah I skipped over this slide these slides of the Battle of Palmetto Ranch Texas may 12 13 1865 the last shooting battle of the war misguided effect by a federal officer in the area of Brownsville Texas is where this is here's the battlefield the Palmetto ranch or Palmetto there's no real resolution on that and this poor man was maybe the last man killed 34th Indiana killed on May 13th another man died of his wounds two fatalities at the Battle of Palmetto Ranch Texas outside Brownsville in 1865 there very clearly this man's war ended on May 13th but aside from this ill-advised fight most of the commanders tried to avoid combat after Appomattox and tried to get good terms for their men recognizing that without Lee in the field it was useless and the federal officers tried to play on that they actually sent out emissaries to other armies okay at least Sarah do you want to come in now and most men did and and as these surrenders one after the other occurred the men who were still being held to service and resented it they their lives were in danger like this poor man live and and they in the war did not end neatly but you said earlier something about the last armed resistance and that's why I've kind of gone off on this riff on my own here also in the name of efficiency but was that the last the trans-mississippi and even the Indian Territory the last armed resistance sea battle yeah well yeah I guess there was a sea battle so okay we're getting warm in here a sea battle so it's something forces still at sea okay anybody know that story Shannon oh okay oh and not Simms but James arendelle Waddell but yeah another of the of the the Pirates the so called the commerce raiding ships that was out of communication and didn't learn definitively until the end of the about the end of the war until August second and then but in May once again my topic and Sam Craig had with the most of you know is behind the camera he's smart but Sam will be doing a program on the Shenandoah in November is when that will occur on the last and I not bring my copy I may not have brought my copy just as well yes I did on May 27th and May 28th that's my purview Sam I'm allowed to do make even though I'm gonna yield November to you and and you all come back in November - I know vember is the date when Sam Gregor is doing his brown bag program on the CSS Shenandoah but on May 27th and 28th the Shenandoah contacted the ships that were her quarry what she was going after in the Arctic Circle the whaling fleet and they ran across the ship called the Abigail on May 27th and shouldn't have much on board and except liquor unfortunately which then the men got into the men of the Shannon dog I didn't - and got drunk and disorderly but they burned the Abigail on May 28 1865 and then a month later a month after two months after Appomattox is when the Shenandoah really ran into these ships that she had been going to try to take on still unaware that the war ended but the Shenandoah will leave the full story of the Shenandoah for another date so if the resistance of any legally constituted if you will Armed Forces of the Confederacy is your criteria then the answer is November of 1865 as you will find out later I can answer that me I'm you Ryan me something I don't need to get to in a moment to make sure that that okay they wrap up some loose ends here the so a citizenship officers yes is the most part if you were taken and this is what this is on May 29th still may twenty eighteen sixty five Andrew Johnson issued a proclamation of amnesty the idea was to get this whole thing over with quickly to restore citizenship to for those who hadn't taken the oath but particularly for civilian officers to restore citizenship but still part of the Lincoln and Andrew Johnson plan to let them up easy as Jeng that was famously quoted for saying just not not draw this out let's not execute the leaders let's not execute the soldiers let's not hold and try to completely make - we're not extracting too much out of the our wayward brothers and sisters let's make it easy for them to be good American citizens once again so the proclamation of May 29th 1865 followed earlier proclamations trying to make it easy to reconstitute state governments 10% is all we asked 10% of loyal citizens all we asked to be able to get back into the Union that's you know you can imagine the barker all we ask is 10% the so the same thing with the proclamation blanket amnesty except unless you took an oath to the federal government as an officer of the federal government at one point no not so easy for you there was about eleven exempted classes of men who could not simply say he would not get the blanket automatic restoration of citizenship rights they had to apply for pardons to the president and they did so a lot of them did some and this is what the proclamation looks like we have quite a few of them are in our collection that were issued over the next couple of years and there's a list of all the men and women we have one for Kitty Hill who were who were given these rights Robert Ely could have and did apply for his citizenship he some dickering over because of the question of whether the Appomattox parole was enough but he he eventually bailed out the paperwork and it went to Washington and it was lost conveniently what it was lost is someone basically got it in the office and hey lookie here how cool and they parked it aside and it was lost until the research were founded about 1970 and it was restored in 76 was it 75 76 somewhere Gerald Ford's administration and then after that someone got the rise idea you know Jefferson Davis hasn't had his restored yet either let's restore his Sam Mark Hatfield of Oregon sponsored restoration of his citizenship in the Ford administration but unlikely where he wanted his back Davis didn't apply for it because he didn't want it back he did not want to he thought he never lost it it was a matter of principle for Davis so Davis is rolling over in his grave even now over at Hollywood at the idea that someone did that on his behalf whereas Lee wanted it back but the May 29th Proclamation is another target we have to hit and I'm a little bit over time right now so I'm going to go quickly to answer because so may 29th in many ways if restoration of citizenship and trying to solve subtle one question of the war which is trying to get people back in to the Union not only States the people the may 20 an alleged proclamation is another one but is there one particular date once again in which we can say that the war ended well actually yes this is I'm going to give it to you in pieces it's a three page long document you'll find this in the official