What was the last Confederate victory in the Civil War?
Battle of Natural Bridge
The Battle of Natural Bridge was fought during the American Civil War in what is now Woodville, Florida near Tallahassee on March 6, 1865. A small band of Confederate troops and volunteers, mostly composed of teenagers from the nearby Florida Military and Collegiate Institute that would later become Florida State University, and the elderly, protected by breastworks, prevented a detachment of United States Colored Troops from crossing the Natural Bridge on the St. Marks River. The Natural Bridge is a one-quarter mile long stretch along which the St. Marks River runs underground, after dropping into a sinkhole. This action prevented the Union Army from capturing the Florida capital and made Tallahassee the only Confederate capital east of the Mississippi River not to be captured by Union forces during the war. The battle has been described as the last Confederate victory in the American Civil War, and it was the second largest American Civil War battle in Florida.
Burkeville, Virginia
The last Civil War battle before the surrender at Appomattox was fought nearby at Sayler's Creek on April 6, 1865. Here were surrendered more men (without terms) than in any other battle on American soil. General Robert E. Lee's depleted forces lost over 7,000 men killed, wounded, or taken prisoner at either Sayler's Creek or at General Gordon's engagement the same day, a few miles west. This led Lee to surrender at Appomattox three days later.
Western Theater of the American Civil War
Coincident with Sherman's triumph in Atlanta, Admiral David Farragut won the decisive naval Battle of Mobile Bay on August 24. Steaming past the forts guarding the mouth of the bay, Farragut engaged and forced the surrender of the Confederate fleet defending the city, capturing Admiral Franklin Buchanan. The city itself, long a desired target of Grant's, would remain in Confederate hands until 1865, but the last seaport east of the Mississippi on the Gulf Coast was closed, further tightening the Union blockade. The capture of Atlanta and Mobile Bay together boosted Northern morale and made an enormous contribution to the re-election of Abraham Lincoln.
American Civil War
Confederates did not need to invade and hold enemy territory to win, but only needed to fight a defensive war to convince the North that the cost of winning was too high. The North needed to conquer and hold vast stretches of enemy territory and defeat Confederate armies to win. Lincoln was not a military dictator, and could continue to fight the war only as long as the American public supported a continuation of the war. The Confederacy sought to win independence by out-lasting Lincoln; however, after Atlanta fell and Lincoln defeated McClellan in the election of 1864, all hope for a political victory for the South ended. At that point, Lincoln had secured the support of the Republicans, War Democrats, the border states, emancipated slaves, and the neutrality of Britain and France. By defeating the Democrats and McClellan, he also defeated the Copperheads and their peace platform.
Sycamore Dale
Another significant event of the American Civil War to occur at Sycamore Dale was the surrender of the McNeill's Rangers. McNeill's Rangers was an independent irregular Confederate military company commissioned under the Partisan Ranger Act by the Congress of the Confederate States on April 12, 1862. After the Act's repeal on February 17, 1864, McNeill's Rangers was one of two partisan companies allowed to continue operation, the other being Mosby's Raiders. The Rangers numbered no more than 60 to 70. Captain McNeill and his Rangers surrendered to Union Army forces on April 12, 1865 on Sycamore Dale's front lawn. Other sources cite that while Romney was last held by Confederate Army forces on April 15, local tradition states that McNeill's Rangers surrendered at Sycamore Dale on May 8. Led by Jesse McNeill, the 36 Rangers threw their weapons into a pile on Sycamore Dale's lawn and then the Union officers reluctantly agreed to release the Rangers. This surrender was one of the final actions of the American Civil War in West Virginia.
Gettysburg Campaign
The Gettysburg Campaign represented the final major offensive by Robert E. Lee in the Civil War. Afterward, all combat operations of the Army of Northern Virginia were in reaction to Union initiatives. Lee suffered over 27,000 casualties during the campaign, a price very difficult for the Confederacy to pay. The campaign met only some of its major objectives: it had disrupted Union plans for a summer campaign in Virginia, temporarily protecting the citizens and economy of that state, and it had allowed Lee's men to live off the bountiful Maryland and Pennsylvania countryside and plunder vast amounts of food and supplies that they carried back with them and that would allow them to continue the war. However, the myth of Lee's invincibility had been shattered and not a single Union soldier was removed from the Vicksburg Campaign to react to Lee's invasion of the North. (Vicksburg surrendered on July 4, the day Lee ordered his retreat.) Union campaign casualties were approximately 30,100.
John Salmon Ford
John Salmon Ford (May 26, 1815 – November 3, 1897), better known as "Rip" Ford, was a member of the Republic of Texas Congress and later of the State Senate, and mayor of Brownsville, Texas. He was also a Texas Ranger, a Confederate colonel, doctor, lawyer, and a journalist and newspaper owner. Ford commanded men during the Antelope Hills Expedition and he later commanded the Confederate forces in what was arguably the last engagement of the American Civil War, the Battle of Palmito Ranch on May 12–13, 1865. It was a Confederate victory, but as it occurred more than a month after Robert E. Lee's surrender it had no effect on the outcome of the war.
History of Pennsylvania
Prior to and during the Civil War, Pennsylvania was a divided state. Although Pennsylvania had outlawed slavery, many conservative Pennsylvanians believed that the federal government should not interfere with the institution of slavery. One such individual was Democrat James Buchanan, the last pre-Civil War president. Buchanan's party had generally won presidential and gubernatorial elections in Pennsylvania. However, the nascent Republican Party's first convention took place in Philadelphia, and the 1860 elections saw the Republican Party win the state's presidential vote and the governor's office. After the failure of the Crittenden Compromise, the secession of the South, and the Battle of Fort Sumter, the Civil War began with Pennsylvania as a key member of the Union. Despite the Republican victory the 1860 election, Democrats remained powerful in the state, and several "copperheads" called for peace during the war. The Democrats re-took control of the state legislature in the 1862 election, but incumbent Republican Governor Andrew Curtin retained control of the governorship in 1863. In the 1864 election, President Lincoln narrowly defeated Pennsylvania native George B. McClellan for the state's electoral votes.
Western Theater of the American Civil War
Following the victory in Nashville, Maj. Gen. Thomas dispatched Maj. Gen. James H. Wilson to destroy the last remaining industrial infrastructure in the Confederate heartlands of Alabama and Georgia and Maj. Gen. Edward R. S. Canby to finally capture Mobile, which had remained in Confederate hands despite Admiral's Farragut's victory in Mobile Bay.
