The first attempt by a large field army or geographic section to try to surrender took place in the southwest. On March 11, 1865, Brigadier General James Edwin Slaughter and Colonel John Salmon “Rip” Ford met with Union Major General Lewis “Lew” Wallace and agreed to terms of surrender for all forces in the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona that included an amnesty for former Confederates and the gradual emancipation of slaves. Slaughter’s and Ford’s superior, Major General John George Walker, temporarily commanding the District in the absence of Major General John Bankhead Magruder, refused the terms, however.
On April 9, 1865, General-in-chief Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army and Department of Northern Virginia to General-of-the-Army Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia.
On April 12, 1865, Brigadier General John Echols disbanded the Department of East Tennessee and Southwestern Virginia at Christiansburg, Virginia, upon learning of Lee’s surrender through a telegram waiting for him when he mustered his forces in Christiansburg. The command’s sixteen artillery piece carriages were cut apart, the gun barrels were spiked, and the ammunition was destroyed. All who wished were allowed to return home.
After Echols dissolved the Department, Brigadier General George Blake Cosby took the remainder of his brigade west into Kentucky to surrender to federal authorities. Echols led the remaining troops of Brigadier General John Crawford Vaughn’s Brigade and Brigadier General Basil Wilson Duke’s Brigade, toward North Carolina hoping to link up with General Joseph Eggleston Johnston and the Army of Tennessee. The former Department’s District of Western North Carolina remained unaffected and intact.
On April 16, 1865, the remnant force from East Tennessee-Southwest Virginia split, with some few following Brigadier General Echols toward the Army of Tennessee and the remaining majority, under the overall command of Brigadier General Vaughn, hoping to meet up with Lieutenant General Joe Wheeler’s cavalry.
The two brigades under Echols (Duke and Vaughn) joined the bodyguard of President Jefferson Davis on April 19, 1865, under command of General John C. Breckenridge made up of Brigadier General George Gibbs Dibrell’s Brigade, Brigadier General Samuel Wragg Ferguson’s Brigade and Colonel William C. P. Breckenridge’s Brigade. Bragg later joined them on 1 May 1865 at Cokesbury, S.C. bringing President Jefferson Davis` Body Guard to 6 Brigades of Cavalry. Dibrell was the lead Brigade and Ferguson was second in charge of the protection detail.
On April 20, 1865, Major General Thomas Howell Cobb (Buchanan`s Secretery of Treasury) surrendered the District of Georgia and Florida to Major General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby at Macon, Georgia.
On April 21, 1865, Colonel John Singleton Mosby disbanded Mosby’s Partisan Rangers, (also known as 43rd Battalion, Virginia Cavalry) at Salem, Virginia.
On April 26, 1865, General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the Division of the West under himself, the Army of Tennessee under General Braxton Bragg, the Department of North Carolina under General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, and the Department of Tennessee and Georgia under Lieutenant General William Joseph Hardee to Major General William T. Sherman at Durham Station, North Carolina. Brigadier General Echols, formerly of the Department of East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, was by this time with Johnston, having left the column of Vaughn’s and Duke’s brigades on April 16. Also on this day John Wilkes Boothe was cornered in a Tobacco Barn at Port Royal, Virginia and killed by Federal troops with another conspirator for the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.
On April 27, 1865, Confederate Secret Service operative Robert Louden used a coal torpedo (a bomb made to look like a lump of coal) to sink the SS Sultana on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tennessee, killing 1,600-1,800 of its 2,400 passengers, most of them former prisoners from the Union Army. It remains the biggest maritime disaster in U.S. history and arguably the largest terrorist attack on U.S. soil prior to September 11, 2001.
On May 2 1865, the last Confederate War Council and last full Cabinet meeting was held at the Armistead Burt House, Abbeville, S.C. In attendance were the following Confederate Cabinet Members: Jefferson Davis (President), Judah P. Benjamin (Secretary of State), Maj. General John C. Breckinridge (Secretary of War), Stephen R. Mallory (Secretary of the Navy) and John H. Reagan (Post Master General / Secretary of the Treasury). Immediately after the Cabinet meeting the last Confederate States War Council to be held during the War was convened. In attendance were the following Confederate General Officers and Brigade Commanders: Maj. General John C. Breckinridge (Secretary of War), General Braxton Bragg, Brig. General George C. Dibrell, Brig. General Samuel Wragg Ferguson, Brig. General Basil W. Duke, Brig. General John C. Vaughn and Col. William C. P. Breckinridge (Cousin of Maj. General John C. Breckinridge). After these two meetings were adjourned it was decided after mature deliberation and discussion that it was useless to continue the War longer and that the Confederate States Government should be disbanded. the vast majority of it was disbanded after this meeting and the rest would be disbanded 2 days later at Washington, Georgia after a smaller Council was held there with only a small handful of Cabinet members who still remained.
