American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

April 16, 1865 Sunday
The North was in deep mourning now, and with it much of the South, if not in mourning, at least felt dismay over the assassination, for it realized that Mr Lincoln had seemed to understand its position. He had opposed what appeared to be Radical vindictiveness. Federal troops pursued Booth in Maryland. Early in the morning Booth and Herold reached Rich Hill, the home of Samuel Cox, after a harrowing trip through swamps and over meager trails. In Washington Mrs Lincoln was prostrate with grief and Andrew Johnson was gathering up the reins of the presidency. Radical Republicans were hopeful that the new President would be more amenable to their policies, which included treating the Southern states as conquered territory.

In North Carolina plans were set for a meeting of Johnston and Sherman the following day. James Harrison Wilson’s Federal cavalry, well into Georgia now, captured West Point and Columbus. Skirmishing also took place at Crawford, Girard, and Opelika, Alabama. Brigadier General Robert Charles Tyler ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_C._Tyler ), CSA, is killed by a Federal sharpshooter, while defending a Confederate earthwork, called Fort Tyler, on the west side of West Point, Georgia, against advancing Federal cavalry under Brigadier General James H. Wilson, USA.

The entourage of carriages and horses of the fleeing Confederate government arrived at Lexington, North Carolina but would have to continue on rapidly in view of the approaching Johnston-Sherman negotiations.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 17, 1865 Monday
Genls William T. Sherman and Joseph E. Johnston met at the Bennett House near Durham Station, North Carolina. A short time before, Sherman had received news of the assassination of Lincoln. Johnston told Sherman it was a great calamity to the South. In their talks the two generals went further than just surrendering Johnston’s army. They discussed terms for an armistice for all the remaining Confederate armies. Sherman later disclaimed going beyond negotiations over Johnston’s army, but admitted “it did seem to me that there was presented a chance for peace that might be deemed valuable to the Government of the United States, and was at least worth the few days that would be consumed in reference.” They agreed to meet the next day.

Meanwhile, Wilson’s Federals wrecked what little Confederate war potential was left at Columbus, Georgia and destroyed the ironclad gunboat C.S.S. Muscogee or Jackson. There was action at the Catawba River near Morgantown, North Carolina and a Union expedition operated until April 30 from Blakely, Alabama to Georgetown, Georgia and Union Springs, Alabama.

President Davis and his party were now at Salisbury, North Carolina en route toward Charlotte. In Maryland John Wilkes Booth and David Herold were hiding in a cluster of trees while attempting to obtain transportation across the Potomac River in the area south of Port Tobacco, Maryland.

In the evening the body of President Lincoln was taken from the guest chamber of the White House to the East Room, where it lay in state until the funeral on April 19.

Lieutenant W. H. Parker, commanding naval escort entrusted with the Confederate archives, treasury, and President Davis' wife, successfully evaded Federal patrols en route southward from Charlotte and arrived at Washington, Georgia, on the 17th. Parker, still without orders as to the disposition of his precious trust and unable to learn of the whereabouts of President Davis and his party (including Secretary Mallory), decided to push on through to Augusta, Georgia, where he hoped to find ranking civilian and military officials. The escort commander recorded: "We left the ladies behind at the tavern in Washington for we expected now a fight at any time." The escort again, however, managed to elude Federal patrols and arrived without incident at Augusta where Parker placed his entrusted cargo in bank vaults and posted a guard around the building. Having learned upon arrival that armistice negotiations between Generals Sherman and Johnston were in progress, the escort commander decided to remain in the city and await the outcome of the conference.

