7 The war comes to an end, 1864–1865
The CSS Albemarle, a Confederate ironclad, was sunk off the coast of North Carolina in the fall of 1864. Drawing by R.G. Skerrett, 1899. Courtesy of the Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C. About the photograph
By late 1864, it was becoming clear that the South could not win the war. Atlanta fell to Union forces in September, and two months later Union General William Sherman began his “march to the sea,” with soldiers destroying supplies and tearing up railroads along the way. In March he reached North Carolina, and by then, Union forces had taken Wilmington and cut off the “lifeline of the Confederacy.” In April, General Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Virginia, and on April 26, Confederate General Joseph Johnston surrendered his army to Sherman near present-day Durham.
In this chapter, we’ll examine the events of the war’s last year, why the South could no longer continue fighting, and the terms of Johnston’s surrender.
- 7.1Timeline of the Civil War, August 1864–May 1865
- 7.2North Carolina as a Civil War battlefield, November 1864–May 1865
- 7.3The destruction of the CSS Albemarle
- 7.4Wilmington, Fort Fisher, and the lifeline of the Confederacy
- 7.5Lincoln's plans for reconstruction
- 7.6Stoneman's Raid
- 7.7Sherman's march through North Carolina
- 7.8"Where Home Used to Be"
- 7.9The Battle of Bentonville
- 7.10The assassination of Abraham Lincoln
- 7.11Johnston surrenders
- 7.12Mustering out of the Confederate army
- 7.13Parole signed by the officers and men in Johnston's army
- 7.14"For us the war is ended"
- 7.15"Can the very spirit of freedom die out?"
- 7.16New Spring Goods
