hand-to-hand in a melee on the banks of sailors creek. you know there are some pretty brutal attacks that take place in the next few days. highbridge, of course, would include cumberland church, appomattox station and the battle of the courthouse there on the ninth. so the the army in virginia, though, they are mortally wounded. and this is a big nail in the coffin here at sailors creek. they are still very dangerous in my in my opinion. good question. all right. great job, josh. thank it looks like the only our final presentation. afternoon is by burt dunkley, who is a historian, author, speaker, who holds a degree in

history from saint vincent college and a masters in historic preservation from middle tennessee state university. he has worked at 14 historic sites and candace told me, you can't hold a job that's why he worked at 14 different sites. one of my former students works with works with byrd 14 historic sites written over a dozen books and numerous scholarly articles. he has written a number of books in the emerging civil and emerging revolutionary war series. he is past president of the richmond civil war roundtable and serves on the preservation commission for the american revolution roundtable. virginia byrd is currently a park ranger. richmond national battlefield park, and he enjoys exploring local bookstores, battlefields and breweries necessarily in that order and we went to a couple last i understand i was only the first one. i heard you hit a couple others. i heard too and is talk will be based on his book to the bitter end appomattox bennett place the surrenders of the confederacy please bert dunkerly.

thank you. all right. best for right, i guess. guess we'll see. thank patrick for having me this year. i really appreciate it. it's fun to be back. it's been a while, so i to work at appomattox courthouse and while i was there i really got interested in the other surrenders you often don't hear much about, so we'll talk about today. i'm going to breeze through appomattox kind of quickly because i figure most of you know that story and have there but you may know much about the other surrenders. so we're going to start out in early april 1865, the end of the war is coming. everyone knows it. it's obvious. and lincoln and his top leaders already talked about how they wanted the war to end.

lincoln, his vision of going easy on the confederates and trying to to win the war down as quickly as possible so in in early april, the union troops break through at finally and the confederates have to evacuate richmond petersburg. they already had plans in the works for how they were going to do that and what this map shows you is the the route of the confederate forces from richmond on the right hand side there, all the way over to appomattox on the left, the key thing i want to emphasize here is that it's going to be five days of marching and fighting every day. it's grueling. it's really intense. and we've all been in a situation where you're a lot of stress and you do something day after day and you don't have good rest and proper nutrition and you you start to make bad

decisions. you start to get just out physically and mentally and that's what's going to be happening. it's very hectic week. so confederate forces are going to evacuate richmond and rsburg and when they do that they rendezvous at amea courthouse just to the west of those places. the plan that lee had talked about was to go directly south and link up with the other main confederate army, which is the army of tennessee, which is in north carolina. don't let that confuse you. they've they've moved into north carolina eastern north carolina. but what happens? the union pursuit is very aggressive and troops will block the way directly south. so the confederates have to turn west and they keep going and they're never able to make that left turn to go down to north

carolina. so by april eighth, the confederates end up appomattox courthouse, which a place that they probably never heard of and certainly hadn't intended to go along the way there are a lot of battles and skirmishes. you just heard a good in-depth analysis of sailors creek, one of the key spots, a bad day for army northern virginia losing 8000 prisoners and by this point, the writing is really on the wall for for the army of northern virginia leadership. so on the of april 8th, the army in northern virginia arrives at appomattox and union troops are closing in from two sides. and this map shows the village right there in the middle. and that lee talks to top officers and they decide that they are going to attack in the morning to break through the

tightening vise and keep going so the morning of april 9th. and this is a key thing here. confederate troops are going to launch an attack against union troops, no one knowit yet, but it's going to be their last to try to break out. and so on the morning of april 9th, there is a final battle at appomattox courthouse. however, they they go out, they push the union troops back. initially go as far as they can go. they run out of steam and union reinforcements arrive, which is what you're seeing here, 24th. fifth corps, cavalry, custer down here and the rest of the army, the potomac is back here off the map. so the confederates are being surrounded. and so by about 10:00 in the morning, the confederates realize that they're done and flags of truce will go out and the fighting will stop. one thing i think a lot of people don't think about when they visit appomattox is that, i