Four of the five Lincoln assassination suspects arrested on the 17th were imprisoned on the monitors U.S.S. Montauk and Saugus which had been prepared for this purpose on the 15th and were anchored off the Washington Navy Yard in the Anacostia River. Mrs. Mary E. Surratt was taken into custody at the boarding house she operated after it was learned that her son was a close friend of John Wilkes Booth and that the actor was a frequent visitor at the boarding house. Mrs. Surratt was jailed in the Carroll Annex of Old Capitol Prison. Lewis Paine was also taken into custody when he came to Mrs. Surratt's house during her arrest. Edward Spangler, stagehand at the Ford Theater and Booth's aide, along with Michael O'Laughlin and Samuel B. Arnold, close associates of Booth during the months leading up to the assassination, were also caught up in the dragnet. O'Laughlin and Paine, after overnight imprisonment in the Old Capitol Prison, were transferred to the monitors at the Navy Yard. They were joined by Arnold on the 19th and Spangler on the 24th. George A. Atzerodt, the would-be assassin of Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Ernest Hartman Richter, at whose home Atzerodt was captured, were brought on board the ships on the 20th. João Celestino, Portuguese sea captain who had been heard to say on the 14th that Seward ought to. be assassinated, was transferred from Old Capitol Prison to Montauk on the 25th. The last of the eight conspiracy suspects to be incarcerated on board the monitors was David E. Herold. The prisoners were kept below decks under heavy guard and were manacled with both wrist and leg irons. In addition, their heads were covered with canvas hoods the interior of which were fitted with cotton pads that tightly covered the prisoners' eyes and ears. The hoods contained two small openings to permit breathing and the consumption of food. An added security measure was taken with Paine by attaching a ball and chain to each ankle.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 18, 1865 Tuesday
After more talk near Durham Station, North Carolina, Genls Sherman and Johnston signed a “Memorandum or basis of agreement.” This highly controversial document called for an armistice by all armies in the field; Confederate forces were to be disbanded and to deposit their arms in the state arsenals; each man was to agree to cease from war and to abide by state and Federal authority; the President of the United States was to recognize the existing state governments when their officials took oaths to the United States; reestablishment of Federal courts would take place; people were to be guaranteed rights of person and property; the United States would not disturb the people of the South as long as they lived in peace; and a general amnesty for Confederates. The generals recognized that they were not fully empowered to carry out such far-reaching measures and that the necessary authority must be obtained. But it was clear that Sherman was going far beyond what Grant did at Appomattox. He was actually entering into reconstruction policy. He sent the terms to Grant and Halleck, asking approval by the President. Sherman also offered to take charge of carrying out these terms. Later he was to deny vociferously any usurpation of power on his part and to claim that the agreement was according to Mr Lincoln’s wishes as Sherman knew them.

At any rate, the fighting had now ended in North Carolina as well as in Virginia. But there was skirmishing at Pleasant Hill and at the Double Bridges over the Flint River in Georgia as part of Wilson’s Union cavalry invasion. Minor skirmishing broke out near Germantown, Tennessee and at Taylorsville, Kentucky.

President Davis and his disconsolate party slowly moved southward to Concord, North Carolina. The body of President Lincoln lay in state in the crepe-decorated East Room of the White House. Politics, the search for the assassins, the ending of the war, reconstruction, all were intermingled in sorrow for the President and planning for the future.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 19, 1865 Wednesday
President Johnson, the Cabinet, Supreme Court justices, Congress, military figures, and the diplomatic corps in full “court dress” filed into the East Room of the White House. Robert Lincoln represented the family as Mrs Lincoln and Tad remained sequestered. At the head of the catafalque stood Gen Grant alone. After the brief services the funeral carriage, escorted by cavalry, infantry, artillery, marines, their banners draped, and the bands playing sorrowful dirges, carried the body past throngs of people to the rotunda of the Capitol. The bells of Washington tolled; the minute guns boomed. Now it was the public’s turn, and, until the evening of April 20, they filed past the catafalque in steady streams. Then the body began its last journey, back to Illinois by a long and often agonizing route to burial at Springfield on May 4.

Maj Gen John Pope, commanding the Federal Military Division of the Missouri, wrote from St Louis to Lieut Gen E. Kirby Smith, commanding the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department, suggesting that forces west of the Mississippi River surrender on the same terms as those of Lee. Several Federal command changes were made, including Maj Gen Halleck being assigned command of the Military Division of the James, which included Virginia and parts of North Carolina not occupied by Sherman. Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Bolivar_Buckner ), CSA, is assigned command of the newly created Confederate District of Arkansas and West Louisiana. Wilson’s cavalry skirmished near Barnesville, Georgia. Union expeditions moved from Memphis to Brownsville, Mississippi and from Terre Bonne to Pelton’s Plantation and Grand Caillou, Louisiana. President Davis and his entourage arrived at Charlotte, North Carolina which would be their resting place until April 26. Here again suitable quarters were hard to find. Mr Davis first heard of the assassination of President Lincoln. Confederate Gen Wade Hampton wrote the President suggesting they withdraw across the Mississippi River to continue the fight, an idea which was frequently discussed.