On May 4, 1865, Lieutenant General Richard Taylor surrendered the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana to Major General Edward Canby at Citronelle, Alabama. President Jefferson Davis met with what remained of his Cabinet for the last time in Washington, Georgia (Wilkes County), to dissolve the government of the Confederate States of America.
On May 5, 1865, hours before sunrise President Davis continued on from Washington, Ga. towards the Trans-Mississippi Department with a small bodyguard under Captain Given Campbell to meet up with General Kirby Smith. Brig. General Samuel Wragg Ferguson`s Cavalry Brigade was the last command in the field to report to the Confederate Secretary of War, and former 14th U.S. Vice President (Buchanan Administration), Maj. General John C. Breckinridge, and was disbanded at their camp 1 mile west of Washington, Ga. on the road to Madison. His Brigade was then comprised of the 2nd Regiment Alabama Cavalry, the 56th Alabama Partisan Rangers, the 12th Regiment Mississippi Cavalry, the 11th Regiment Mississippi Cavalry and the 9th Regiment Mississippi Cavalry. Some of the men marched along the roads back to Alabama where they would seek their pardons and others surrendered to and were paroled by what Federal troops they could find in the area of Washington, Ga, Macon, Ga. and Forsyth, Ga. Later in the day, Major General Dabney Herndon Maury surrendered the District of the Gulf to Major General Edward Canby at Citronelle, Alabama.
On May 6, 1865, Brigadier General Joseph Horace Lewis surrendered the Kentucky Orphan Brigade along with the remnants of Ferguson’s and Breckinridge’s brigades to Captain Lot Abraham of the 4th Iowa Cavalry in Major General James Harrison Wilson’s cavalry corps at Washington, Georgia.
On May 8, 1865, Captain Jesse Cunningham McNeill surrendered McNeill’s Partisan Rangers to Major General (and future 19th U.S. President) Rutherford B. Hayes at Sycamore Dale, West Virginia.
On May 9, 1865, Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest surrendered Forrest’s Cavalry Corps to Major General James H. Wilson at Gainesville, Alabama. Brigadier General James Green Martin surrendered the District of Western North Carolina and Colonel William Holland Thomas, the Thomas Legion of Cherokee Indians and Highlanders to Colonel William C. Bartlett at Waynesville, North Carolina, after the Thomas Legion surrounded and captured Bartlett’s entire command the previous day. The units of the Legion present included the Cherokee Battalion, Love’s Regiment, and Barr’s Battery. Major S. G. Spann surrendered his mostly Choctaw Battalion of Independent Scouts at Meridian, Mississippi. Brigadier General John C. Vaughn surrendered his remnant brigade to Captain Lot Abraham of the 4th Iowa Cavalry at Washington, Georgia.
On May 10, 1865, Major General Samuel Jones surrendered the Department of South Carolina, Florida, and South Georgia to Brigadier General Edward Moody McCook at Tallahassee, Florida. Commodore Ebenezer Farrand surrendered the CSS Nashville, CSS Baltic, CSS Morgan, and several other vessels, nearly all the remaining warships in the Confederate Navy, to Rear Admiral Henry Knox Thatcher at Nanna Hubba, Alabama. Brigadier General Basil Duke surrendered the remnant of his brigade to Captain Lot Abraham of the 4th Iowa Cavalry at Washington, Georgia. President Davis and his party were captured in Irwinville, Georgia, by Lt. Colonel Benjamin D. Pritchard and the 4th Michigan Cavalry Regiment.
On May 11, 1865, Brigadier General George Dibrell surrendered the remnant of his brigade to Captain Lot Abraham of the 4th Iowa Cavalry at Washington, Georgia.
On May 12, 1865, Brigadier General William Tatum Wofford surrendered the Department of North Georgia to Brigadier General Henry Moses Judah at Kingston, Georgia (Bartow County). Captain Stephen Whitaker surrendered Walker’s Battalion of the former Thomas Legion, detached from the rest of the command, to Colonel George Washington Kirk at Franklin, North Carolina, upon hearing of the surrenders of Thomas and Martin. This was the last surrender of Confederate troops east of the Mississippi River.
