Note: In January of 2011, this section will change to "150 Years Ago This Month"

June 1865:  On June 23, 1865, the last formal surrender took place when Cherokee leader Brigadier General Watie surrendered an Indian battalion in the Oklahoma Territory. The C.S.S. Shenandoah continued to capture Union whalers in the Bering Sea.  President Johnson ordered all Confederate prisoners of lower ranks (army officers of captain and below and naval officers of lieutenant and below) released.  The Federal blockade, which had been in force since April of 1861, was terminated.  President Johnson appointed governors in six of the former Confederate states, and restored Tennessee (with its own reorganized government) to the Union.  The eight alleged conspirators in the Lincoln assassination were convicted, with four sentenced to prison and the others to be hanged.

July 1865:  On July 7, 1865, the four convicted and condemned Lincoln assassination conspirators were hanged at the Old Penitentiary in Washington, D.C.  The other four convicted conspirators were imprisoned on an island off of Key West, Florida.  (Michael O'Laughlin died of yellow fever in 1867; Dr. Samuel Mudd was pardoned in 1868 as a result of his work in an epidemic; Edward Spangler and Samuel Arnold were pardoned in 1869.)

August 1865:  Confederate General Jo Shelby and 1,000 followers had refused to surrender to the Union.  In August of 1865, Shelby led his men to Mexico City, where his offer to form a "foreign legion" was rejected by Mexican Emperor Maximilian; however, the Emperor provided these men with a large tract of land near Vera Cruz.  Also in August, a British ship informed the C.S.S. Shenandoah, sailing south toward San Francisco, that the war was over.

October 1865:  In October of 1865, President Johnson paroled the former Confederate Vice-President Alexander Stephens and four other high ranking Confederate prisoners. Martial law in Kentucky was ended.

November 1865:  November of 1865 saw Mississippi enact laws regulating labor service, vagrancy, and similar matters; these were the first of the black codes initiated in the South to restrict the opportunities of the recently freed slaves.  The C.S.S. Shenandoah surrendered to the British in Liverpool.  Captain Henry Wirz, who had commanded the notorious Confederate prison at Andersonville, was hanged after having been found guilty of cruelty to Union prisoners held there.

December 1865:  The United States Congress convened and began the effort of undoing the conciliatory policies of President Johnson.  The Joint Committee on Reconstruction was formed, and it rejected the senators and representatives elected by the former Confederate states.  The 13th Amendment to the Constitution was enacted, abolishing slavery, having been approved by 27 states.


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