record series three volume five a proclamation by Andrew Johnson long whereas whereas about recognizing that we the federal government recognize that these states are in rebellion against the constituted authority there were two of them issued one for all the states except Texas and then Texas has to be on its own for a second one a few months later for Texas well all the whereas is where as is about how these states have left the Union all the acts that were dumped done and that then therefore had to be undone so so it's we reckon they were wayward states let their we're in an insurrection the US government did all these things in order to bring them back into the Union took all these measures and war measures that were we knew were going to be temporary to bring them back into the Union eventually and now it's time to undo these war measures and this was finally signed earlier Proclamation so on done it the city of Washington this twentieth day of August in the year of our Lord 1866 was when the federal government declared that the rebellion was over once and for all the rebellion was over August 20th 1866 there's your date the closest thing and this came up because of a in part because of a claim of a citizen I think an African American citizen who put in a claim against the federal government for burning his cotton in 1868 and the coordinates Proclamation it was something about a two-year window of opportunity to have claims against the government and the question was was he within the the window and turns out that he was but it was but it was this document that was used this proclamation of 1866 was used as the benchmark for when the when the rebellion ended so according if you want something signed 1866 is your date if you want something the last troops or land troops if you don't count Indians that would be June 2nd 1865 Indian troops June 23rd 1865 last flag November 2nd 1865 but the November 6 was the last we came into the harbor and the 5th and the 6th okay you saying the same thing okay yeah yeah that's why you come back for salmon November the but I would posit that all of these this is this is sort of trivia you know it's calling the kind of thing you sit around and drink beer oh yeah good idea that's what you do after a college class colloquy gonna go out and drink there they in compare notes when was the last shot what was the last flag when was the last man wounded loved his last man killed one of the life tripped at home all those are benchmarks the more serious benchmark supports course and settlement of the issues but for all intents and purposes I go back to Appomattox if you really want the de-facto end of the war there's a reason we say after Appomattox because it was at that moment that everyone knew that it resistance was effectively over and simply a matter of wrapping it up as neatly as peacefully as possible and both sides kind of recognized that in after Appomattox that's the last point I'm sure there's something else how are they saying but I know some of you I'm going to take your question in a moment but I want to give some of you who've been wanting to escape for an hour an opportunity to do so so I will finish my the formal remarks in the colloquium seminar right now but we can certainly for all those if you want to can to ask and discuss some more questions but for those of you who need to go thank you very much and let me recommend a book to you Bert dunkerley who many of you know Robert dunkerley a book about the wrapping up the war called to the bitter end he's a park ranger at that formerly Appomattox now at Richmond and this this came out just last couple of weeks we did a book signing out of Appomattox we have it in our store but it's a wonderful overview Illustrated overview of the wrapping up of the war and I crib notes from it liberally in preparation for my program please well not a battle but these last flag the last naval November 665 there's a very rich story but when it finally lowered its flag and handed it over to another constituted authority shall I say June 27th 8th or whatever it was the last time it attacked a vessel yeah so late June 28th was when the Shenandoah did her deadly work in the in the Bering Sea so the last time the shot was fired in anger perhaps or a warning shot fired in anger of I enabled us was probably the 28th of June 1865 by the Shenandoah and you imagine that's probably true yes imagine that is that probably is because all those troops that were still imagined it was probably till later in the year because some of the US Colored Troops were until I think December 66 and honestly I was getting that wrong so the magazine coming near you the I had some inconsistency some of them that lasted not until December 67 was when the last of the US Colored Troops were mustered out most by before the end of 1866 so all those men who were mustered in as volunteer troops for the rebellion I think it's when they were just charged would be the date but but they were all muscular Dan in 1664 and early 65 mr. December 67 was the final mustering out of those trips so and of course there's you know the GA are the Grand Army of the Republic the veterans organization of the US Army were very strong politically and very they lobbied heavily for pensions from the federal government for those men I think it's safe to say anybody who had anything to do with the with the rebellion in this and there's a very good book by Barbara Gannon about you US Colored Troops veterans after the war they were very much part of the ger and very more widely accepted than we would have thought so no doubt any of them who were involved were not only considered veterans for prestige but also more importantly for the perks that they received from the government other yeah yeah the independence of what would that be four score and seven let's do our quick math here 75 75 or 76 75 beginning the 91st year since this is August 20th there's the 91st the year of so the beginning of the 1st 91st year following July 4th 76 you all have been an excellent class thank you for indulging this colloquium in this format I hope we got it all on tape we reasonably well very good thank you very much I look forward to seeing you at the next Brown Bag for those of you who live in the area for those of you who don't thank you for coming

Channel: The American Civil War Museum

Views: 12,554

Rating: 4.8632479 out of 5

Keywords: Civil War, American Civil War, Museum, American Civil War Museum, May, 1865, End of the Civil War, Appomattox, Surrender, Lee, Grant, John Coski, History

Id: Dolep9YCBfI

Length: 49min 16sec (2956 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 07 2015