mean, not only was it a battle site, but the village would have been filled with the debris of battle that would been dead men, wounded men, dead horses, broken down vehicles strewn out through the streets of the town. lee and grant will meet that afternoon. there are a lot of myths and misconceptions. asians about appomattox patrick. someone should write a good book about that some day i don't want to get into all those, but i'll just mention a few that are important i think highlights of one burning question. a lot of people have is who was the last soldier killed on the last day of fighting and we don't know for sure but it might be a 19 year old private william montgomery from pittsburgh, pennsylvania. you see him here, badly wounded wrote to his mother afterwards that he was recovering, but he would make it in the center is the weakened courthouse, which

serves as the park visitor center. the surrender meeting does not take place in the courthouse appomattox courthouse is name of the village. a lot of you probably know that the meeting will take in a private home for a time lee and some officers waited to from general grant under an apple tree and an apple orchard and the legend grew that the meeting took place under an apple or in this apple orchard. and so after everything said and done, souvenir chopped down these poor apple and sold them as a souvenir tours of the surrender site. it didn't happen that way. the meeting takes place the home of wilber, mclean and just a private home. it was convenient and available. it's only lee and one officer, arles marshall and a host of union officers. it takes about 2 hours, fairly

straightforward. lee and grant agree on terms grant keeping the spirit of what lincoln had wanted. the confederate troops will be allowed to go home. they'll have to turn weapons and military equipment and he as they called government property or public property but they will be able to go. if you go to the park today of the original mclean was after the war it was torn down to be moved and rebuilt as an exhibit and the group who was doing that ran out of money a classic case of don't mess with it if it's if you don't need to today the house has been reconstructed and that's a real of of the activity at the park it's a focal point for where you should visit. thmeeting was about 2 hours very respectful very straightforward. after the meeting things are

going to get put into motion, a lot of people think that that's kind of the end of the story. but there's a lot of details and really important things that happen after the meeting between the two big guys. that's the clover hill tavern that you see in the upper right and in the building. the union army will set up printing presses. yes, the army brought printing presses with. an army is a bureaucracy and they need to print things, documents or paperwork. and one of the important that the grant and lee agreed on is that the confederate soldiers are going be paroled and they're going get parole passes each soldier. everybody from lee down is going to get a parole pass. and that's an example that you see on the bottom and those parole passes. a couple of important things they show that that soldier has surrendered because the war isn't over. a lot of you probably know that.

but that's a really key thing here. these confederate soldiers are from almost every southern state are going to be going home and passing through areas of potential ongoing military activity and the parole identifies them as a paroled prisoner, not a deserter or a bushwalker or something like that. it's protection for them. the parole also allows these men to use transportation courtesy of the states military. so the united military railroads and the union navy will transport these men to as close as it can to their homes. if you if you live near a functioning railroad. the union army has control of that can use the railroad or ships to get you home. they can also their passes to draw rations from the union army union supply bases as they go. it's really important the next couple of days.

so the surrender meetings on april ninth, last battle in the morning, meeting in the afternoon over the last couple of days, the surrender process goes into motion and there is going to be a lot of ceremony and formality to it. on april 10th, the confederate cavalry will surrender. there wasn't much of it left. a lot of them had made their way out, escaped being captured. but the confederate cavalry basically surrender its weapons to the cavalry. they are allowed to their own horses. on the 11th confederate artillery will surrender. they simply park their guns and, turn them over to a union officer. they did have a lot of artillery. but the largest and most, i think, significant part is on april 12th. and that is going to be the infantry surrender. and what this is going to nsist of is union troops are

going to march into the village and line the stage coach road and confederate will march in one division at a time to surrender their weapons which consists of stacking their arms and in theory, turning over their battle flags and then marching back out. and as they do, the union troops are standing at attention and they use a salute as the confederates march in. this is a fascinating part of the. i encourage you to read more about it. there's a lot of great books about it out there. this took 5 hours for all the confederate divisions to march in one at a time. stack their arms and march back. union troops. talk about taking those weapons out of the road and putting them behind them so the next group can march in. and by the end of it. there was pile of rifles behind

