On May 3rd, Georgia Governor Joseph Brown called a meeting of the state legislature when word came through that Confederate General Joe Johnston had surrendered.
The next day, Confederate General Richard Taylor surrendered the remaining troops in Alabama and Mississippi.
A man named Phillip Henry Mulkey was arrested in Eugene, Oregon on May 6th after he publicly shouted "Hurrah for Jeff Davis!". A pro-union mob stormed the jail, but Mulkey escaped.
After nearly a month of eluding U.S. soldiers, Jefferson Davis is captured near Irwinville, Georgia on May 10th.
Also on the 10th, the Confederate vessel CSS Imogene became the last known ship to successfully run the Union blockade.
Confederate Vice-President Alexander Stephens was arrested at his estate, Liberty Hall, in Crawfordville, Georgia by the 4th Iowa Cavalry.
May 12th and 13th was the last significant battle of the Civil War at Palmito Ranch along the Rio Grande river east of Brownsville, Texas. Union Colonel Theodore Brown, perhaps grasping for one last shot at glory, attacked a Confederate camp near Fort Brown, despite the unofficial truce that had been observed between the two sides. Confederate Colonel John Ford successfully resisted the attack and the battle is generally considered a Confederate victory. Perhaps the most significant event to come of this battle was the recording of the death of Private John J. Williams of the 34th Indiana Regiment. He was the last combat death of the war.
On May 12th, 8 co-conspirators in the assassination of President Lincoln pleaded not guilty.
Major General Oliver Otis Howard, who commanded the checkered 11th Corps, was appointed by President Andrew Johnson as head of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned lands, more familiarly known simply as the Freedmen's Bureau intended to aid distressed freed slaves in the south. One of the Bureau's tasks was to try to re-unite slave families scattered throughout the south, and provide them with basic reading and writing skills.
President Johnson issued a conditional amnesty to all persons engaged in the rebellion on May 14th.
On May 22nd, Jefferson Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe, near Hampton, Virginia.
On May 23rd, a grateful Union fell out along a parade route honoring their soldiers as the Army of the Potomac conducted its grand review in Washington. The next day, the 24th, a similar parade was held for Sherman's Army.
On the 29th, President Johnson granted a Presidential Pardon to those who directly or indirectly aided the Southern war effort. He also restored property rights to the south, excepting slaves.
On that same day, Johnson appointed William Holden as provisional Governor of North Carolina. Holden was instructed by Johnson to call a constitutional convention of men who had signed an oath of allegiance to the United States.
No comments:
Post a Comment