Mobile, Ala., was the Confederacy’s last port on the Gulf of Mexico.

On Aug. 5, 1864, a federal fleet under Admiral David Farragut entered Mobile Bay. Farragut was lashed to the rigging of the U.S.S. Hartford. The men in the Union fleet were afraid of the mines in the port.

Farragut screamed out, “Damn the torpedoes! Four bells! Captain Drayton, go ahead! Jouett, full speed!”

The Confederacy was nearly shut off from the sea. President Davis relieved Joe Johnston and replaced him with John B. Hood to save Atlanta from falling to Sherman.

From July 20 to July 28, 1864, the Confederates, under Hood, struck Sherman three times. On Sept. 2, 1864, Sherman’s Union army marched into Atlanta, a vital manufacturing hub of the Confederacy. In mid-October of 1864, Phil Sheridan’s army was encamped at Cedar Creek, 20 miles south of Winchester in the Shenandoah Valley.

Jubal Early and his 15,000 Confederates attacked Sheridan’s army on Oct. 19, 1864, and pushed it into retreat. Sheridan had been in Washington, D.C., and arrived in time to rally his troops and close the Shenandoah Valley to the South.

Fire and smoke ended the “Breadbasket of the Confederacy.” On Nov. 16, 1864, General Sherman began his “March to the Sea,” a 300-mile long trek where a 60-mile swath of destruction was to occur in the state of Georgia. On Dec. 22, 1864, Sherman wired President Lincoln and offered Savannah as a Christmas present.

The Negroes who followed Sherman’s army sang songs of freedom and declared 1864 as the “Year of Jubilo.”

Such wanton destruction Southerners had never seen. Warehouses, bridges, barns, machine shops, depots, factories, were burned. Pigs were sabered and horses and mules poleaxed between the ears.

During the last few weeks of 1864, John B. Hood, who had turned north toward Tennessee and Kentucky to lure Sherman out of Georgia, met complete disaster.

Hood showed his overaggressiveness and lack of sound judgment when he had his 40,000 men entrench at Franklin, Tenn., 15 miles from Nashville.

On Nov. 30, 1864, Hood had his men march over two miles of open ground toward Union defense lines. Such actions introduced a slaughter of Hood’s Army that lasted six hours. The Confederates had over 7,000 casualties and five of their generals were killed.

The Union leader, John Schofield, left Franklin and marched to Nashville to unite with George “Old Pap” Thomas. Thomas would unleash his 50,000 Union troops on Hood’s 25,000.

On Dec. 15 and 16, 1864, with thousands of spectators ringing the hills around Nashville, Thomas’ army smashed Hood’s Army of the Tennessee. Hood retreated into Mississippi and would resign from the Confederate army— his Army of Tennessee shattered!

As the year 1864 came to a close, the Confederate States of America was reduced to the Carolinas and Virginia. On Jan. 15, 1865, the Union took Fort Fisher and closed off Wilmington, N.C., the Confederacy’s last major port.

A peace movement was started under Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens. On Feb. 3, 1865, Stephens, John A. Campbell, and Robert Hunter met President Lincoln and William H. Seward aboard the River Queen at Hampton Roads.

Their four-hour “peace conference” failed because Lincoln, seeing that the War was nearly over, would not negotiate. The Confederates wanted a truce to come before any substantive agreements.

Confederate soldiers began to desert to look after their families and in a one-month period, desertions claimed eight percent of Lee’s strength.

Davis would present a bill to arm 300,000 slaves, but the War ended first. Hoping for a miracle, the Confederate government on Feb. 9, 1865, put Lee in charge of all its armies. He had 50,000 troops to defend the Richmond-Petersburg area. Joe Johnston only had 15,000 to contest Sherman in North Carolina.

Lee decided to break-out from Petersburg, march quickly to join Joe Johnston in North Carolina, defeat Sherman there, and then come back to Virginia to defeat Grant.

On March 25, 1865, Lee sent John B. Gordon to take Fort Stedman, a Union fort on the eastern Petersburg trench lines. The operation failed and the disaster at Five Forks, Va., occurred on April 1, 1865 — the beginning of the end.

Lee could only move westward, hopefully to find flatcars and join Joe Johnston to defeat Sherman. Grant sent Sheridan’s cavalry to outflank Lee’s right wing. Lee had sent George Pickett to strengthen Five Forks. The Union cavalry captured over half of Pickett’s men there. Pickett was in the rear at a shad bake.

On April 2, 1865, Grant broke through Lee’s Petersburg lines, as he attacked all along the Petersburg defenses. A. P. Hill, commander of Lee’s Third Corps, was shot through the heart. Sad, tired, and hungry, Lee’s 30,000 headed west.

Lee telegraphed Jefferson Davis who was in the family pew at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. An officer handed Davis a paper. It read, “I advise that all preparation be made for leaving Richmond tonight.”

Davis and his circle of Confederate politicians took the Confederacy’s $500,000 in gold and began the last journey of the Confederate government. Davis and his party were captured on May 10, 1865, at Irwinville, Georgia.

It cost the United States government $97,031.62 to capture him. Richmond fell on the morning of April 3, 1865, as Yankee bands entered the capital playing “Garry Owen” and “Dixie.”

Lee thought there might be food at Amelia Court House, Farmville and Appomattox Station. All he found were Yankees in his front and Yankees hurrying to his rear. On April 6, 1865, Union cavalry fell upon his hungry, tired army at Sayler’s Creek.

This was known as “Black Thursday.” The Union forces captured 8,000 of his men and 300 wagons. On April 7, 1865, Grant sent Lee a note asking him to surrender. Upon talking to his trusted officers, they told each other, “Not yet.” The retreat continued to a small village of 12 residences, Appomattox Court House.

It was decided that a frontal break-out would occur early next morning, April 9, 1865, Palm Sunday. If Lee’s forces faced Union cavalry, they felt they could still get to Johnston; if Union infantry, surrender was all that was left.

E. P. Alexander suggested Lee’s army dissolve into small groups and head to the hills to fight as guerrillas. Lee said, “No!” Lee and his secretary, Charles Marshall, arrived at Wilmer McLean’s brick home in Appomattox Court House.

Grant and his staff of eight and Lee and Marshall began the business of surrender at about 1:20 p.m. on Palm Sunday, April 9, 1865.

Grant and Lee’s military dress presented a noticeable contrast. Grant let Lee down easily — he allowed Lee’s enlisted men to take their horses and mules home and sent 25,000 rations to feed the starving Confederates. The session ended at 4 p.m.

Lee stood on the bottom step of McLean’s front porch and called for the orderly, George Washington Tucker, to bring “Traveller” to him. He now had to tell his troops he had surrendered them. Tears rolled down his cheeks and his voice cracked.

Wilmer McLean saw his furniture carried off by officers of Grant’s staff. He refused their money, but they threw it on the floor of his parlor. Wilmer McLean had lived on a farm near Manassas Junction in July of 1861. When a shell hit his home, he vowed to move his family away from the Civil War.

He chose Appomattox Court House, Va., and Lee surrendered in his parlor.

Would other Southern forces surrender also?

 

Bob Leith is a history professor at Ohio University Southern.