The Civil W[a]r ends, 1865

Many people mistakenly believe that the American Civil War ended when General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia evacuated the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, after a long siege and surrendered to his Union counterpart, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, at Appomattox Court House on 9 April 1865. Although the capitulation of the South's premier field army foreshadowed the Confederacy's ultimate demise, important operations took place concurrent with the struggle between Grant and Lee's operations which continued into May 1865. Mark Bradley examines some of these events, starting with Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's Carolinas Campaign, and continuing with several raids led by Union Generals George Stoneman, Edward E. Potter, and James H. Wilson. Other operations covered include the Federal assault on Mobile, Alabama, and the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, as well as a description of how the remaining Confederate military forces from North Carolina to Texas laid down their arms in the spring of 1865.