Timeline - 1865

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February 6, 1865 - General Robert E. Lee is named Commander-in-Chief of Confederate forces. He takes command of the remanents of a once powerful force now losing the war.

February 1865 - Sherman marches on with his army, beating back Johnston's smaller force.



March 4, 1865 - Lincoln attends his second inaguration with high hopes for peace.

March 25, 1865 - Lee makes a last ditch attempt to smash through Grant's army, besieging Richmond and Petersburg. With 2 o 1 odds in the Union's favor, the Confederate forces are soon repelled. The Union presses forward and Lee is forced to surrender at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865.


April 14, 1865 - Lincoln is fatally shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington. He dies the next morning without regaining consciousness. Mary Todd Lincoln mourns.

April 18, 1865 - Confederate General Johnston meets with Union General Sherman to discuss the terms of the 37,000 surrendering Confederate soldiers.


May 1865 - In the month of May, 1865, the rest of the Confederate troops surrender and the Confederate president, Jefferson Davis, is captured near Georgia.







June to November - The rebuilding of the South begins, led by President Johnson. Many people are tried and executed or imprisoned for war crimes like assassinations and the Confederate prison camp where Union soldiers(prisoners) were subjected to many atrocities.




















































December 18, 1865 - The thirteenth amendment is ratified and slavery is abolished. The cause of the Civil War is settled.