LAST TERMS OF SURRENDERThe restoration of peace left huge
questions about the direction the
reunited nation would take. First and
foremost, former Confederate soldiers
had to be resettled.LIVES TO REBUILD
By the terms offered to Robert E. Lee and
his army at Appomattox Court House
❮❮ 316–19, soldiers who surrendered were
free to return home with their horses or mules
and, in the case of officers, with their sidearms as
well. They carried with them signed parole
passes that guaranteed them the right to remain
undisturbed as long as they kept their paroles
and “the laws in force where they reside.”
Yet many soldiers returned to find their
homesteads ravaged. In addition, the former
Confederacy’s transport infrastructure had
been badly damaged, with much of the region’s
rail network destroyed. A huge task of national
reconstruction lay ahead 340–41 ❯❯.AFTER
Kirby Smith sent word to General Canby,
now in New Orleans, that he too was
prepared to negotiate a surrender. The
document was signed on June 2.Final surrenders
Even then, some groups held out.
Brigadier General Stand Watie, a
Cherokee in command of the Native
American cavalry in Kirby Smith’s army,
only accepted a ceasefire on June 23.
On August 2, the Confederate cruiser
Shenandoah, which had been raiding
Union ships in international waters, was
in the Pacific when its crew learned of the
capitulations. They continued to England,
rather than a U.S. port, where they risked
being tried for piracy. They surrendered
in Liverpool on November 6. The crew
dispersed, and the British later turned the
ship over to the U.S. government.Stand Watie
Principal chief of the Cherokee Nation since 1862,
Brigadier General Stand Watie commanded the First
Indian Brigade under General Kirby Smith. Before the war,
he had been a successful plantation- and slave-owner.Jefferson Davis captured
Meanwhile in Georgia, Jefferson Davis
had been captured near Irwinville. At
dawn on May 10, Union cavalrymen
surrounded the Confederate leader, his
wife, their four children, and a small
group of loyal officials, all of whom had
been camping out in a pine forest. The
Union troops consisted of two separate
units, neither of which was aware
of the other at first. In the ensuing
confusion, two of the cavalrymen
were killed as a result of “friendly fire.”
The South’s fate was now firmly in
the hands of the U.S. Government,
headed by Lincoln’s successor, President
Andrew Johnson. The first indication
of Johnson’s intentions came in two
proclamations issued on May 29. One
granted pardons and restored property
to almost all Southerners who were
willing to take an oath of allegiance.
The other, directed at North Carolina,
set a pattern for states wishing to
rejoin the Union. Delegates were
to be elected to draft a new stateconstitution, with the power to
determine the qualifications required
of voters in future state elections.
In the Trans-Mississippi region,
Kirby Smith was starting to feel the
pressure of changed circumstances. As
news of Jefferson Davis’s arrest spread,
many of his men laid down their arms
and set off for home. With his army
dissolving around him, the general also
learned that Grant was sending the
redoubtable General Philip Sheridan to
enforce peace. Recognizing the inevitable,Victory parade
Mounted Union officers ride down Pennsylvania
Avenue in Washington, D.C. during a Grand
Review held on May 23–24, 1865. Soldiers from
both Meade’s and Sherman’s armies marched
on consecutive days.