them of, of course, the battle flags were very valuable to these troops. some of them do not surrender their flags. some do. some hide them. hide them in their coats. take them home. some of the units will cut up their battle flags and divide them among the men as mementos. so different things happen to the flags. this, for the most part, qualifier is done with dignity and respect. there are some instances of tension and catcalling of troops recognized each other. the each other units had fought against each other in different battles. pretty amazing when you think about it. these armies have been fighting each other for four years. not all the confederates were there at. appomattox. i mentioned the cavalry. a lot of the cavalry had gotten away. they make it to lynchburg and they hear about what happened at

appomattox and they disband, meaning they just. they just go home. they just break up and basically quit. and that happened on the the fairgrounds today. there's a monument that talks about the the units there. so that happened in lynchburg and i talked about the mcclain being torn down, the intention of moving it and rebuilding it as an exhibit the ruins are the material sat there for a while exposed to the elements and scavengers. the the house today uses several thousand original bricks but a lot of the original material obviously was gone when it was reconstructed. so while these events are happening around. let's talk about the confederate government. it's falling apart. jefferson davis and some of his cabinet members and an escort are moving down, as you see here

on map. they evacuated richmond. they go to danville, down into north carolina, greensboro, making their way down, kind of following interstate 81. and as they go. different members of the cabinet break off and go home. the recognizing that it's it's over. davis himself was intending to make to the trans mississippi and continue the war from there. he gets to south georgia, a place called erwin ville. and in early may he is by union cavalry. so the confederate government collapses that, you know, there's no more departments or agencies functioning as they have evacuated richmond. things just get scattered. so let's go to north carolina where that other confederate army, the army of tennessee.

which knew that the plan was for lee to meet up them and join forces. the two main armies, the north carolina surrender is probably the most chaotic of. we'll start out by pointing out that they'll look at this map just the confederate army in march and april around smithfield in eastern north carolina, basically where 95 comes through. and the army of tennessee and the whole department are led by general johnston. he commands not just the army of tennessee which is right there. he commands the department, which has all the troops in the carolinas, georgia and all the little all the separate units that are in those states. they all fall under him. the army is first reorganized on

ninth, not knowing what's happening in virginia. and it just goes to show the state of things that there were a lot of units that were under-strength. and what they do is they consolidate item. so, for example, 30 batteries of artillery are consolidated into ten, 11 arkansas regiments are canceled into one seven florida regiments into one eight. texas into one. and when happens, it just kills the morale of the men. you know, there was a lot of pride in those different units and now they're just being consolidated because there are so few of them left. one soldier wrote that when the army marched after that consolidation, it looked like a funeral procession. oppose ing johnston's army in north carolina is general william t sherman. his union forces heavily outnumbering the confederates. johnston learns of the fall of richmond and, starts to move

away from sherman's forces. the confederates move through raleigh toward greensboro, to the west. and this map shows you how you can look at it. this shows the area where the confederates camp around greensboro. so there it is. that's how they spelled it. today, interstate 81 comes down through here. here's salisbury here. the confederate forces spread out into several camp sites. they're not all clustered together. and the troops advance. as far as raleigh, which is 50 miles east this way off the map. and it's at that point that the confederates start to get start to hear rumors of a surrender in virginia. and it's confirmed. and when groups men start

walking by with pieces of paper their parole passes and as you can imagine the effect the morale of these guys is just horrible. they have to stay and fight. they're still, part of the army. but these other people were going home. the war's over them. and so johnston realizes that there's no sense in trying to continue this. he reaches out to sherman and they to meet in the middle between their two forces. and this happens on april 18th. so a little bit after so some other things are happening drives johnston decision. this is downtown greensboro, there's not a lot of civil war era buildings in downtown greensboro, but this is the area where there were warehouses full of supplies. and these confederate troops are getting restless and hearing

rumors and wondering what their fate is. they start to get rowdy. we have a lot of instances of men getting drunk. they are disobeying their officers refuse to fall in for roll calls and inspections and. there are riots in. the streets of greensboro, when some of the confederate troops try to break into those warehouses full of supplies. and what johnston has to is he has to send in reliable troops to surround the riot ring troops. and they exchanged shots here in the streets of greensboro. so for some, these confederate troops, the last shots they fire are at other troops. things are just getting out hand. i'll share because it's a great account of an example of some of the things that that are happening. here's a south carolina captain,