John T. Croxton
In 1864, he was promoted to brigadier general at the age of 27, leading a cavalry brigade in the Army of the Cumberland during the Atlanta Campaign. His cavalry was active in Alabama during the final months of the war. On April 4, 1865, his force of 1,500 men seized Tuscaloosa, strengthening the Union army's grip on central Alabama and eliminating one of the Confederacy's last major supply and munitions centers. In the process, they burned most of the University of Alabama's buildings, as well as much of the town's industry and warehouses. On April 23, 1865, Croxton's troops fought the Battle of Munford near Talladega, Alabama, defeating several hundred Confederate troops under General Benjamin Jefferson Hill. This is said to have been the last battle of the Civil War, east of the Mississippi.
Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War
Isolated from events in the east, the Civil War continued at a low level in the Trans-Mississippi theater for several months after Lee's surrender in April 1865. The last battle of the war occurred at Palmito Ranch in southern Texas from May 12–13. The battle ended in a Confederate victory.
Bentonville Battlefield
The Battle of Bentonville was fought March 19–21, 1865, and was the largest Civil War battle fought in North Carolina. The Confederate defeat marked a serious weakening of one of its last surviving major armies, but was a significant enough engagement that it convinced Union General Ulysses S. Grant to leave General William T. Sherman in North Carolina, in order to further subdue the surviving forces led by General Joseph E. Johnston.
Nancy, Kentucky
On January 19, 1862, during the American Civil War, Union forces achieved their first significant victory, defeating the Confederates at the Battle of Mill Springs near Nancy.
Conclusion of the American Civil War
Thus the final Confederate surrender of the war did not occur until November 6, 1865, when Waddell's ship reached Liverpool and was surrendered to Capt. R. N. Paynter, commander of of the British Royal Navy. The "Shenandoah" was officially surrendered by letter to the British Prime Minister, the Earl Russell. Ultimately, after an investigation by the British Admiralty court, Waddell and his crew were exonerated of doing anything that violated the laws of war and were unconditionally released. "Shenandoah" herself was sold to Sultan Majid bin Said of Zanzibar in 1866 and renamed "El Majidi". Several of the crew moved to Argentina to become farmers and eventually returned to the United States.
Army of the Trans-Mississippi
The Army of the Trans-Mississippi originally numbered well over 50,000 troops, but fewer than 43,000 were available by the end of the war. Major campaigns included Sibley's New Mexico campaign, Banks' Red River campaign, and Price's Missouri campaign. The last battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Palmito Ranch, was fought on May 12-13 1865 by units of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi.
Siege of Port Hudson
The Siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana (May 22 – July 9, 1863), was the final engagement in the Union campaign to recapture the Mississippi in the American Civil War.
Troop engagements of the American Civil War, 1865
This is a list of battles and skirmishes of the American Civil War during the year 1865, the final year of the war. During the year, Union forces were able to capture the last major Confederate ports still open to shipping, along with the Confederate capital, and forced the surrender of the four major Confederate commands.
Wilcox County, Georgia
Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America spent his last night of freedom at the end of the Civil War in Wilcox County, before being captured by Union troops. His capture marked the end of the Confederacy.
Battle of Chancellorsville
The Battle of Chancellorsville was a major battle of the American Civil War (1861–1865), and the principal engagement of the Chancellorsville Campaign. It was fought from April 30 to May 6, 1863, in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, near the village of Chancellorsville. Two related battles were fought nearby on May 3 in the vicinity of Fredericksburg. The campaign pitted Union Army Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's Army of the Potomac against an army less than half its size, General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Chancellorsville is known as Lee's "perfect battle" because his risky decision to divide his army in the presence of a much larger enemy force resulted in a significant Confederate victory. The victory, a product of Lee's audacity and Hooker's timid decision making, was tempered by heavy casualties, including Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. Jackson was hit by friendly fire, requiring his left arm to be amputated; he died of pneumonia eight days later, a loss that Lee likened to losing his right arm. Lee's difficulty in replacing his lost men as well as his inability to prevent the Union Withdrawal effectively have led to his great victory being regarded as a Pyrrhic one.
Danville Leadbetter
Leadbetter's last Confederate command was the District of the Gulf (Department of Alabama, Mississippi, & East Louisiana) from November 22 to December 12, 1864. There is no record of him receiving a parole from the U.S. Government when the Civil War ended.
Second Battle of Kernstown
The Second Battle of Kernstown was fought on July 24, 1864, at Kernstown, Virginia, outside Winchester, Virginia, as part of the Valley Campaigns of 1864 in the American Civil War. The Confederate Army of the Valley under Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early soundly defeated the Union Army of West Virginia under Brig. Gen. George Crook and drove it from the Shenandoah Valley back over the Potomac River into Maryland. As a result, Early was able to launch the Confederacy's last major raid into northern territory, attacking the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in Maryland and West Virginia and burning Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, in retaliation for the burning of civilian houses and farms earlier in the campaign.
Border states (American Civil War)
Bowling Green was occupied by the Confederates until February 1862, when General Grant moved from Missouri, through Kentucky, along the Tennessee line. Confederate Governor Johnson fled Bowling Green with the Confederate state records, headed south, and joined Confederate forces in Tennessee. After Johnson was killed fighting in the Battle of Shiloh, Richard Hawes was named Confederate governor of Kentucky. Shortly afterwards, the Provisional Confederate States Congress was adjourned on February 17, 1862, on the eve of inauguration of a permanent Congress. However, as Union occupation henceforth dominated the state, the Kentucky Confederate government, as of 1863, existed only on paper. Its representation in the permanent Confederate Congress was minimal. It was dissolved when the Civil War ended in the spring of 1865.
Mount Sterling, Kentucky
During the Civil War the town was occupied alternately by Union and Confederate troops on multiple occasions. The Battle of Mt. Sterling in June 1864, which ended in a Confederate defeat, was the last of the fighting in Montgomery County.
North Carolina in the American Civil War
Fighting continued in North Carolina sporadically throughout the war. In 1864, the Confederates assumed the offensive in North Carolina, trying to recover some of the territory lost to Burnside's expedition. They failed to retake New Bern, but reconquered Plymouth and held it for 6 months. Moreover, the Union army launched several attempts to seize Fort Fisher. In the war's closing days, a large Federal force under General Sherman marched into North Carolina, and in a series of movements that became known as the Carolinas Campaign, occupied much of the state and defeated the Confederates in several key battles, including Averasborough and Bentonville. The surrender of General Joseph E. Johnston's Confederate army at Bennett Place in April 1865 essentially ended the war in the Eastern Theater.