Captain Benjamin F. Sands, commanding the ships of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron stationed off Galveston, reported that the blockade runner Denbigh had grounded on the Galveston bar attempting to put to sea under cover of night. "She succeeded in getting off by throwing over some 200 bales of cotton, about 140 of which were recovered by the Cornubia and Gertrude. . . ." Sands added that Denbigh was "next seen under Fort Point and returned to the city." However, the well known blockade runner, which Admiral Farragut had been especially anxious to capture prior to the fall of Mobile when Denbigh shifted to Galveston, shortly succeeded in running through the Union cordon and put into Havana on 1 May.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 20, 1865 Thursday
Federal troops of James Harrison Wilson occupied Macon, Georgia. Skirmishing occurred near Spring Hill, Mimms Mills on Toberofkee Creek, Georgia; and at Rocky Creek Bridge, as well as at Montpelier Springs, Alabama. The Arkansas legislature ratified the Thirteenth Amendment. Gen Lee, now in Richmond, wrote Davis, “I believe an army cannot be organized or supported in Virginia,” or for that matter east of the Mississippi River. He opposed a partisan war and recommended suspension of hostilities and restoration of peace.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 21, 1865 Friday
The body of President Lincoln left Washington en route to Springfield, Illinois, the train being stopped often to accommodate immense crowds of mourners.

Confederate Major John Singleton Mosby ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_S._Mosby ), CSA, refusing to surrender to Federal authorities, disbands the 43rd Virginia Cavalry Battalion and his Virginia Partisan Rangers, at Millwood, Virginia. The majority of "Mosby's Rangers," however, now under the command of Lieutenant Colonel William Henry Chapman, CSA, rode to Winchester, Virginia, where they surrendered and were paroled. There was a Union expedition from Donaldsonville to Bayou Goula, Louisiana; and until April 27 a Federal scout operated from Rolla toward Thomasville, Missouri. President Johnson told an Indiana delegation that he did not believe the Southern states had ever left the Union, a position contrary to that held by the Radicals. U.S.S. Cornubia, commanded by Acting Lieutenant John A. Johnstone, captured blockade running British schooner Chaos off Galveston with cargo of cotton.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 22, 1865 Saturday
Most of the military action now was insignificant, with only the Northern cavalry of James Harrison Wilson active in Georgia and Alabama. Federal troops under him occupied Talladega, Alabama. Skirmishes took place at Buzzard Roost, Georgia; at Howard’s Gap in the Blue Ridge, North Carolina; near Linn Creek and near the mouth of the Big Gravois, Missouri. A Union scout from Deer Creek to Sage Creek, Dakota Territory lasted two days. Gen Halleck assumed command of the Military District of the James, and Nathaniel P. Banks resumed command of the Department of the Gulf.

Booth and Herold, after nearly a week out in the open, finally got across the Potomac River in a fishing skiff, to Gumbo Creek on the Virginia shore. Plans were now to continue southward. Meanwhile, the search had intensified north of the Potomac River. The Lincoln funeral train arrived in Philadelphia from Harrisburg.

Thomas Kirkpatrick, U.S. Consul at Nassau, New Providence, reported to Rear Admiral Stribling of the East Gulf Blockading Squadron that schooner St. Mary's had arrived in Nassau. The Baltimore schooner had been seized in Chesapeake Bay during a daring raid on 31 March by ten Confederates led by Master John C. Braine, CSN. Kirkpatrick pressed British authorities to seize the vessel and apprehend her crew for piracy. St. Mary's was permitted to put to sea, however, after being adjudged a legitimate prize.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 23, 1865 Sunday
Wilson’s men fought at Munford’s Station, Alabama and Stoneman’s Federal cavalry fought an action near Hendersonville, North Carolina. Otherwise there was an affair near Fort Zarah, Kansas and a scout from Pulaski, Tennessee to Rogersville, Alabama. President Davis, at Charlotte, North Carolina, wrote his wife of the recent disasters and observed that “Panic has seized the country.” He continued, “The issue is one which it is very painful for me to meet. On one hand is the long night of oppression which will follow the return of our people to the ‘Union’; on the other, the suffering of the women and children, and carnage among the few brave patriots who would still oppose the invader.” He wrote of possibly getting across the Mississippi River, and concluded, “My love is all I have to offer, and that has the value of a thing long possessed, and sure not to be lost.”