william stoney. early in the day, it was reported that our army was to be surrendered. this rumor at first disregarded, but presently to assume shape and form the wildest excitement sees the troops. colonel ryan ordered the brigade into line and urged them not to leave. all afternoon the cavalry were passing by saying they were going out. the infantry soon became almost frantic and in every direction were rushing, beg, borrow and steal horses. one more account that i love this is artillery men. clement saucy of a georgia battery. he wrote that by some mishap. lost my hat and was bare headed for a couple of days. at that time, the yankee prisoners were being removed from salisbury in boxcars with sentinels on top of the cars. a comrade jim freeborn, was also bareheaded, and i suggested to him that we cut a long sapling so as to sweep the top of the

train so as to knock off some hatch from the sentinels to this freeborn agreed and were soon ready for business. very soon a train came in sight, and with a mighty effort we, made the sweep, and down came several. the owners were completely taken by surprise and fired several shots at us. the motion the train made their aim uncertain and we escaped. when the train, we descended and got two or three fairly good hats. so it goes to show you soldiers are always innovative when they need to be. so bottom line is think things are falling apart with the army of tennessee. so. april 18th, johnston here on the left is going to meet with sherman and the man there in the middle. but on the left hand side, he is a confederate. john c breckinridge, former vice president, currently a

confederate cabinet member and, a confederate general. and they're going to be a simple farmhouse called bennett place. the bennett farm. it's outside of durham, north carolina. and when they sit to start talking, sherman shares some news. what happened in washington recently, lincoln's dead, and that changes things. the confederacy realized that the sentiment in the is going to be angry and vindictive as they start to discuss things. these decide that they would like to see the war end for good everywhere as quickly as possible. they all agree there's no sense in continued bloodshed. so they agree to terms that. include things like the confederates are going to be allowed to go home.

you know, no punishment just like it. appomattox. but they get into things like the existing state governments be allowed to continue to function. there'll no punishment for confederate government officials. courts will still continue to function. they get into some civil and political things that sherman did not have the authority to do. but good intention. they put this agreement together. johnson goes back to his troops. the news starts spread. sherman goes back to his in raleigh. communicates with washington about what he's what he set and guess what the terms rejected because congress in no mood to be generous to the confederates now. and sherman with johnston that hey that agreement we had can't do it now imagine the poor confederate soldiers in the camps around greensboro.

it took they're told it you know they've been surrendered going home and now they're told the surrender agreement is off and the war is back on and they've got to fight. just morale just collapses. and the thing i also want to emphasize that unlike it, appomattox, where the confederate had just a whirlwind several days of constant fighting, no time to process things, a final battle on the very day of the surrender. and then it's over very suddenly. for these troops. it's very different. think about the tension the anxiety of waiting know day after day. what's the news? what are we doing? or are we going? that really on the men? obviously so the two sides agree to meet again this time april 26, getting into late april and sherman is told by his boss,

grant that he has to offer of the same terms as appomattox meaning the confederate soldiers will be paroled they'll be allowed to go home, but we're not going to get into anything related to courts and government officials and how things are going to function like that. that's not for him to decide. so because johnston commands the department of the carolinas, georgia and florida, he is surrendering the roughly 40,000 men of the army, tennessee. but he's also surrendering all the troops in that whole department. this is the largest of the civil war. it's going to be 88,000 men and think i forgot to mention appomattox. the parole number from appomattox 28,241. so by comparison, this is a lot bigger. if you go today, there's a great

state site, north carolina historic site. the house is not original. like it. appomattox this is a reconstruction. the original house down in the early 20th century. but have a great museum and they talk about the two meetings that took place there. and if you go to downtown greensboro, there's not much that tells you that the civil war ever came through there. but johnston had his headquarters in downtown davis, past through the confederate cabinet, was left of it, passed through, and there were thousands of troops camped around there. but there is nice monument which talks about the end of the army of tennessee and it lists all the battles you this is the army that fought and all great western campaigns and they end their career. central north carolina. so with appomattox have one meeting. the two armies have a final battle.