Bennett Place
Bennett Place, Durham, North Carolina, was the site of the last surrender of a major Confederate army in the American Civil War, when Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to William T. Sherman. The first meeting (17 April 1865) saw Sherman agreeing to certain political demands by the Confederates, which were promptly rejected by the Union cabinet in Washington. Another meeting had to be held (26 April) to agree military terms only, in line with Robert E. Lee’s recent surrender to Ulysses S. Grant. This effectively ended the war.
Shreveport, Louisiana
Isolated from events in the east, the Civil War continued in the Trans-Mississippi theater for several weeks after Robert E. Lee's surrender in April 1865, and the Trans-Mississippi was the last Confederate command to surrender, on May 26, 1865. "The period May 13-21, 1865, was filled with great uncertainly after soldiers learned of the surrenders of Lee and Johnston, the Good Friday assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the rapid departure of their own generals." In the confusion there was a breakdown of military discipline and rioting by soldiers. They destroyed buildings containing service records, a loss that later made it difficult for many to gain Confederate pensions from state governments.
Indian Territory in the American Civil War
At Fort Towson in Choctaw lands, General Stand Watie officially became the last Confederate general to surrender on June 25, 1865. Watie went to Washington, D.C. later that year for negotiations on behalf of his tribe; as the principal chief of the pro-Confederacy group elected in 1862, he was seeking recognition of a Southern Cherokee Nation. He did not return home until May 1866. The US government negotiated only with the Cherokee who had supported the Union; it named John Ross as the rightful principal chief (he had gone into exile in 1862 when the majority supported the Confederacy).
Confederate States of America
Confederate control over its claimed territory and population in congressional districts steadily shrank from 73% to 34% during the course of the American Civil War due to the Union's successful overland campaigns, its control of the inland waterways into the South, and its blockade of the southern coast. With the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, the Union made abolition of slavery a war goal (in addition to reunion). As Union forces moved southward, large numbers of plantation slaves were freed. Many joined the Union lines, enrolling in service as soldiers, teamsters and laborers. The most notable advance was Sherman's "March to the Sea" in late 1864. Much of the Confederacy's infrastructure was destroyed, including telegraphs, railroads and bridges. Plantations in the path of Sherman's forces were severely damaged. Internal movement became increasingly difficult for Southerners, weakening the economy and limiting army mobility.
Cherokee in the American Civil War
For the duration of the war, a series of small battles and constant guerrilla warfare were waged by Cherokee in the Indian Territory. Stand Watie officially became the last Confederate general to end fighting on June 25, 1865 at Fort Towson, in the southeast portion of the Indian Territory. The terms of the armistice allowed Watie and his command, the First Indian Brigade of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi, to demobilize rather than surrender and go home with their arms.
American Civil War
At the Battle of Shiloh (Pittsburg Landing), in Tennessee in April 1862, the Confederates made a surprise attack that pushed Union forces against the river as night fell. Overnight, the Navy landed additional reinforcements, and Grant counter-attacked. Grant and the Union won a decisive victory—the first battle with the high casualty rates that would repeat over and over. The Confederates lost Albert Sidney Johnston, considered their finest general before the emergence of Lee.
Wilson's Raid
In a separate battle on Easter Sunday, April 16, Wilson was victorious in the Battle of Columbus, Georgia, in which Upton's division clashed with Confederate forces at Columbus, capturing the city and its naval works and burning, then scuttling the incomplete ironclad ram, CSS "Jackson". This engagement is widely regarded as the "Last Battle of the Civil War." On April 20, Wilson's men captured Macon, Georgia, without resistance, and Wilson's Raid came to an end. This was only six days before General Joseph E. Johnston's surrender of all Confederate troops in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida to William Tecumseh Sherman, in North Carolina.
Military history of African Americans in the American Civil War
In the last few months of the war, the Confederate government agreed to exchange of all prisoners, White and Black, and several thousand troops were exchanged until the surrender of the Confederacy ended all hostilities.
Battle of Columbus (1865)
Insofar as the surrender of the bulk of Confederates on April 26, 1865, at Bennett Place, North Carolina, marked the effective end of the war (as many state governments maintained), the Battle at Columbus was the last battle of the Civil War. President Andrew Johnson, who had succeeded Lincoln, declared the war over on May 10, 1865. This was the day that President Jefferson Davis was captured. Johnson characterized remaining resisters as no longer combatants, but "fugitives."
American Civil War
On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth, a Southern sympathizer. Lincoln died early the next morning, and Andrew Johnson became the president. Meanwhile, Confederate forces across the South surrendered as news of Lee's surrender reached them. On April 26, 1865, General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered nearly 90,000 men of the Army of Tennessee to Major General William T. Sherman at the Bennett Place near present-day Durham, North Carolina. It proved to be the largest surrender of Confederate forces, effectively bringing the war to an end. President Johnson officially declared a virtual end to the insurrection on May 9, 1865; President Jefferson Davis was captured the following day. On June 2, Kirby Smith officially surrendered his troops in the Trans-Mississippi Department. On June 23, Cherokee leader Stand Watie became the last Confederate general to surrender his forces.
African Americans
In 1863, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation declared that all slaves in Confederate-held territory were free. Advancing Union troops enforced the proclamation with Texas being the last state to be emancipated, in 1865.
Slavery in Union-held Confederate territory continued, at least on paper, until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. Prior to the Civil War, only white men of property could vote, and the Naturalization Act of 1790 limited U.S. citizenship to whites only. The 14th Amendment (1868) gave African-Americans citizenship, and the 15th Amendment (1870) gave African-American males the right to vote (only males could vote in the U.S. at the time).
American Civil War
Hostilities began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter. While in the Western Theater the Union made significant permanent gains, in the Eastern Theater, the battle was inconclusive during 1861–1862. Later, in September 1862, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of its western armies, and seized New Orleans. The successful 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lee's Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg. Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grant's command of all Union armies in 1864. Inflicting an ever-tightening naval blockade of Confederate ports, the Union marshaled the resources and manpower to attack the Confederacy from all directions, leading to the fall of Atlanta to William T. Sherman and his march to the sea. The last significant battles raged around the Siege of Petersburg. Lee's escape attempt ended with his surrender at Appomattox Court House, on April 9, 1865. While the military war was coming to an end, the political reintegration of the nation was to take another 12 years, known as the Reconstruction Era.
