In May 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was laid to rest and Federals pursued the remaining Confederate officials. Southern resistance to Federal authority wound down. The might of northern industry and immigration had triumphed over southern agriculture and tradition. Slavery was nearing extinction and secession had been repudiated. The nation would never be the same again.
The Lincoln Funeral
The funeral procession for President Lincoln continued its railroad journey from Washington to Lincoln’s home town of Springfield, Illinois. At Chicago, the procession moved down Michigan Avenue and Lincoln’s coffin lay in state at the Cook County Court House. Thousands of people filed past to pay their final respects.
Two days later, the train reached Springfield where Lincoln’s coffin was placed in the House chamber of the Illinois state legislature. Friends and acquaintances accompanied the coffin as it was taken to its final resting place in a vault at Oak Ridge Cemetery. An estimated seven million people participated in the emotional 20-day funeral procession. The assassination had prevented Lincoln from enjoying the fruits of Federal victory.
The Lincoln Conspirators
After killing Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth, Federal authorities apprehended eight suspected conspirators and tried them before a military tribunal in Washington. Among them were David Herold, who rode with Booth when he escaped from Ford’s Theatre; Lewis Paine, who attempted to murder Secretary of State William Seward; Dr. Samuel Mudd, who set Booth’s broken leg on the night of the assassination; and Mary Suratt, who owned a boardinghouse where the conspirators supposedly hatched their plot.
During the trial, the defense was severely limited as to how they could present their case. Many prosecution witnesses were later exposed as frauds, claiming they had either lied or gave misleading testimony for personal gain. Nevertheless all eight defendants were found guilty of conspiring to murder Lincoln and others. Four of the eight—Herold, Payne, Suratt and George Atzerodt (who had failed to kill Andrew Johnson as assigned) were sentenced to be hanged.
On July 7, the four defendants were hanged at Washington’s Old Capitol Prison. Mary Suratt became the first woman to be executed in U.S. history. A newspaper reported, "We want to know their names no more."
The Capture of Jefferson Davis
With the Confederate armies melting away, President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet fled Virginia in the hopes of reaching Texas and continuing the war west of the Mississippi River. The number of fleeing officials slowly dwindled as they hurried south. Without evidence, new U.S. President Andrew Johnson named Davis as an accomplice in the Lincoln assassination and offered a $100,000 reward for his capture.
Despite advice from his military commanders that he surrender, Davis continued his flight, moving through the Carolinas and into Georgia before planning to turn west. Federal cavalry captured Davis and his group near Irwinville, Georgia. This effectively dissolved the Confederate government. Davis was imprisoned in Fort Monroe, Virginia and remained incarcerated until 1867, when he was freed on bail without charges. He was pardoned in 1868.
More Confederate Surrenders
At Citronelle, Alabama, General Richard Taylor surrendered his Confederate Army of Mississippi to General E.R.S. Canby. Surrender terms were based on those Ulysses S. Grant had given to Robert E. Lee in April. This ended military operations for organized Confederate forces in Alabama, Mississippi and eastern Louisiana.
General M. Jeff Thompson surrendered his famed Confederate brigade at Chalk Bluff, Arkansas under the same terms that Grant had given Lee. This led to the eventual surrender of all organized Confederate forces west of the Mississippi River. Except for a few isolated engagements, including an ironic Confederate victory at Palmito Ranch, Texas, military operations were essentially over and the Confederacy was defeated.
The Grand Review
The two principal Federal armies staged a review through Washington. For two days, roughly 150,000 troops marched down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House among thousands of cheering spectators. President Johnson, General-in-Chief Grant and other dignitaries watched from a presidential box.
The Army of the Potomac marched first in crisp formations. Next came General William T. Sherman’s Army of the West, more rumpled and loose. When the parade ended, the volunteers in both armies went home. After four years of the worst fighting ever witnessed in North America, the war was over.
Sources
- Long, E.B. and Long, Barbara: The Civil War: Day by Day (New York, NY: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1971)
- Wallechinsky, David and Wallace, Irving: The People’s Almanac (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1975)
- Ward, Geoffrey C.; Burns, Ric; Burns, Ken: The Civil War (New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1990)
Walter Coffey - Walter Coffey is a freelance writer who resides in Houston, Texas. Walter has written several works of historical fiction and non-fiction, ...
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