there in contact. the two armies are within sight of each other during those couple of days. and there is a formal surrender. totally different here in greensboro, the two armies are 50 miles apart. the meeting takes place between the lines. two meetings. and there's no formal surrender parade ceremony. the confederate troops told to organize in their camps and march home. i'm not sure. why? because they don't really say. but as part of this agreement, the confederates are allowed to keep seven ace of their weapons and. they're supposed to turn them into the after their state arsenals when they get home. so as the confederate troops marched away from greensboro and charlotte and all these areas, they are armed and they're flying their flags openly as they're going back. a lot of them are from the deep south and it's kind of like

they're not really going after losing the war because they're armed, carrying their flags. but to some degree that was a followed which to some degree it wasn't some. troops didn't turn in their weapons. it's just chaotic. as you can see. oh, i've got to mention, if you want to find this monument and there's a few other plaques about civil war, greensboro, it's right in downtown, just down the street from natty green's great, great brewery, it. so let's go next to alabama, go a little bit west as these events unfolding in virginia and north carolina. here's what's happening in alabama. we have a union force under general edward canby. there's there he is on the right. and confederates, led by general richard taylor, son, a president here on the left in april 1865.

both armies are gathered here around, mobile and confederates have a lot of fortifications around the town and can be is going to be attacking try to capture it. union troops attack on april 9th. same day as the surrender meeting in virginia. the confederates evacuate the town on april 12th, the same day the confederates stacking arms in appomattox and once the confederates evacuate, going to move up here into mississippi and try to stay of arm's reach of the union troops who occupy mobile. union troops will penetrate up into the central part of alabama montgomery, the old capital and other areas up here and learning about what's going on in the east. taylor reaches out to to talk

about a meeting and they to meet between two forces right if you can read it it's the magee house prive home alonthe railroad line in between the two forces. and that meeting takes place on april 29th. and the way two commanders arrive shows contrast of the state of. things can be. he brings a train, you know, a full train up the railroad line with several officers, a band, regimental band and a of food and supplies and taylor and staff officer and two enslaved men are down the railroad line on of those hand cars. you know, the yeah. and i had to see this because i like to i like to find what i'm talking about. and so there's the old railroad

line. the tracks are obviously gone, but it's still. there is the magee house and really neat is this is the original in the original location and in the parlor. yes those are the original chairs. i got to sit on them. so again, the meeting is fairly straightforward, very amicable, very quick. they agree to a cease fire and they don't really get into any other details yet. can be had brought some bottles of champagne and as they pop them open, taylor said it was the most pleasant popping sound he'd heard in a long time. and of course, they enjoy the food, the band and all that stuff. the two commanders depart, go back to their respective, but as with what happened in north carolina, because this comes you

not too long on the heels of the bennett place negotiation, the union government is just ceasing negotiations and that the terms are disallowed can is told his not allowed to negotiate right now cannot cause it cannot open a cease agreement and the fighting has to continue. he reaches back out to taylor and says hey sorry just got this. but again taylor's force which is about 100 miles away by now staying out of arm's length from the union. you know, they're hearing these rumors about the other surrenders that, you know, know the economy is collapsing and the war is is ending. they're getting a little undisciplined, rowdy. so can be with permission is given the ability to reach out. taylor again and now we're may

may 4th. they're going to meet under an oak tree in the town of citronella, alabama. and today there's just a roadside and is the only surrender meeting that takes place. i don't know why they didn't use the magee house again. i've never been able to find that out. but two separate meetings, two different places. and taylor is commanding a department just like johnston command, a department. this is the department of mississippi, alabama and east louisiana. so it's all the confederate troops from. alabama to the mississippi river that that area, those states right there. and the total. 42,293. there's no surrender. the confederates are supposed get parole passes, most of them go home. they just leave. they're not to wait for that.