Cyrus B. Comstock
In March 1865, Grant again dispatched Comstock to aid in a key siege operation—this time to Mobile, Alabama, the last Confederate stronghold on the Gulf of Mexico. There Comstock served under Maj. Gen. Edward Canby and assisted in operations leading to the surrender of Mobile after the Battle of Spanish Fort and the Battle of Fort Blakely in April 1865. While Comstock was serving in Alabama, Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant after the Battle of Appomattox Courthouse, essentially ending the Civil War. On January 13, 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Comstock for the award of the honorary grade of brevet major general, U.S. Volunteers, to rank from March 26, 1865, for faithful and meritorious services during the campaign against the city of Mobile and its defenses, and the U.S. Senate confirmed the award on March 12, 1866. On April 10, 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Comstock for the award of the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general, U.S. Army, (Regular Army), to rank from March 13, 1865, for gallant and meritorious services in the campaign ending with the capture of Mobile, Alabama, and the U.S. Senate confirmed the award on May 4, 1866.
Wilson's Creek Confederate order of battle
The following Confederate States Army units and commanders fought in the Battle of Wilson's Creek of the American Civil War, fought on August 10, 1861 near Springfield, Missouri. Though identified with the Confederates, the Missouri State Guard were technically an independent army, as Missouri had not yet seceded, and were not folded into the Confederate Army of the West until March 17, 1862. Though identified with the Confederates, the Arkansas State Trooops were technically not yet Confederate troops. Arkansas had seceded on XX and be recognized as a Confederate States, but Brigadier General Nichols Pearce's troops had not been transferred from the State of Arkansas to the Confederate Government and had not been sworn into Confederate Service. After the battle, Pearce's troops voted to disband rather than enter Confederate Service.
List of naval battles of the American Civil War
The first shots of the naval war were fired on April 13, 1861, during the Battle of Fort Sumter, by the US Revenue Cutter Service cutter USRC "Harriet Lane". The final shots were fired on June 22, 1865, by the Confederate raider CSS "Shenandoah" in the Bering Strait, more than two months after General Robert E. Lee's surrender of the Confederate Army.
Siege of Vicksburg
The Siege of Vicksburg (May 18 – July 4, 1863) was the final major military action in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of maneuvers, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate Army of Mississippi, led by Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton, into the defensive lines surrounding the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi.
Eastern Theater of the American Civil War
There were further minor battles and surrenders of Confederate armies, but Lee's surrender on April 9, 1865, marked the effective end of the Civil War. Lee, rejecting advice from some of his staff, wanted to ensure that his army did not melt away into the countryside to continue the war as guerrillas, helping to heal the divisions of the country.
Eastern Theater of the American Civil War
The first significant battle of the war took place in eastern Virginia on June 10. Union Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler, based at Fort Monroe, sent converging columns from Hampton and Newport News against advanced Confederate outposts. At Big Bethel, near Fort Monroe, Colonel John B. Magruder won the first Confederate victory.
Conclusion of the American Civil War
The Confederates lost the city of Spanish Fort in Alabama at the Battle of Spanish Fort, which took place between March 27 and April 8, 1865 in Baldwin County. After losing Spanish Fort, the Confederates went on to lose Fort Blakely to Union forces at the Battle of Fort Blakely, between April 2 and 9, 1865. This was the last battle of the American Civil War involving large numbers of United States Colored Troops.
Alabama in the American Civil War
The Magee Farm, north of Mobile, was the site of preliminary arrangements for the surrender of the last Confederate States Army east of the Mississippi River. Confederate General Richard Taylor negotiated a ceasefire with Union General Edward Canby at the house on April 29, 1865. Taylor's forces, comprising 47,000 Confederate troops serving in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, were the last remaining Confederate force east of the Mississippi River.
1st West Virginia Volunteer Cavalry Regiment
Capehart's men used sabers, carbines, and revolvers to move through three Confederate infantry lines. A large portion of Ewell's corps became surrounded, causing many of the demoralized Confederate soldiers to surrender. Thus, the Union troops captured more than 20 percent of Lee's army. Approximately 8,000 Confederate soldiers, including eight generals, were killed or captured. Among the surrendering generals was the corps commander Ewell. Another general captured was Custis Lee, eldest son of the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, Robert E. Lee. Upon seeing the battered survivors from his army, Robert E. Lee said "My God, has the army dissolved?" Although many men from General Richard H. Anderson's IV Corps escaped westward, the battle is considered the "death knell" for Lee's Confederate Army. The Battle of Sailor's Creek was the last major battle of the American Civil War.
Fort Towson
At the beginning of the American Civil War, the Confederacy took over the remaining buildings of the fort. They had created an alliance with the Choctaw, promising them and other tribes a state of their own if the Confederacy won their war. The fort was used as the headquarters of Confederate General Samuel B. Maxey. The last remaining Confederate Army troops were commanded by General Stand Watie (Cherokee), a principal chief of his nation until the end of the war. He surrendered to Union forces at Fort Towson on June 23, 1865.
Mobile–Tensaw River Delta
The last important battle of the American Civil War took place at the fortified town of Blakeley, located on the edge of the delta.
Kansas in the American Civil War
On October 25, 1864, a series of three battles occurred, the first two in Linn County, Kansas, with the final in Vernon County, Missouri. The first was the Battle of Marais des Cygnes (also called the "Battle of Trading Post"), the second, a cavalry battle, was the Battle of Mine Creek, a significant battle between mounted cavalry for Confederate forces and several brigades of Union cavalry that were pursuing General Price. They were between Major General Sterling Price, leading the Missouri expedition, against Union forces under Major General Alfred Pleasonton. Price, after going south from Kansas City, was initially met by Pleasonton at Marais des Cygnes. At the end of the day, the Confederate army as an effective fighting force was decimated and forced to withdraw into Arkansas.
LeRoy Pope Walker
In April 1861, shortly after the Civil War began with the bombardment of Fort Sumter by rebel forces, Walker predicted that Washington, D.C. and Boston would fall to the Confederacy before May 1 of that year. However, this never happened, and the last time that General Robert E. Lee's army ever invaded the North was his Pennsylvania Campaign, which ended at the Battle of Gettysburg, which the Union forces won. The Confederacy would never again attempt to invade the Union after that.
