2015 events

January
1 Captain William Quantrill (CSA) takes two dozen troopers (including Frank James and Jim Younger) disguised as the '4th Missouri Cavalry' (USA) out of Arkansas and through Tennessee into Kentucky, bound for Washington to assassinate Lincoln; his mission ends in failure in Kentucky on 10 May.
7 The Danish ironclad Sphinx, having been secretly purchased by the Confederate government and soon to become the CSS Stonewall, sails from Copenhagen, bound for Quiberon Bay in France..
7 In Washington, the War Office issues an order relieving General Benjamin Butler of command of the Army of the James and the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, replacing him with General Edward Ord.
8 The Dove Creek battle with Indians, sixteen miles south of San Angelo, Texas..
9 Secretary of War Stanton arrives in Savannah, Georgia to confer with General Sherman.
11 Fighting, through the 14th, at the Palmetto and White's Ranches in Texas; the "last of the war"..
11 General Thomas Rosser (CSA) leads 300 cavalry men in a raid into West Virginia, killing or wounding 25 Federal troops and taking 583 prisoners.
13 Admiral Porter's fleet begins the bombardment of Fort Fisher.
15 Assaulted by two attacks, Fort Fisher falls.
16 General Sherman issues his famed 'forty acres and a mule' order, setting aside all abandoned or captured land along the coast of Georgia to the settlement of freed blacks.
19 General Robert E. Lee finally accepts command of all Confederate forces.
21 General Sherman moves north toward Beaufort, South Carolina..
31 Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constituion, abolishing slavery, and sends it to the states for ratification.

February
1 Illinois becomes the first state to ratify the 13th Amendment.
1 General Sherman's army moves north through the Carolinas.
2 Lincoln and Seward meet off Hampton Roads with two emissaries from Jeff Davis; the meeting quickly breaks down over the issue of Confederate independence.
2 Rhode Island and Michigan ratify the 13th Amendment.
3 Lincoln and Seward meet with Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell aboard the River Queen off Hampton Roads to discuss peace terms.
3 Maryland, New York, and West Virginia ratify the 13th Amendment.
7 Maine and Kansas ratify the 13th Amendment; Delaware does not.
7 Sherman's march is impeded by swollen rivers in South Carolina.
9 General Lee assumes command of all Confederate armies, and suggests that deserters be pardoned if they report within thirty days.
9 General John Schofield (USA) assumes command of the Department of North Carolina and prepares to assault Wilmington.
12 Lincoln's re-election is certified by the electoral college, 212 to 21.
17 In South Carolina, Union troops under Sherman occupy Columbia; during the night, fires break out (cause uncertain) and two-thirds of the city burns.
17 General Hardee (CSA) evacuates Charleston; Fort Sumter finally returns to Union hands.
18 General Lee endorses the notion of arming slaves to fight against the North, but as free men.
18 In Melbourne, Australia, the CSS Shenandoah leaves port.
19 Sherman's army marches north toward Goldsboro, North Carolina.
20 In Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate House of Representatives authorizes the use of slaves as soldiers, but the Senate postpones a vote on the measure.
21 General Braxton Bragg (CSA) orders the evacuation of Wilmington, North Carolina.
21 General Lee writes Secretary of War John Breckenridge that, if it becomes necessary to abandon Richmond, he will move the army to Burkeville, Virginia.
22 Federal troops occupy Wilmington, North Carolina.
24 General Sherman (USA) complains to General Wade Hampton (CSA) about the execution of Union foragers. Hampton replies: "This order (to shoot on sight any Northern troops caught burning homes) will remain in force so long as you disgrace the profession of arms by allowing your men to destroy private dwellings".
27 Pursuant to orders from General Grant, General Sherman sends 10,000 cavalrymen under General Wesley Merritt (USA) to destroy the Virginia Central Railroad and the James River canal; they are then to take Lynchburg, Virginia.

