Meanwhile, Union armies were also making progress in Alabama.
A cavalry force under James H. Wilson was striking south from
the Tennessee border at the same time that troops under Edward
Canby were besieging the port of Mobile at the southern end
of the state. Mobile finally fell on April 12, just three days after
Lee’s capitulation; on the same day, Wilson’s raiders entered the
state capital of Montgomery. For a time, Jefferson Davis refused to
accept the reality of the situation, but his remaining commanders
soon convinced him that their troops were no longer in a condition
to fight. Joseph E. Johnston, leading Confederate forces in the
Carolinas, entered negotiations with his adversary, Sherman, on
April 17, formally surrendering nine days later. Confederate
commanders in Alabama and the Trans-Mississippi Department
followed suit shortly after, bringing the war to an end by early June.
1865
Next president
Andrew Johnson, a War Democrat co-opted as
Abraham Lincoln’s running mate for the 1864
election, finds himself leading a largely
Republican administration following the
president’s assassination.Death of the president
Fatally wounded by John Wilkes Booth
in a Washington theater on April 14,
1865, Abraham Lincoln is carried to a
boarding house across the street, where
he dies the following morning.Sherman and Johnston
After Lee’s surrender at
Appomattox Court House,
General Joseph E. Johnston
commands the largest
Confederate force still in
the field. He surrenders to
Sherman 17 days later at
Bennett Place, a farm near
Raleigh, North Carolina.Entering Charleston
The 55th Massachusetts, a
black Union regiment,
marches into Charleston in
mid-February 1865, to the
jubilation of the city’s black
inhabitants. Confederate
troops had evacuated the
port three days earlier.(^) M
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GULF OF^ ME
XIC
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Inset map area