Last surviving Confederate veterans
In his 1991 article in "Blue & Gray" magazine, Marvel confirmed Albert Woolson's (February 11, 1847(?), or 1850 – August 2, 1956) claim to be the last surviving Union Army veteran and asserted that Woolson was the last genuine surviving American Civil War veteran from either side. Woolson was a drummer whose company did not see combat. Union Army veteran James Albert Hard (July 15, 1843 – March 12, 1953) was the last verified surviving American Civil War veteran who was in combat.
Racial equality
Slavery was the key to the start of the bloodiest and most traumatic war in American history. The American Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865. By 1860 one in three persons in the Southern States belonged to another. In a population of twelve million, four million were slaves. In September 1862 Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation, which avowed the aim of freeing the slaves in the Confederacy, and made abolition one of the North's central war aims. The North took the victory. Did the end of the war represent a gain or a loss for the country? The war represents a defeat for freedom simply to be let alone, for the beneficiaries of inherited wealth or those who prefer to live on the margins of society, but a victory for those, like the immigrants from Europe and the newly emancipated blacks, who needed government to provide the necessary conditions for the pursuit of happiness.
CSS Muscogee
On 16 April 1865, while still needing fitting out, "Jackson" was set ablaze, then scuttled by the Union's Wilson's Raiders during the Battle of Columbus, Georgia. This engagement is widely regarded as the "Last Battle of the Civil War." (On April 20, Wilson's men captured Macon, Georgia without resistance, and Wilson's Raid came to an end. This was only six days prior to General Joseph E. Johnston's surrender of all Confederate troops in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida to William Tecumseh Sherman in North Carolina.)
Cherokee
Watie was elected Principal Chief of the pro-Confederacy majority. A master of hit-and-run cavalry tactics, Watie fought those Cherokee loyal to John Ross and Federal troops in Indian Territory and Arkansas, capturing Union supply trains and steamboats, and saving a Confederate army by covering their retreat after the Battle of Pea Ridge in March 1862. He became a Brigadier General of the Confederate States; the only other American Indian to hold the rank in the American Civil War was Ely S. Parker with the Union Army. On June 25, 1865, two months after Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Stand Watie became the last Confederate General to stand down.
Battle of Columbus (1865)
The Battle of Columbus, Georgia (April 16, 1865), was the last conflict in the Union campaign through Alabama and Georgia, known as Wilson's Raid, in the final phase of the American Civil War.
Historical characters in the Southern Victory Series
James G. Blaine was the second and last Republican president of the United States. Elected over Democratic incumbent Samuel J. Tilden in 1880, he was also known as the only other president to start a war (over the CSA's purchase of the states of Chihuahua and Sonora, giving the Confederacy a Pacific port) and to lose the war as well. At the end of The Second Mexican War, Blaine started the U.S. tradition of Remembrance Day and also started the alliance with the German Empire, which developed into The Central Powers of the Great War. As a result of the Us' defeat in the Second Mexican War, Blaine would end up loosing the 1884 presidential election in a landslide.
Battle of Barbourville
The Battle of Barbourville was one of the early engagements of the American Civil War. It took place on September 19, 1861, in Knox County, Kentucky during the campaign known as the Kentucky Confederate Offensive. The battle is considered the first Confederate victory in the commonwealth, and threw a scare into Federal commanders, who rushed troops to central Kentucky to try to repel the invasion, which was finally stopped at the Battle of Camp Wildcat in October.
Charles Augustus Lafayette Lamar
During the Civil War, Lamar initially organized and commanded the 7th Georgia Battalion. After it was merged with the 61st Georgia Infantry, he returned to civilian life. He worked with his father in the Importing and Exporting Company of Georgia, which supported blockade runners to keep open trade between the Confederacy and the North, as well as having extensive trade relations with England and France. Toward the end of the war, Lamar returned to military service and held the rank of Colonel. He was the last Confederate killed in the Civil War, at the Battle of Columbus (1865).
Western Theater of the American Civil War
When he received word of Lee's and Johnston's surrenders, Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor, commander of the Confederate Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana, surrendered his forces to Canby on May 4, while Forrest formally surrendered his force on May 9. Wilson's cavalry officially took control of Tallahassee, Florida, on May 20, the last Confederate state capital east of the Mississippi to be captured, completing the Western Theater operations. A detachment of Wilson's cavalry captured Confederate President Jefferson Davis on May 10 near Irwinville, Georgia.
James H. Wilson
Returning to the Western Theater, Wilson became one of the few Union commanders to defeat Confederate cavalier Nathan Bedford Forrest in battle - at the Battle of Franklin in November 1864 and again during his raid through Alabama and Georgia in March and April 1865. Wilson ended the war with his men capturing both Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Andersonville Prison commandant Henry Wirz in May 1865. Upon his death in 1925, he was the fourth-to-last living Union Civil War general.
American Civil War
The war ended when General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of Appomattox Court House. Confederate generals throughout the southern states followed suit. Much of the South's infrastructure was destroyed, especially the transportation systems. The Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, and four million black slaves were freed. During the Reconstruction Era that followed the war, national unity was slowly restored, the national government expanded its power, and civil rights were guaranteed to freed black slaves through amendments to the Constitution and federal legislation.
Battle of Camp Wildcat
The Battle of Camp Wildcat (also known as Wildcat Mountain and Camp Wild Cat) was one of the early engagements of the American Civil War (Civil War). It occurred October 21, 1861, in northern Laurel County, Kentucky during the campaign known as the Kentucky Confederate Offensive or Operations in Eastern Kentucky (1861). The battle is considered one of the first Union victories of the Civil War, and marked the second engagement of troops in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Union Army
The decisive victories by Grant and Sherman resulted in the surrender of the major Confederate armies. The first and most significant was on April 9, 1865, when Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant at Appomattox Court House. Although there were other Confederate armies that surrendered in the following weeks, such as Joseph E. Johnston's in North Carolina, this date was nevertheless symbolic of the end of the bloodiest war in American history, the end of the Confederate States of America, and the beginning of the slow process of Reconstruction.
Conclusion of the American Civil War
Unaware of Lee's surrender on April 9 and the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, General James H. Wilson's Raiders continued their march through Alabama into Georgia. On April 16, the Battle of Columbus, Georgia was fought. This battle – erroneously – has been argued to be the "last battle of the Civil War" and equally erroneously asserted to be "widely regarded" as such. Columbus fell to Wilson's Raiders about midnight on April 16, and most of its manufacturing capacity was destroyed on the 17th. Confederate Colonel John Stith Pemberton, the inventor of Coca-Cola, was wounded in this battle which resulted in his obsession with pain-killing formulas, ultimately ending in the recipe for his celebrated drink.
