The Civil War ends – but where?
Next Tuesday, two searchlight beams, rising out of Charleston Harbor, will combine into one, marking the reunion of the United States that occurred 150 years ago.
The first shots of the Civil War, which divided North and South, had been fired on Charleston Harbor’s Fort Sumter four years earlier, in 1861.
But where and when the recent unpleasantness ended – like much about the War Between the States or War of Northern Aggression, depending on your perspective – is not clear.
Four sites – one in North Carolina, two in South Carolina and one in Georgia – can lay claim to being the site of the final meeting of the Cabinet of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, meetings that ended with the surrender of a largest remaining rebel army, the resignation of a Cabinet member, the decision to end fighting and the dissolution of the Confederate government.
Here, a look at the sites:
Charlotte
Fleeing before the fall of Richmond and the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, Charlotte is the final capital of the Confederacy for a week in April 1865. Confederate President Jefferson Davis meets with his cabinet in the city on April 24 and authorizes the surrender of the largest remaining Confederate army, at Durham, N.C. A marker at the site, in Charlotte’s Tryon Plaza, declares it “the last meetings of the Confederate Cabinet.”
Fort Mill
Davis and his Cabinet meet at the William Elliott White Homestead, off S.C. 160, on April 27. At the meeting, South Carolinian George Trenhom resigns as secretary of the treasury and is succeeded by Postmaster John Reagan. A historic marker in the front of the house says it is the site where “Davis held the last meeting of his Cabinet.”
Abbeville
Davis meets May 2 with his advisers and military commanders at the Burt-Starke Home and decides not to continue the war. The birthplace of one of the war’s philosophical fathers, states-rights advocate John C. Calhoun, Abbeville can claim to be the birthplace and deathbed of the Confederacy. Four years earlier, on Nov. 22, 1860, South Carolina’s succession was launched at a meeting held at Abbeville’s Succession Hill.
Washington, Ga.
On May 5, Davis meets with the remnants of his cabinet and declares the Confederacy dissolved.
150 years ago
The end of the Civil War
April 9, 1865: 150 years ago Thursday, , Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Courthouse, Va., to Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses Grant.
April 26: Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrenders the largest remaining Confederate army – and several departments, including South Carolina – at Durham, N.C., to Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman.
May 10: Confederate President Jefferson Davis, a former U.S. senator and secretary of war, is captured by Union forces near Irwindale, Ga.
May 12-13: The last battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Palmito Ranch, is fought in Texas; it is a Confederate victory.
June 23: The last large, organized Confederate force, commanded by Cherokee Brig. Gen. Stand Watie, surrenders in the Indian Territory, now Oklahoma.
Nov. 6: After attacking Union shipping and whalers for months in the Pacific – not knowing Confederate armies had surrendered – the CSS Shenandoah, a rebel naval raider, sails to England and surrenders at Liverpool to the British Royal Navy.
Aug. 20, 1866: Citing the end of insurrection in Texas, President Andrew Johnson signs a proclamation declaring the war is over.
This story was originally published April 8, 2015 at 8:57 PM with the headline "The Civil War ends – but where?."