and they just break up and depart from their in eastern mississippi as union, move in and occupy the interior. they encounter a lot of newly freed people and. i love this quote by by one of the union soldiers who encounters these people. and he's talking about being on occupation duty in july, on july 4th, in alabama. the declaration of independence read that day and. he writes that the emancipation proclamation, that's a patient proclamation, had been issued the declaration now seemed mean something. general taylor's command include did forrest's cavalry nathan bedford forrest his cavalry was in northern alabama pretty far from the surrender down by

mobile. and when forrest gets the news he doesn't bother with waiting for paroles or union officers to show up. they just disband. and this monument marks the spot. he gathered his troops for the last time and told them to just up and go home. the surrender in alabama also unique in that it also included confederate naval. there was a squadron of several iron clouds that are in the water there near mobile, and they're told to steam downriver to the union navy that's down there and, lower their flags and turn their ships over the union navy. so one more unique thing about the surrender. we request again, the trans mississippi fire department is the largest geographic area in the confederacy and its

commander is kirby smith. upper left here, his second in command is general simon buckner down here in the left. the union commander for this area is also edward kennedy. you've already seen his picture, but his second in command is general peter foster house right there. so in april 65, the situation i union troops have occupied most of these mississippi river towns, but union troops are concentrated. new orleans and the confederate forces are concentrated around this upper part of louisiana. mansfield, shreveport it and this surrender has the most twists and turns. i'll try to try to not make it too tangled for you. the troops and officers in this confederate army, they hear

about the rumors the news of, what's happening in virginia, north carolina, alabama, and obviously wondering about their own fate. most of these troops are from surprisingly, arkansas, louisiana texas and missouri. and there's a few from the other side of the river. but the bulk of are from this area. so they're in their home area. first thing that happens is the governors of, these confederate states meet have a convention in the town of marshall, texas, right there, east side exas. and it's the governors of texas, louisiana, arkansa and the government in exile from missouri. confederate government of missouri was in exile. and the governors of the basically put together this proposal to general tate, general smith, that he should negotiations with the union to

end the war let the troops home but allow the existing governments to function and no punishment for anybody. you know, no elected officials, only a politician would come up with that right. smith rejects that. he's not interested in that. but when meeting is known among confederate officers in the army, they think that that smith is conspiring to surrender them and they start to organize a plot to take over and overthrow him. it doesn't come off the ground but they start talking about it. in the meantime smith, who doesn't want to stop fighting, thinks he can hold out, has sent envoys to cuba, mexico to see if could either help support him or they could be places of refuge. so he's he's sending feelers out to these foreign places to see what he can work out.

and then an offer of surrender comes from general john pope. yeah, i remember him. second manassas guy. headquarters in the saddle. he'd been transferred the west and pope of all people sends a messenger who moves up the red river to the confederate troops are camped up here seeking their surrender and with all you kn these these meetings and secret things going on up here among the confederate political and military leaders. the messenger has to wait while know he's just hanging out in the confederate camps, waiting for an answer. and finally, smith tells him no. tell him to leave. what wants to do knowing that now the union move the bulk of its forces against him. he wants to move his army from

here in upper louisiana and deeper into texas. it. again out of arm's reach. out of harm's way. so smith himself will go to houston to set up a new headquarters. and when he leaves, puts buckner in charge. the army, his second in command when. all this starts to happen in late may. again, the same sort of thing. some of the other places the troops start to desert. they start to get disorderly. they won't obey officers. they start to get drunk. they're breaking into supplies, stealing horses. discipline is breaking down. they're becoming unmanageable. and buckner realizes that, you know, it's over. and buckner will proceed down new orleans and ask to negotiate. and he meets, with peter foster

house right here. these are the the number guys in each army they meet at a place called the charles hotel and they agree on a surrender basic surrender agreement, but smith, the commander of the army, not buckner. so, you know, it has to be approved by him. he's the one that's really going to have to do it. the saint charles hotel is is there on the left today. it's a parking lot, not even a historic marker. talks about this surrender meeting, but it was a prominent landmark in new orleans. well, smith arrive in houston and find out what's happened. and basically the army was surrendered for him. he's not happy. and this is this is his address to his troops soldiers. i left a commander without an