Kansas City, Missouri
During the Civil War, the city and its immediate surroundings were the focus of intense military activity. Although the First Battle of Independence in August 1862 resulted in a Confederate States Army victory, the Confederates were unable to leverage their win in any significant fashion, as Kansas City was occupied by Union troops and proved too heavily fortified to assault. The Second Battle of Independence, which occurred on October 21–22, 1864 as part of Sterling Price's Missouri expedition of 1864, also resulted in a Confederate triumph. Once again their victory proved hollow, as Price was decisively defeated in the pivotal Battle of Westport the next day, effectively ending Confederate efforts to regain Missouri.
Springfield, Missouri
The Union and Confederate armies both recognized the city's strategic importance and sought to control it. They fought the Battle of Wilson's Creek on August 10, 1861, a few miles southwest of town. The battle was a Confederate victory, and Nathaniel Lyon became the first Union General killed in Civil War. Union troops retreated to Lebanon to regroup. When they returned, they found that most of the Confederate army had withdrawn.
Battle of Columbus (1865)
The Battle of Palmito Ranch took place on May 13. Some claim that this was the last battle of the war, rejecting President Johnson's definition and preferring to refer to the Confederates there as "organized forces" of the Confederacy.
2nd West Virginia Volunteer Cavalry Regiment
Capehart and Lieutenant Colonel Allen of the 2nd West Virginia Cavalry led the charge. Thomas Custer, brother of General George Custer, rode with the two leaders at the front of the column. The men used sabers, carbines, and revolvers to move through three Confederate infantry lines. A large portion of Ewell's corps became surrounded, causing many of the demoralized Confederate soldiers to surrender. Thus, the Union troops captured more than 20 percent of Lee's army. Approximately 8,000 Confederate soldiers, including eight generals, were killed or captured. Among the surrendering generals were Richard Ewell and Custis Lee. Upon seeing the battered survivors from his army, Lee said "My God, has the army dissolved?" Although many of Anderson's men escaped westward, the battle is considered the "death knell" for Lee's Confederate Army. 
The Battle of Sailor's Creek is the last major battle of the American Civil War. Two privates (Joseph Kimball and ) from the 2nd West Virginia Cavalry captured Confederate battle flags in this battle, and were later awarded the Medal of Honor. Thomas Custer, who was not part of the Capehart's brigade (but rode with it), also received a Medal of Honor. Custer was shot in the face as he captured a battle flag. Custer killed the shooter in the instant after he was shot. The non-lethal shot exited Custer's cheek, and he was able to return to the safety of the Union lines.
Battle of Columbus (1865)
Immediately after the victory at Columbus, Wilson led his raiders east to Macon, Georgia and occupied that city without resistance. Ten days after the Battle of Columbus, the last great army of the Confederacy, under General Joseph E. Johnston, surrendered at Bennett Place, North Carolina. The American Civil War had come to an end.
Appomattox Campaign
The Appomattox Campaign was a series of American Civil War battles fought March 29 – April 9, 1865 in Virginia that concluded with the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia to forces of the Union Army (Army of the Potomac, Army of the James and Army of the Shenandoah) under the overall command of Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, marking the effective end of the war.
Texas in the American Civil War
Union forces from Brazos Island launched the Brazos Santiago Expedition, leading to the last battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Palmito Ranch, fought in Texas on May 12, 1865, well after Robert E. Lee's surrender on April 9, 1865, at Old Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
Robert C. Tyler
Robert Charles Tyler (December 4, 1832 – April 16, 1865) was a Confederate Brigadier General during the American Civil War. He was the last general killed in the conflict.
Wilkes County, Georgia
None of the battles of the American Civil War was fought in or near Wilkes County. But it was here, on the site of the present Wilkes County Courthouse in Washington, that President Jefferson Davis met for the final time with the Confederate Cabinet. They officially dissolved the government of the Confederate States of America. Wilkes County was the last-known location of the gold rumored to have been lost from the Confederate Treasury.
Union Navy
The final important naval action of the war was the second assault on Fort Fisher, at the mouth of the Cape Fear River in North Carolina. It was one of the few actions of the war on the coast in which the Army and Navy cooperated fully. The capture of the fort sealed off Wilmington, the last Confederate port to remain open. The death of the Confederacy followed in a little more than three months.
Battle of Cold Harbor
The Battle of Cold Harbor was fought during the American Civil War near Mechanicsville, Virginia, from May 31 to June 12, 1864, with the most significant fighting occurring on June 3. It was one of the final battles of Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign, and is remembered as one of American history's bloodiest, most lopsided battles. Thousands of Union soldiers were killed or wounded in a hopeless frontal assault against the fortified positions of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's army.
Battle of Munford
The Battle of Munford took place in Munford, Alabama, on Sunday, April 23, 1865, during the raid through the state by 1,500 Union Army cavalrymen under General John T. Croxton, part of the force participating in Wilson's Raid. The Battle of Munford and a minor action at Hendersonville, North Carolina on the same day were the last battles of the American Civil War in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War (east of the Mississippi River).
Battle of West Point
Union casualties were seven men killed and twenty-nine wounded. The Confederates' losses were nineteen killed, twenty-eight wounded, and two hundred eighteen captured. The death of Brigadier General Tyler is noted as the last Confederate general to die in a battle. The Confederates who died were buried in what is now known as the Fort Tyler Cemetery in town on the east side of the river. It is believed but not confirmed that the Union dead were buried there as well. In addition, at least 50 other unknown Civil War soldiers are interred there.
The Harmony Skirmish
The Harmony Skirmish was a small engagement of the American Civil War between Confederate forces under Colonel John Mosby and Union forces under Colonel Marcus Reno on March 21, 1865 near the village of Harmony (present day Hamilton) in Loudoun County, Virginia. A union raiding party, that was sent into Loudoun County to eliminate Confederate partisans, was ambushed by Mosby's Rangers near the village of Harmony. After inflicting light casualties on the Federals, the Rangers were unable to drive off the numerically superior and better equipped force and were compelled to withdrawal. The skirmish, which was the last major action of the war within Loudoun, was tactically inconclusive.
New Hanover County, North Carolina
By 1860, the county seat and county were majority-black in population, with most of those people enslaved. 