Brigadier General James Dearing, CSA, dies from wounds received in a pistol duel with Brevet Brigadier General Theodore Read, USA, during hostilities at High Bridge, Virginia, on April 6, 1865. Brigadier General James Dearing ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Dearing ), CSA, is the last Confederate general to die from wounds received in action.

C.S.S. Webb, commanded by Lieutenant Read, dashed from the Red River under forced draft and entered the Mississippi at 8:30 at night in a heroic last-ditch effort to escape to sea. Before departing Alexandria, Louisiana, for his bold attempt, Read wrote Secretary Mallory: "I will have to stake everything upon speed and time." The sudden appearance of the white-painted Webb in the Mississippi caught the Union blockaders (a monitor and two ironclads) at the mouth of the Red River by surprise. She was initially identified as a Federal ship; this mistake in identification gave Read a lead in the dash downstream. A running battle ensued in which Webb shook off the three Union pursuers. As Read proceeded down the Mississippi, other blockading ships took up the chase but were outdistanced by the fast moving Webb, which some observers claimed was making 25 knots. While churning with the current toward New Orleans, Read paused at one point to cut the telegraph wires along the bank. This proved futile as word of his escape and approach passed southward where it generated considerable excitement and a flurry of messages between the Army and Navy commanders who alerted shore batteries and ships to intercept him. About 10 miles above New Orleans Read hoisted the United States flag at half mast in mourning for Lincoln's death and brought Webb's steam pressure up to maximum. He passed the city at about midnight, 24 April, going full speed. Federal gunboats opened on him, whereupon Read broke the Confederate flag. Three hits were scored, the spar torpedo rigged at the steamer's bow was damaged and had to be jettisoned, but the Webb continued on course toward the sea. Twenty-five miles below New Orleans Read's luck ran out, for here Webb encountered U.S.S. Richmond. Thus trapped between Richmond and pursuing gunboats, Read's audacious and well executed plan came to an end. Webb was run aground and set on fire before her officers and men took to the swamps in an effort to escape. Read and his crew were apprehended within a few hours and taken under guard to New Orleans. They there suffered the indignity of being placed on public display but were subsequently paroled and ordered to their respective homes. Following the restoration of peace, Read became a pilot of the Southwest Pass, one of the mouths of the Mississippi River, and pursued that occupation until his death.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 24, 1865 Monday
Gen Grant reached Sherman’s headquarters at Raleigh, North Carolina and brought with him the news that the President had disapproved Sherman’s agreement with Johnston. Sherman was ordered to give forty-eight hours’ notice and then resume hostilities if there was no surrender. Sherman was incensed both by the disapproval and by the large amount of material on the subject in the New York papers, including the dispatch of March 3, 1865, from Lincoln to Grant stating that the generals should accept nothing but surrender and should not negotiate peace. Sherman said he never received such a message. The fiery general soon raged against Stanton and Halleck, claiming he had not gone beyond Lincoln’s wishes. While historians differ, it does seem that Sherman had gone far beyond strictly military obligations, and that he did try to make a peace agreement. At any rate, Grant was now under orders to direct military movements, but left it up to Sherman to carry them out publicly. Gen Johnston was given notice of the suspension of the truce at once. At Charlotte, North Carolina President Davis approved Johnston’s agreement with Sherman, not knowing that it had already been rejected by the Union.

John Wilkes Booth and David Herold crossed the Rappahannock River at Port Conway, Virginia in their effort to escape Federal pursuers. Lincoln’s body lay in state in New York City as thousands of mourners filed past his bier. In military action, skirmishes erupted near Boggy Depot, Indian Territory and near Miami, Missouri.