army, a general without troops. you've your choice. it was unwise and unpatriotic, but is final. i pray you may not live to regret it. not really warm and fuzzy, huh. well, i mean, there's nothing he can do militarily. he's being. and he's going to be pressed and the troops are deserting and discipline is falling apart. so on june 2nd, an hour and early june, he meets with can be on the uss jackson on a warship in galveston harbor and is a an old rusty historic marker for that. talking about this final meeting on june 2nd and ironically, june 2nd is the day that the texas troops from the army and order virginia sail into galveston harbor. they'd come all the way around from virginia, around florida to

the gulf of mexico and arrived same day. so this surrender took place to different places, to different states, different commanders negotiating how many mendez smith command. on paper, 58,600. and most of them concentrated in his army. that's in upper louisiana. but wait, there's more. we're not done with the trans mississippi yet. there's another force of confederate troops up here in northeastern, and they're kind of cut off from the rest of the confederate force that's down here. they're commanded by general geoff thompson. he feels like he's sort of his own little empire. and even though he gets news at this, the surrender has happened, which include his his department, he's not convinced. and so union forces reach out to

him at a place, chalk bluff, arkansas, which you see a picture up here and it starts to open negotiations him. union officers to cry describe him as wily fellow he proof of what's happened elsewhere wants to see a copy of the surrender terms from appomattox. and he finally agrees. okay i'll do it. thompson commands about 7000. they're all arkansas troops in. that primarily the town of jackson, which is a river town right here. and what happens is again, that the troops are not in contact. there's no final battle, no final campaign. the confederate troops gather and are supposed to turn in their weapons receive parole passes and then be to go home and a handful of union officers show up on a ship to, enforce

this. so today, jackson port is a state park. it's an arkansas state park that talks about this history. they talk about, you know, it's a riverboat town. they talk about all of that and this is really important. thompson is on board a ship and addresses his men who are on shore and he is not happy them because they haven't really been great soldiers lately. and i've i've got to read to you what, he says to them. imagine this address. many of the 8000 men i now see around, very many of you have been the last three years in the swamps and during that time have not seen your own children. i see faces about me that have not that i have not seen for the last three years be good citizens. and those of you who have been good, honest and brave soldiers have nothing to fear. but i warn those of you who have been nothing but sneaking

cowards, jaywalkers, cutthroats and thieves, that a just retribution awaits you. i hope to god that the federal will hang you. whenever and wherever they find. and what happens is the who are gathered on shore start yelling at him and he starts yelling back and there's this, you know, this back forth. it's very it's very unprofessional. it's nothing like lee's order number nine saying, you know, thank you for your service. you can go home now. it's just, you know, dissolves into this this name calling and yelling affair with a confederate soldier start to do is sort of stacking their rifles they throw them in the river. you know, kind of like a finger to the union troops there. oh, yeah. they're so they start throwing them in the river and the union officers can't stop them. so anyway, they just start to go

home from there. 7000 troops in that part of arkansas. we're almost done with mississippi. one more. let's not forget about the native americans and what is now? oklahoma then called indian. most most of the native americans had sided the confederacy during war. and this could be a whole talk on itself. but when things start to go downhill. most of these native groups want to change sides. and by 1865, they're ready to do. important point. the indians don't surrender because they consider themselves nations who had treaties of friendship with the united states government. the revoke those to form treaties with the confederate government. and then in 1865, what they're going do is revoke those

treaties and renegotiate treaties of friendship with sam. again. and this is going to occur through june and july. of 1865, primarily at a place fort townsend, which is down in this lower corner of oklahoma, right above the texas border. talk about obscure today is a state historic site. there's a couple of markers. the town on the ford is all gone. there's just ruins there. and they're working with the nearest union officer who just happens to be colonel eisa matthews, just a random colonel. there he is who is going to negotiate with the native american groups. the upper left is peter pilson of the choctaw and they meet on june on june 23rd, lower left general confederate general stand waiting of the cherokee,

the seminole, the creek and the chickasaw will also renegotiate eight through july. and in september at fort smith, which is the major trading post in the region, they have a big conference with all the native groups and and verify everything they're. i know it's. time for me to end. i'm going to wrap up by saying it's fascinating, i think how different. these surrenders are how they unfolded. it's all different. the appomattox story out for lot of reasons. it's got the big names. it's in the main theater of the war. the the terms and how it unfolded are kind of a nice story. put a bow on it. call it done. the other surrenders, chaotic. there's a lot tension. things are not formal in most cases. and the war sort of peters over the course of the summer in that