March
2 General RE Lee sends a note through the lines to General Grant, suggesting the two of them try to reach a "satisfactory adjustment of the present unhappy difficulties".
2 The Battle of Waynesborough ends the Shenandoah Valley campaign, with Jubal A. Early's forces losing 1000 men as prisoners.
3 Congress passes the Freedmen's Bureau act and adjourns.
3 Lincoln instructs Grant not to have any conference with Lee unless it is to accept his surrender.
4 President Lincoln is inaugurated for his second term, giving his famed 'with malice toward none' inaugural address.
9 Vermont ratifies the 13th Amendment.
12 Sherman's army destroys all machinery, industry, and transport in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
13 The Confederate Congress passes a bill authorizing the use of armed slaves.
16 The Battle of Averasborough in North Carolina; the Union loses 682 men, while Confederate casualties are some 865.
17 Troops under General Edward Canby (USA), some 45,000, begin the campaign to capture Mobile, Alabama, garrisoned by only 10,000 Confederates.
19 Union cavalry under General Sheridan arrive at White House on the Pamunkey river in Virginia.
20 In North Carolina, the Battle of Bentonville, with 100,000 Union troops versus 20,000 Confederates; in three days of fighting, the Union suffers 1646 casualties, the Confederates 2606.
23 President Lincoln leaves the White House with his wife and son for a visit to the troops at City Point, Virginia.
23 Sherman's army reaches Goldsboro, North Carolina.
24 Off Ferrol, Spain, the newly-launched CSS Stonewall, an ironclad, offers battle two Union frigates, the Niagara and the Sacramento, who decline the opportunity.
27 At City Point, Virginia, President Lincoln confers with General Grant and General Sherman and Admiral Porter on reconstruction.
31 General Pickett withdraws his troops from the White Oak Road to Five Forks; it's the beginning of the end for the Confederacy.