While in Augusta, Georgia, with the Confederate archives and treasury Lieutenant W. H. Parker learned that the Federal Government had rejected the convention of surrender drawn up by Generals Sherman and Johnston. Parker withdrew his valuable cargo from the bank vaults, reformed his naval escort (consisting of Naval Academy midshipmen and sailors from the Charlotte Navy Yard) and on the 24th set out for Abbeville, South Carolina, which he had previously concluded to be the most likely city through which the Davis party would pass enroute to a crossing of the Savannah River. Near Washington, Georgia, Parker met Mrs. Jefferson Davis, her daughter and Burton Harrison, the President's private secretary, proceeding independently to Florida with a small escort. Gaining no information on the President's whereabouts, Parker continued to press toward Abbeville, while Mrs. Davis' party resumed its journey southward. On the 29th he arrived in Abbeville, where he stored his cargo in guarded rail cars and ordered a full head of steam be kept on the locomotive in case of emergency. Parker's calculations as to the probable movements of President Davis' entourage proved correct; the chief executive entered Abbeville three days after Parker's arrival.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 25, 1865 Tuesday
Federal cavalry closed in on Booth and Herold. After receiving various leads the officers arrived at the Richard H. Garrett farm south of the Rappahannock River in Virginia about 2 AM on April 26. In North Carolina troops were preparing to move after Washington had rejected Sherman’s agreement with Johnston, but the Confederate general asked Sherman to renew negotiations and Sherman arranged a meeting for April 26. There was a skirmish at Linn Creek, Missouri and a Union scout from Pine Bluff to Roger’s Plantation, Arkansas. The Lincoln funeral train began the journey to Albany, New York.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 26, 1865 Wednesday
Early in the morning Federal troopers surrounded the barn of Richard H. Garrett. Lieut Col Everton Conger was in command. Although threatened with hanging, Garrett refused to reveal that there were two fugitives in his barn. To prevent further inquisition, son Jack Garrett informed the officers. The barn was surrounded and the suspects ordered out. Davy Herold surrendered and emerged. Booth was defiant and ranted dramatically. The barn was set afire to force his surrender. As the flames roared, a shot was fired and Booth fell, mortally wounded. Pulled from the burning barn, Booth died, probably about 7 AM. Sergeant Boston Corbett, a religious fanatic and an unstable man, is generally credited with shooting Booth. Most historians, although there are notable exceptions, feel it was Booth in the barn, that he was shot by Corbett and died on the Garrett porch. But the history of assassinations is hounded by question marks, this one possibly more than others. Booth’s body was taken to the Washington Navy Yard for identification, inquest and autopsy aboard U.S.S. Montauk. After burial in the Arsenal Penitentiary, the remains were later reburied in Baltimore. Admittedly there was too much War Department secrecy, inefficiency rising out of the trauma of the assassination and the end of the war, and conflicting stories from unreliable witnesses. But despite the many questions and sensational rumors, most historians tend to agree that Booth and the small band he recruited were solely responsible for the assassination of President Lincoln.

At the Bennett House near Durham Station, North Carolina, Gen William T. Sherman met again with Gen Joseph E. Johnston in midafternoon. Final terms of capitulation for troops of Johnston’s command were signed following the formula set by Grant at Appomattox. This same day the terms were approved by Grant, now at Raleigh. All arms and public property were to be deposited by Confederates at Greensborough; troops were to give their parole and pledge not to take up arms until released from this obligation; side arms of officers and their private horses and baggage could be retained; and all officers and men were permitted to return to their homes. In a supplement, field transportation was to be loaned to the troops for getting home and for later use; a small quantity of arms would be retained and then deposited in state capitals; horses and other private property were to be retained; troops from Texas and Arkansas were to be furnished water transportation, and surrender of naval forces within the limits of Johnston’s command was also included. Thus the second major army of the Confederate States of America, totaling in all about 30,000 men, surrendered. There remained two primary Southern forces – those of E. Kirby Smith in the Trans-Mississippi and Richard Taylor in Alabama and Mississippi. But neither could possibly hold out for long now that the main bulwarks of Confederate strength had fallen.

The Confederate Cabinet met with President Davis at Charlotte, North Carolina and agreed to leave that day with the aim of getting west of the Mississippi River. Att Gen George Davis of North Carolina left the group at this time and Sec of the Treasury, George A. Trenholm, resigns due to poor health.