way you may not be able to read these markers, but this just goes to show you that the south through that summer of 1865, you have events out everywhere. there's no final peace treaty. there's no final day that you can say the war ends here. this is in western north carolina. it talks about the last shot being fired. there's a series of markers that talk about the last confederate meeting in north and south carolina. and i guess you'd have to ask what qualifies as a as cabinet meeting, because it goes from like four members to three members and, you know, down the line and as these confederate troops start going home wherever they're from they go in directions, it might surprise you, the men of the washington from new orleans who are senator

appomattox that they're wealthy, they have money, they go to new york for a while and party. other men are going home wherever is in the deep south or across virginia. i think it's fascinating to think about. the news is spread of san francisco knows the appomattox surrender. the next day, san francisco telegraph, roanoke doesn't know it for a while because there's no telegraph connecting. words got to spread by mt. mouth. i as confederate troops go home, they're marching through areas that have been. there's no local police, very lawless, whatever whatever confederate troops encounter, united states colored troops, there is racial tension and, violence. there are some ugly that go on that summer after the war is over and there's a lot of

uninsured that everybody has. what's the status of free people? what's the status of soldiers? what's the status? confederate government officials? what's the status of property? how do we rebuild laws and courts and all the legal stuff? all the financial stuff, the word that i think applies is uncertainty for everybody. uncertainty and so the end of the war is, really chaotic, kind of messy, a lot of tension still a lot of violence and the appomattox story is, not representative of how larger story ends. so you. thanks. thanks. all right. before we roll out, if you would, if you have questions, please come up to the microphone

here, state your name. this is your last chance to get on c-span so you can watch yourself so, state your name and make sure you can. we can hear the question. bill miller. hey, bill, your last slide showing, the last shot in the last cabinet meeting then begs the question about, what about the csu. of. right, exactly. and my point is that, you know, there's there's gangs of not gangs, but there's groups, confederate troops that are either uninformed or they're holding out in different areas of the south there's still the shenandoah naval that's out there that will go to liverpool in november and call it quits. so it takes a while for

everything to end. i was wondering if there's other confederate forces or or confederate veterans vessels besides the shenandoah that are offshore or elsewhere that might also have learned about this. the surrenders after well after appomattox. i don't. do you know about any other confederate naval ships familiar with another one? okay. so i've got kind of a two part a question for you for johnson's surrender in the period time between the two surrender terms, according morale of the army, sort of the soldier in the army and between the time between the two surrender terms. had sherman tried to approve were there many compared soldier had tried to surrender themselves to the union army and then kind of following up that for the ones that did if they did, were they later paroled with rest confederate army or

were they sent to prison camps. can you repeat the first part? i don't think i quite got it. yeah. so and the time between the germans to surrender terms. did you see many confederate soldiers just give and throw themselves to the union army. so his army did did any confederate soldiers surrender between those two beatings? yes. with sherman johnson of them. not that i know of. i mean, some might have, but i haven't seen any examples. so i. wouldn't think so or not many. okay. i guess i thank you. yeah. hi, ted robbins again. i just have one question because of the way the war was fought and in the union and the federals refused to recognize government of the confederacy. isn't this the only way could have been surrendered? it had to be a chaotic surrender

because there was no government that could actually be recognized by the by the u.s. as being being a formal entity to able to surrender everything. so it had be a separate entity, separate armies as in that. yes that's that's a good point. the united states government not recognize the confederate government a separate, legitimate nation. and it probably would not have negotiated in a formal way like that. so it probably would take separate armies surrendering the way did. now, each of those surrenders happens in a chaotic way, which is because there was no central, right? yeah. yeah. so authority, i think at times the union commanders and union leadership. leadership does that are say convenient but they they manage the war and make decisions in a way that sometimes act as if

it's fighting a legitimate nation because it's it's convenient too but overall they're not recognizing the confederate government as a real thing. all right. thank you.

please welcome ann thornton vice provost and university library in mid-evening. good evening and