April
1 In Virginia, the Battle of Five Forks. General Lee sends General Pickett a message commanding him to hold that position 'at all costs', but he is crushed by troops under General Sheridan and General Gouverneur Warren; General Warren is relieved by Sheridan for moving too slowly. Half the Confederate troops end up captured.
1 In the Pacific, the CSS Shenandoah makes port in the Eastern Caroline Islands after several days of operations against the Northern whaling fleet.
2 After receiving word while in church that Lee is being forced to evacuate the capital, President Davis boards a special train bound for Danville, Virginia. In Richmond, entire sections of the city are set on fire by Confederate troops.
2 General Ambrose P. Hill is killed in the defense of Petersburg, Virginia.
2 Union troops occupy Selma, Alabama, capturing 2700 Confederates.
3 In Virginia, Confederate defenses collapse in front of Petersburg.
3 In Virginia, Jefferson Davis and members of his cabinet arrive in Danville.
3 General Godfrey Weitzel (USA) accepts the surrender of Richmond, Virginia, and Union troops occupy Petersburg.
4 President Lincoln travels to Richmond, coming up the James River from City Point, Virginia.
5 In Washington, Secretary of State William Seward is injured in a carriage accident.
6 An accidental battle occurs at Sayler's Creek after the Confederates inadvertently split the army.
7 General Sheridan advises President Lincoln that Lee might surrender if pressed; Lincoln tells Grant: "Let the thing be pressed".
7 Grant sends Lee a message asking him to surrender and prevent "any further effusion of blood". Lee asks what the terms might be.
8 Lincoln returns to Washington.
8 Grant tells Lee that the one condition of surrender is that the "men and officers surrendered shall be disqualified from taking up arms against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged". Lee declines the offer and tries to break through at Appomattox Court House.
9 With further fighting hopeless, General Robert E. Lee signs the capitulation of the Army of Northern Virginia in the parlor of Wilbur McLean at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
10 As 3000 people and a band cheer the president at the White House, Lincoln tells the band to play Dixie, as it, too, now belongs to the Union.
10 From Danville, Virginia, Davis and his cabinet set out for Greensborough, North Carolina.
10 At Appomattox, General Lee gives his 'affectionate' farewell to the Army of Northern Virginia; the time had arrived when any more sacrifice by them could produce nothing that would compensate them for the loss that would be suffered.
10 General Sherman marches toward Raleigh, North Carolina.
11 President Lincoln addresses a crowd outside the White House on reconstruction and granting the vote to black soldiers and the 'most intelligent of that race'. It is his last speech.
11 Confederate troops withdraw from Mobile, Alabama.
12 At Appomattox Court House, the formal surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia takes place, with General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (USA) accepting the surrender from General John B. Gordon (CSA).
12 Union troops occupy Mobile and Montgomery, Alabama.
13 General Sherman's army occupies Raleigh, North Carolina.
14 Abraham Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth inside Ford's Theatre in Washington at ten o'clock, and Lewis Payne stabs William Seward at home. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton declares martial law.
14 In Charleston, South Carolina, Major General Robert Anderson (USA) returns to Fort Sumter and raises the same U.S. flag he had lowered when he surrendered it four years earlier.
14 General Sherman receives a message from General joseph Johnston (CSA) requesting a "temporary cessation of hostilities" until a peace can be worked out.
14 The CSS Shenandoah leaves the Carolines for the Kuriles.
15 General Robert E. Lee rides Traveler into Richmond at three o'clock in the afternoon, direct from Appomattox.
15 In Washington, Abraham Lincoln dies at half past seven in the morning and Andrew Johnson is sworn in as president close to noon.
15 Davis and his cabinet leave Greensborough, North Carolina, bound for Lexington.
16 John Wilkes Booth and David Herold arrive at Rich HIll, Maryland.
17 Abraham Lincoln's body is laid in state in the White House in the East Room.
17 Booth and Herold arrive in Port Tobacco, Maryland, trying to cross the Potomac into Virginia.
17 General Sherman (USA) and General Johnston (CSA) meet in North Carolina to discuss surrender terms.
19 The funeral of Abraham Lincoln takes place in the East Room of the White House. The casket is then escorted to the rotunda of the Capitol, where the public can view it.
19 Davis and his party arrive in Charlotte, North Carolina. Hearing of the assassination of Lincoln, General Wade Hampton (CSA) writes to Davis, suggesting the Confederacy continue the struggle from west of the Mississippi.
19 General John Pope (USA) writes to General Edmund Kirby Smith (CSA), suggesting a surrender of all Confederate troops west of the Mississippi.
21 President Lincoln's body is placed aboard a special train bound for Springfield, Illinois.
22 Booth and Herold are finally able to cross the Potomac in small fishing boat.
24 With troop under the direction of Secretary of War Stanton hunting them, Booth and Herold arrive at Port Conway, Virginia.
24 General Grant arrives in Raleigh to inform General Sherman that his surrender terms are unacceptable; the truce with General Johnston will expire in 48 hours.
25 Generals Sherman and Johnston meet again to discuss new terms.
26 Having traced Booth and Herold to Richard Garrett's farm south of the Rappahannock River in Virginia, their pursuers demand their surrender. Surrounded, Herold comes out of Garrett's barn, but Booth refuses. The soldiers set fire to the barn; a shot is heard, and Booth is wounded (whether self-inflicted or not, the wound is mortal). Dragged from the barn, he dies soon after. After an autopsy in Washington, he is buried at Arsenal Penitentiary.
26 In North Carolina, General Joseph E. Johnston surrenders his army to General William T. Sherman at Durham Station; the only difference between his terms and those offered Lee is that transport will be supplied to those who cannot get home otherwise.
27 On the Mississippi, the steamboat Sultana, loaded with returning Union POWs, catches fire after a boiler explodes; more than 1200 die.
28 More than 50,000 people view Lincoln's body at Cleveland, Ohio.
29 Jefferson Davis and the remainder of his entourage reach Yorksville, South Carolina.
30 General Edward Canby (USA) and General Richard Taylor (CSA) meet near Mobile, Alabama and discuss the surrender of all Confederate troops in Alabama and Mississippi.