Some of the closing battles of the American Civil War took place in this county, including the Second Battle of Fort Fisher (the last major coastal stronghold of the Confederacy) and the Battle of Wilmington. Conservative white Democrats were resentful when freedmen were given the vote.
Battle of Fort Blakeley
The Battle of Blakeley was the final major battle of the Civil War, with surrender just hours after Grant had defeated Lee at Appomattox on the morning of April 9, 1865. Mobile, Alabama was the last major Confederate port to be captured by Union forces, on April 12, 1865. After the assassination of President Lincoln on April 15, 1865, other Confederate surrenders continued into May 1865.
Kirksville, Missouri
The Battle of Kirksville was fought August 6–9, 1862, during the American Civil War. Union troops led by John McNeil forced Confederate volunteers under Joseph Porter to vacate the city. Casualty estimates (almost entirely Confederate) range from 150-200 dead and up to 400 wounded. According to the August 12, 1862, "Quincy Herald" there were 8 Federal dead and 25 wounded. The victorious Union commander, Colonel McNeil, gained brief national attention for his post-battle execution of a small number of Confederate prisoners. These prisoners had been previously captured in battle and then paroled with the understanding they would no longer take up arms against the Union, upon penalty of death if recaptured. Nonetheless, Confederate government officials were outraged, and it is said that Confederate president Jefferson Davis even called for the execution of Colonel (later Brigadier General) McNeil if he were to be captured.
Wilson's Raid
The Battle of West Point, Georgia, was fought on Easter Sunday, April 16, when Colonel Oscar Hugh La Grange's brigade attacked an earthwork defensive position named Fort Tyler that was defended by a couple hundred young men and teenaged Confederates under CS Brig. Gen. Robert C. Tyler. Determined to fight to the last ditch, the Confederates fought a wave of dismounted Union troops. The Confederates did not stand a chance as they were largely outnumbered and poorly armed, whereas the Federals were armed with repeaters. The Union soldiers crossed over a ditch while the rebels hurled primitive hand-grenades and fired their weapons. Although the Union men had to assault under the fire of one 32-pounder gun and two 12-pounders inside the earthwork, the fort was captured. Confederate Brig. Gen. Robert C. Tyler was mortally wounded by a sharpshooter, becoming the last general officer to be killed in the Civil War.
Fayetteville, North Carolina
In March 1865, Gen. William T. Sherman and his 60,000-man army attacked Fayetteville and destroyed the Confederate arsenal (designed by the Scottish architect William Bell). Sherman's troops also destroyed foundries and cotton factories, and the offices of "The Fayetteville Observer". Not far from Fayetteville, Confederate and Union troops engaged in the last cavalry battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Monroe's Crossroads.
Peterson Goodwyn
By 1835, a post office on the stage road in southern Dinwiddie County was called Goodwynsville, which still existed in 1892. A descendant of the same name, Peterson M. Goodwyn, served in the 12th Virginia Infantry during the American Civil War. However, even the tavern which once stood at Goodwynsville has disappeared; after the Civil War, a railroad linked Petersburg to North Carolina through Dinwiddie County, which led to the development of McKinney, Virginia but Goodwynsville languished. The wooden plantation house that Goodwyn called "Sweden" was near collapse by 1900. The nearest town is Sutherland, Virginia, which was the site of a Confederate defeat on April 2, 1865 which led to disruption of the South Side Railroad, the last Confederate supply line in the closing days of the Appomattox Campaign that ended the American Civil War. A chimney, stone foundation and graveyard existed about a mile past the intersection of county roads 613 and 631. Patrick Magruder (1768-1819) who married Goodwyn's daughter Martha (-1816) and served one term in Congress from Maryland (1805-1807) before becoming both clerk of the House of Representatives and the Second Librarian of Congress until retiring for health reasons in 1815 is also buried in the family graveyard.
Battle of New Bern (1864)
The Battle of New Bern was fought during the American Civil War from February 1–3, 1864. The battle resulted in a failure to Confederate forces trying to recapture the coastal town of New Bern which had been lost to the Union Army in 1862.
Battle of Fort Stedman
The Battle of Fort Stedman, also known as the Battle of Hare's Hill, was fought on March 25, 1865, during the final weeks of the American Civil War. The Union Army fortification in the siege lines around Petersburg, Virginia, was attacked in a pre-dawn Confederate assault by troops led by Maj. Gen. John B. Gordon. The attack was the last serious attempt by Confederate troops to break the Siege of Petersburg. After an initial success, Gordon's men were driven back by Union troops of the IX Corps commanded by Maj. Gen. John G. Parke.
Campaign of the Carolinas
The Campaign of the Carolinas (January 1 – April 26, 1865), also known as the Carolinas Campaign, was the final campaign conducted by the United States Army (Union army) against the Confederate States Army in the Western Theater. On January 1st, Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman advanced north from Savannah, Georgia, through the Carolinas, with the intention of linking up with Union forces in Virginia. The defeat of Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's army at the Battle of Bentonville, and its unconditional surrender to Union forces on April 26, 1865, effectively ended the American Civil War.
List of Medal of Honor recipients for the Second Battle of Fort Fisher
The Second Battle of Fort Fisher was a joint assault by Union Army and naval forces against the Confederate Fort Fisher, outside Wilmington, North Carolina, near the end of the American Civil War. Sometimes referred to as the "Gibraltar of the South" and the last major coastal stronghold of the Confederacy, Fort Fisher had tremendous strategic value during the war. The Medal of Honor was awarded to 54 Union servicemen for their actions during this battle.
Appomattox Campaign Confederate order of battle
The following Confederate States Army units and commanders fought in the final military encounter of the American Civil War, the 1865 Appomattox Campaign, which lasted from March 29 to April 9 and resulted in Confederate surrender on April 9 at the Appomattox Court House. Order of battle has been compiled from the army organization during the campaign. The Union order of battle is listed separately.
Gen Robert E. Lee, Commanding
Staff:
Battle of Columbus (1865)
Several authorities claim Columbus should be classified as the last battle of the Civil War, while others point to a battle which occurred after the Confederacy was vanquished, the Battle of Palmito Ranch. The Battle of Columbus is also known as the Battle of Girard, Alabama (now Phenix City).