On May 13, 1865, the last land battle of the war was fought at Palmito Ranch in Texas, near Brownsville, with Confederate forces under Colonel Rip Ford (including his own 2nd Texas Cavalry) defeating decisively the Union forces under Colonel Theodore Harvey Barrett.
On May 26 1865, Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner surrendered the Army of the Trans-Mississippi to Major General Edward Canby at New Orleans, Louisiana. Buckner was in direct field command of the army at the time it was surrounded by Union forces.
On May 30, 1865, Brigadier General Slaughter and Colonel Ford disbanded the remaining field forces of the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona at Brownsville, Texas.
On June 2, 1865, General Edmund Kirby Smith surrendered the Department of the Trans-Mississippi to Major General Edward Canby at Galveston, Texas.
On June 3, 1865, Captain Jonathan H. Carter surrendered the CSS Missouri to Lieutenant-Commander William E. Fitzhugh at Alexandria, Louisiana.
On June 23, 1865, Brigadier General Stand Watie, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, surrendered the First Indian Brigade of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi to Lieutenant-Colonel Asa C. Matthews at Doaksville, Choctaw Nation (Indian Territory).
On November 6, 1865, Commander James Iredell Waddell surrendered the privateer vessel CSS Shenandoah and its crew to Captain R. N. Paynter of the HMS Donegal at Liverpool, England. It was the only Confederate Navy ship to circumvent the globe. The crew remained in Europe for several years afterward, for the most part, and eventually returned home. The Shenandoah was sold to the Sultan of Zanzibar.
On August 20, 1866, President Andrew Johnson declared the insurrection officially over and peace restored.
The Unsurrendered, Confederate exiles and expatriates:
On July 4, 1865, Major General Joseph Orville Shelby led his Iron Brigade and other troops in his Missouri Division across the Rio Grande at Eagle Pass, Texas, into Piedras Negras, Empire of Mexico, to avoid surrender.
Accompanying Shelby’s column were former Confederate governors Pendelton Murrah (Texas), Henry Allen (Louisiana), Thomas Reynolds (Missouri), and Isham Harris (Tennessee), as well as ex-generals Edmund Kirby Smith, Sterling Price, John Bankhead Magruder, Alexander Watkins Terrell, and other officers of the former Trans-Mississippi Department and their families.
Under the direction of former Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury of the Confederate Navy, the ex-officers and troops who had crossed into the Empire of Mexico established the New Virginia Colony in the state of Veracruz at the invitation of Emperor Maximilian. Its central city was Carlota, named for Maximilian’s empress. Slaves were not allowed, slavery being against Mexican law. When the republican Juaristas (supporters of President Benito Juarez, whom the French ousted in 1864) overthrew Maximilian’s government, these former Confederates returned north, many becoming prominent citizens.
Interestingly, in 1851 Maury had once formulated a plan to both eradicate slavery from within the borders of the U.S. and slow or end Brazil’s slave trade with Africa.
Between ten and twenty thousand former Confederates emigrated to the Empire of Brazil at the invitation of Dom Pedro II, who wanted to encourage the growth of cotton. Establishing themselves in several communities, these people became the foundation of an ethnic group unique to Brazil known today as "Los Confederados", now centered in the Sao Paolo town of Americana. The now multi-racial "Los Confederados" are extremely proud of their history and send young people to the American South every year to see the former homeland. The original settlers included an ancestor of former First Lady Rosalyn Carter.
Other former Confederates settled in what was then British Honduras (now Belize), establishing the settlements at New Richmond near San Pedro, on the New River south of Orange Walk Town, and around the town of Punta Gorda. Within a few decades, these groups had assimilated and lost their distinctiveness.
Ex-Rear Admiral John Randolph Tucker led a group of former Confederate expatriates into Peru to establish New Manassas and wound up being assigned to chart the Amazon River. A Dr. Henry Price took another group into Venezuela to occupy large areas of the state of Guyana called the Price Grant.
Of all these, "Los Confederados de Brasil" is the only former colony whose descendants still survive as a distinctive ethnic group. Brazil abolished slavery in 1888. Former slave owners, backed by the military, overthrew the imperial government in 1889. A military dictatorship ruled the country until civilian republicans came to power in 1894.