May
1 Jefferson Davis reaches Cokesbury, South Carolina, hoping to get to Florida and then, by boat, to Texas.
2 $100,000 is offered for the capture of Jefferson Davis.
2 Jefferson Davis reaches Abbeville, South Carolina.
3 Judah Benjamin, Secretary of State of the Confederacy, separates from the Davis party; he will later escape to Britain.
3 The train bearing Abraham Lincoln reaches Springfield, Illinois.
4 Abraham Lincoln is buried in Springfield, Illinois.
4 General Richard Taylor (CSA) surrenders the troops under his command to troops under General Canby (USA). Nearly 43,000 troops are paroled in the Department of Alabama and Mississippi, while nearly 18,000 under General Kirby Smith (CSA) are paroled in the Trans-Mississippi; some expatriated themselves to Mexico.
5 Connecticut ratifies the 13th Amendment.
6 Secretary of War Stanton appoints nine Army officers, including General Lew Wallace (author of Ben Hur), as commissioners in the trial of the Lincoln conspirators.
9 Jefferson Davis meets up with his wife at Dublin, Georgia.
9 General Nathan Bedford Forrest (CSA) disbands his troops.
10 Jefferson Davis is captured by the 4th Michigan Cavalry (USA) near Irwinville, Georgia.
10 General Samuel Jones (CSA) surrenders his command at Tallahassee, Florida.
10 William Clarke Quantrill (CSA), the infamous guerrilla, is mortally wounded near Taylorsville, Kentucky.
11 General M. Jeff Thompson (CSA) surrenders the remnants of his command at Chalk Bluffs, Arkansas.
11 The CSS Stonewall sails into the harbor at Havana, Cuba.
11 US forces at Brazos Santiago in Texas capture and burn a nearby Confederate camp, though General J.E. Slaughter, CSA, drove back the attack. Jefferson Davis thought it "the last armed conflict of the War".
12 At the Palmito Ranch in Texas, capture and then relinquish the position.
13 At the Palmito Ranch in Texas, the last official battle of the War. Private John J. Williams of the 34th Indiana Volunteer Infantry was the last man killed at the Battle at Palmito Ranch, and probably the last official combat casualty of the war.
13 The Confederate governors of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana meet with General Kirby Smith (CSA) to advise him to surrender. Others, including Jo Shelby, threaten to arrest him unless he continues the fight.
17 General Philip Sheridan is appointed commander of the Trans-Mississippi.
19 The CSS Stonewall surrenders to Federal officials in Havana harbor.
22 Jefferson Davis arrives at Fort Monroe, Virginia.
23 In Washington, the Grand Review of the Army of the Potomac. Flags are at full mast for the first time in four years.
24 In Washington, the Grand Review of General Sherman's army of the West.
24 Skirmishing near Rocheport, Missouri.
25 In Mobile, Alabama, nearly twenty tons of captured black powder explodes near the docks, causing some 300 casualties.
26 General Simon Bolivar Buckner (CSA) meets with General Peter Osterhaus (USA) to discuss the surrender of all Confederate forces west of the Mississippi upon similar terms to those offered at Appomattox.
27 President Johnson orders the release of all but a few Confederate prisoners.
29 President Johnson issues an amnesty proclamation (with few exceptions) for "all who have participated in the rebellion".

June
2 In Shreveport, Louisiana, General Kirby Smith surrenders his Trans-Mississippi Department.
2 Jo Shelby (CSA) and members of his Iron Brigade refuse to surrender and cross the border into Mexico.
19 Two months after General Lee surrendered at Appomattox (but four days before Confederate General Stand Watie signed cease-fire accords at Fort Towson), Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas in command of 2,000 Union troops. Later that day, from a balcony of Galveston's famed Ashton Villa (at that time Union HQ) General Granger read General Order #3 to the assembled citizens:

"The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere."

Officially known as 'Emancipation Day' or 'Freedom Day', this Texas State Holiday is more commonly known as 'Juneteenth', from combining the words 'June' and 'Nineteenth', and has been celebrated since 1866, becoming an official State holiday in 1980.
23 In Doaksville, Oklahoma, General Stand Watie surrenders his Cherokee brigade.
30 All eight Lincoln conspirators are found guilty; four to be imprisoned at Dry Tortuga (where Michael O'Laughlin dies of yellow fever) and four to be hanged at the Old Penitentiary in Washington, including Mary Surratt.

July
1 All Southern seaports (except four in Texas) are opened for trade, excepting contraband of war, per President Johnson.

August
General Jo Shelby (CSA) leads about 1000 of his men to Mexico City and offers their services as a 'foreign legion' to Emperor Maximilian; the offer is declined. They are offered a large tract of land near Vera Cruz, and many settle there.
The CSS Shenandoah, sailing south from the Bering Sea toward San Francisco, is informed of the end of the war.

September
1 President Johnson permits the trading of war contraband with the formerly Confederate states.

October
President Johnson paroles former Confederate vice-president Alexander Stephens and four other imprisoned Confederate leaders.

November
6 In Liverpool, England, after sailing half-way around the world, Captain James I. Waddell, CSN, surrenders the CSS Shenandoah to British authorities.
In Georgia, Captain Henry Wirz (CSA), formerly the commander of Andersonville Prison, is hanged.

December
Having been approved by 27 states, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery, is enacted.