Lincolnton, North Carolina
Most of the Civil War battles took place elsewhere but Lincoln County men fought for the Confederacy. Among them was Confederate Major General Stephen Dodson Ramseur, who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Cedar Creek in the final year of the Civil War. He came from Lincolnton and his body was returned there for burial. Confederate Missionary Bishop Henry C. Lay spent the final months of the Civil War in the town. In the closing months of the war, Union forces occupied Lincoln County on Easter Monday, 1865.
Charles Augustus Lafayette Lamar
As the war was winding down, Lamar re-entered the Confederate army as a colonel on the staff of General Howell Cobb. Lamar was shot and killed in what is considered to be the last battle of the Civil War at Battle of Columbus (1865), while attempting to lead a charge against Union troops. It was seven days after General Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox. General Sherman reported Lamar's death, and the "Savannah Morning News" wrote that Lamar was "the last man who fell in organized struggle for Southern independence." He was buried at Linwood Cemetery in Columbus. A year later, his family had his remains moved and re-interred at Laurel Grove.
Pennsylvania in the American Civil War
Pennsylvania also saw the Battle of Gettysburg, near Gettysburg. Many historians consider this battle to be a major turning point of the Civil War. Federal dead from this battle rest at Gettysburg National Cemetery, site of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. A number of smaller engagements were also fought in the Keystone State, including the Battle of Hanover, Battle of Carlisle, Battle of Hunterstown, and the Battle of Fairfield, all during the Gettysburg Campaign. The city of York, Pennsylvania, became the largest Northern city to be occupied by Confederate troops when Jubal A. Early's division took control of the town in late June 1863 and extracted a ransom.
Georgia in the American Civil War
Georgia was relatively free from warfare until late 1863. A total of nearly 550 battles and skirmishes occurred within the state, with the majority occurring in the last two years of the conflict. The first major battle in Georgia was a Confederate victory at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863, which was the last major Confederate victory in the west. In 1864 Union general William T. Sherman's armies invaded Georgia as part of the Atlanta Campaign. Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston fought a series of battles, the largest being the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, trying to delay Union armies for as long as possible as he retreated toward Atlanta. Johnston's replacement, Gen. John Bell Hood, attempted several unsuccessful counterattacks at the Battle of Peachtree Creek and the Battle of Atlanta, but Sherman captured Atlanta on September 2, 1864.
Wake County, North Carolina
The Battle at Morrisville Station was fought April 13–15, 1865 in Morrisville, North Carolina during the Carolinas Campaign of the American Civil War. It was the last official battle of the Civil War between the armies of Major General William T. Sherman and General Joseph E. Johnston. General Judson Kilpatrick, commanding officer of the Union cavalry advance, compelled Confederate forces under the command of Generals Wade Hampton III and Joseph Wheeler to withdraw in haste. They had been frantically trying to transport their remaining supplies and wounded by rail westward toward the final Confederate encampment in Greensboro, NC. Kilpatrick used artillery on the heights overlooking Morrisville Station and cavalry charges to push the Confederates out of the small village leaving many needed supplies behind. However, the trains were able to withdraw with wounded from the Battle of Bentonville and the Battle of Averasboro. Later, General Johnston sent a courier to the Federal encampments at Morrisville with a message for Major General Sherman requesting a conference to discuss an armistice. Several days later the two generals met at Bennett Place near Durham on April 17, 1865 to begin discussing the terms of what would become the largest surrender of the war.
Camden Expedition
The Camden Expedition (March 23 – May 3, 1864) was the final campaign conducted by the United States Army (Union army) against the Confederate States Army in Arkansas, during the American Civil War. The offensive was designed to cooperate with Maj. Gen. Banks' movement against Shreveport.
Battle of Fort Stedman
Union casualties in the Battle of Fort Stedman were 1,044 (72 killed, 450 wounded, 522 missing or captured), Confederate casualties a considerably heavier 4,000 (600 killed, 2,400 wounded, 1,000 missing or captured). But more seriously, the Confederate positions were weakened, and irreplaceable men lost. After the battle, Lee's defeat was only a matter of time. His final opportunity to break the Union lines and regain the momentum was gone. The Battle of Fort Stedman was the final offense action of the Army of Northern Virginia. One week later. the Union Army broke the Confederate lines ending the Richmond–Petersburg Campaign. Immediately following was the Appomattox Campaign and the final surrender of Lee's army on April 9, 1865.
Battle of Fort Blakeley
The casualty figures are approximate, but an estimated 75 Confederate soldiers were killed, with over 2,800 captured, and 150 Union troops were killed with 650 wounded during the siege and assault. The siege and capture of Fort Blakeley was basically the last combined-force battle of the war. Yet, it is criticized by some (such as Ulysses S. Grant) as an ineffective contribution to Union war effort due to Canby's lateness in engaging his troops. The battle was actually fought hours after the Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox. The battle is considered the last major battle of the Civil War. African-American forces played a major role in the successful Union attack, with 5,000 colored troops of the Union U.S.C.T. brought through Pensacola, FL.
CSS Shenandoah
The battle ensign of CSS "Shenandoah" is unique amongst the flags of the Confederate States of America as it was the only Confederate flag to circumnavigate the Earth during the Confederacy, and it was the last Confederate flag to be lowered by a combatant unit in the Civil War (in mid-river on the River Mersey at Liverpool, UK, on November 6, 1865).
Indian Territory in the American Civil War
The decisive Union victory at the Battle of Pea Ridge in northwest Arkansas in March 1862 established federal control of Arkansas and Missouri and limited the Confederate government's ability to protect its Indian allies. Stand Watie, who fought at Pea Ridge, and other officers operating out of the Indian Territory had to fight on without support. The Union army recaptured its forts in the territory, but was forced to temporarily abandon them when faced with ongoing raids by Stand Watie; later the Union recaptured them again. Stand Watie was the last Confederate commander in the field to surrender.
Flags of the Confederate States of America
The second national flag was later adapted as a naval ensign, using a shorter 2:3 ratio than the 1:2 ratio adopted by the Confederate Congress for the national flag. This particular battle ensign was the only example taken around the world, finally becoming the last Confederate flag lowered in the Civil War; this happened aboard CSS "Shenandoah" in Liverpool, England on November 7, 1865.
Battle of Chickamauga
The Battle of Chickamauga, fought on September 18 – 20, 1863, between U.S. and Confederate forces in the American Civil War, marked the end of a Union offensive in southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia — the Chickamauga Campaign. It was the first major battle of the war fought in Georgia, the most significant Union defeat in the Western Theater, and involved the second-highest number of casualties after the Battle of Gettysburg.