Minor operations in the Shenandoah Valley continued until May 5. A four-day Union scout probed from Little Rock to the Saline River, Arkansas. La Fayette Curry Baker, USA, is appointed to Brigadier General.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 27, 1865 Thursday
Hundreds of paroled Federal soldiers were on their way home from Vicksburg after undergoing the privations of Confederate prison camps. Riverboats, heavily loaded, steamed northward. Sultana, overcrowded and with defective boilers, was north of Memphis on the Mississippi River near Old Hen and Chickens islands. In the darkness of early morning a boiler exploded, hurling soldiers and wreckage high into the air. Fire broke out immediately and the water became full of struggling men, horses, and mules. Some found their way ashore or were picked up, but hundreds died in the catastrophe. Some 2021 passengers, soldiers, and crew were on board. The loss was officially put at 1238 killed, many of them men who had fought in battle and survived life in prison camps. The toll is often put much higher, at 1450 and up to 1900. Although admittedly the boat was overloaded, the Sultana disaster was blamed officially on the faulty boilers. It is one of the most lethal ship tragedies on record ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultana_(steamboat) ).

Skirmishes still sputtered on the fringes of the war, this time near James Creek, Missouri. Gen Grant left Raleigh, North Carolina after conferring with Sherman. The train bearing Lincoln’s remains paused at Rochester and Buffalo, New York.

The body of John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln's assassin, and David E. Herold, who had accompanied Booth in the escape from Washington and was with the actor when he was shot, were delivered on board U.S.S. Montauk, anchored in the Anacostia River off the Washington Navy Yard. Booth had been slain and Herold captured at John M. Garrett's farm three miles outside Port Royal, Virginia, in the early morning hours of the previous day. While the body was on board the monitor, an autopsy was performed and an inquiry conducted to establish identity. Booth's corpse was then taken by boat to the Washington Arsenal (now Fort McNair) where it was buried in a gun box the following day. Herold was incarcerated in the hold of Montauk which, along with U.S.S. Saugus, was being utilized for the maximum security imprisonment of eight of the suspected assassination conspirators.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 28, 1865 Friday
Sherman left his officers to handle the disbandment of Johnston’s army and the preparations for taking his troops north. He then departed for Savannah to take care of affairs in Georgia. Small groups of Confederate soldiers surrendered throughout the South. Mrs Jefferson Davis was at Abbeville, South Carolina. In Cleveland, fifty thousand people viewed the coffin of Lincoln.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 29, 1865 Saturday
President Johnson removed restrictions on trade in former Confederate territory east of the Mississippi River within military lines. President Davis’ party was at Yorkville, South Carolina and continuing its flight. The people of Columbus, Ohio thronged to view Lincoln’s body.

Acting Master W. C. Coulson, commanding U.S.S. Moose on the Cumberland River, led a surprise attack on a Confederate raiding party, numbering about 200 troops from Brigadier General Abraham Buford's command. The raiders under the command of a Major Hopkins, were crossing the Cumberland River to sack and burn Eddyville, Kentucky. Coulson sank two troop laden boats with battery gunfire and then put a landing party ashore which engaged the remaining Confederates. The landing force dispersed the detachment after killing or wounding 20 men, taking 6 captives, and capturing 22 horses.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 30, 1865 Sunday
A few miles north of Mobile, Alabama Federal Gen E.R.S. Canby and Confederate Gen Richard Taylor agreed upon a truce prior to the surrender of Confederate forces in Alabama and Mississippi. Union operations near Brashear City, Louisiana lasted until May 12. The Lincoln funeral train arrived in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The eight suspects in the Lincoln assassination plot who had been imprisoned on monitors U.S.S. Montauk and Saugus were transferred to the Arsenal Penitentiary, located in the compound of what is today Fort McNair. This was also the site of their trial by a military tribunal which returned its verdict on 30 June 1865. Three of the eight, along with Mrs. Mary E. Surratt, were hanged in the prison yard of the penitentiary on 7 July--Lewis Paine who made the unsuccessful assassination attempt on Secretary of State Seward; George A. Atzerodt who had been designated by Booth to murder Vice President Johnson; and David E. Herold who had accompanied Booth in his escape from the city. Michael O'Laughlin and Samuel B. Arnold, boyhood friends of Booth and conspirators in the actor's earlier plans to abduct President Lincoln and in his later plans to assassinate the government's top officials, were sentenced to life in prison. Another accomplice, Edward Spangler, stagehand at the Ford Theater was sentenced to six years in prison. The remaining two of the eight who had been incarcerated on the monitors--Ernest Hartman Richter, a cousin of Atzerodt, and João Celestino, a Portuguese sea captain--were released without being brought to trial.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00