The Month of April 1865 in American History

By Francis J. Gorman

April just ended, and it's worth a look-back now before it leaves our memories.

April 1865 was a momentous month in American History. It began with the fall of Richmond, signaling the end of the Civil War. It became tragic with the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. It ended with the capture, shooting, death, and burial of John Wilkes Booth.

After 1865, the nation went through decades of legal conflicts among constitutional amendments, laws passed by Congress (some over presidential veto), local and state laws, executive and military actions, and U.S. Supreme Court decisions. It was also a time of violence, oppression, and apathy. Although partial healing occurred in the next century, the consequences of some of these April 1865 events are still reverberating throughout our country today.?

Here is a listing of key dates in April 1865:

April 3 – The capital of the Confederacy, Richmond VA, falls and is occupied by General Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Potomac.

April 9 – General Robert E. Lee surrenders the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to Grant at Appomattox Court House, VA.

April 14-15 – President Lincoln is assassinated on Friday night at Ford’s Theatre in Washington and dies the following morning at the Petersen House across from the theatre.

April 26-27 – John Wilkes Booth is captured and shot at Garrett Farm in Virginia and dies a few hours later; his body is taken to Washington where, one day, he is autopsied, identified, and buried in the Washington Arsenal (now Ft. McNair).

April 27 – General Joseph E. Johnston surrenders the Confederate Army of Tennessee and approximately 90,000 Confederate soldiers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida to General Willaim Tecumseh Sherman.

A closer look into each event in reveals the impact each of these events had on American history.

Richmond, VA, Capital of the Confederacy, Falls

Richmond, Virginia, was a major symbol of the Confederacy. Although it had been under siege for many months, Richmond and most of its citizens assumed that the city would not fall into Union hands. For most of the war, Lee made protecting Richmond an essential objective.

On Sunday, April 2, the Union Army broke through the Confederate line at Petersburg, VA. The Army of Northern Virginia retreated west. Lee sent a telegram to Jefferson Davis advising him to evacuate the government from Richmond. By Sunday night, Richmond had descended into chaos, and Davis was on a train out of the city.

Two days later, President Lincoln and his son, Tad, toured the burned-out city. A major sign of success for an impatient North.

Lee Surrenders the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia

Surrender was a certainty, but the terms of surrender were uncertain.

First some background: President Lincoln had seized the initiative from Congress when he issued a Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction on December 8, 1863. He set the tone for reconciliation and construction. Lincoln offered a full pardon to those who had participated in the rebellion if they pledged loyalty to the United States and accepted the abolition of slavery. Lincoln’s Proclamation later influenced General Grant in deciding the terms to be offered to General Lee.

By April 9, Lee’s retreat from Petersburg had been blocked by the Union Army near a town called Appomattox Court House. Continued fighting would be futile. Lee was unable to reconstitute a force capable of avoiding Grant’s troops. Lee sent a message to Grant asking for a meeting to discuss surrender. Grant sent back a message agreeing to a meeting, and then he rushed to the front lines where Lee was. Grant left the exact location of the meeting to Lee.

Union Captain William Dunn and Confederate private Joshua Johns were in the party escorting Lee to the meeting. They were also charged with finding a suitable location. They ran into a local resident, Wilmer McLean, and looked inside his rather substantial home. McLean agreed to let the Lee-Grant meeting take place in his home. ???????? ????????????????????????????

At the meeting, Grant offered Lee parole for all Confederate soldiers if they surrendered their rifles and promised not to take up arms against the Union in the future. Confederate officers could keep their horses and pistols. Lee accepted, of course, but he asked if his soldiers could keep the horses in the calvary and the artillery. Grant agreed to this, but as a military arrangement rather than as part of the surrender terms. As Lee was leaving, he mentioned that his army was in bad condition due to want of food. Grant immediately promised that rations would be given to Lee’s soldiers.

Lee never forgot Grant’s graciousness during this meeting. It was a good start towards reconciliation and reconstruction.

President Lincoln Is Assassinated and Dies on April 15, 1865

The tragic history of the assassination of President Lincoln on Good Friday is well known. His assassin was a Southern supporter, a spy and courier, but more importantly, a racist. When listening to Lincoln’s speech from the White House on the evening of April 11, when all of Washington was celebrating Lee’s surrender, Booth heard Lincoln propose extending the right to vote to Black soldiers who served in the Union Army. This caused Booth to vow he would kill Lincoln.

?

Lincoln died on Saturday, April 15, at 7:22 AM. As Secretary of War Stanton predicted, Lincoln has indeed belonged to the ages.

Did Lincoln’s death change the course of American history? Any answer would be pure speculation, but it is interesting to consider.

Lincoln’s approach of “with malice towards none with charity for all” was gone. Had he lived, his attributes and talents likely would have produced at least a few results different from what occurred in history.

His vice-President and successor, President Andrew Johnson, was a man with complicated views -- a Democratic Senator from Tennessee who remained loyal to the Union. He disapproved of the Southern wealthy plantation class and elites who, Johnson believed, drove the South to succession and war. He favored white Southerners but was no friend of the recently freed Black citizens. Johnson was not thoughtful and wise. As a result, he was unable to control or even manage the Radical Republicans who passed laws over his veto and eventually impeached him.

After the war and when Reconstruction was underway, would Lincoln have been able to change any of the following developments?

·??????? Union troops were placed in Southern states to protect recently freed Black citizens and their rights.

·??????? Union troops were withdrawn under the Hayes-Tilden Compromise of 1877.

·??????? The rise of the Ku Klux Klan.

·??????? Supreme Court decisions that limited federal laws designed to protect Black citizens.

·??????? Presidents customarily served only two terms. (Lincoln second term ended in 1869.)

·??????? Black Codes and state Jim Crow laws.

·??????? The Lost Cause Narrative?

The Civil War had already taken a heavy toll on Lincoln.

?

Booth is Killed in Virginia and Buried in the Washington Arsenal

Because Booth was killed in April 1865, he was never interrogated, never tried for his crime. Lacking post-assassination access to Booth, speculation, myths, and deliberate lies have led to bad history.

Booth’s assassination of Lincoln forever links them in American history. As long as Lincoln is remembered, John Wilkes Booth will be remembered.

Johnston Surrenders 90,000 Confederate Soldiers to Sherman

For months prior to April 1865, Confederates hoped Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and General Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of Tennessee (including other Southern forces) could come together and unite. On April 11, Johnston learned of Lee’s surrender. Johnston’s army was large in number, but desertions increased rapidly on news of Lee’s surrender. He began planning a surrender to Sherman on the best possible terms.

Sherman and Johnston met on April 17 at Bennett Place near Durham, NC. Sherman offered the same terms Grant offered Lee. Johnston wanted better terms, and there was no agreement.

The next day, April 18, Sherman and Johnston met again. Sherman assured Johnston that terms consistent with Lincoln’s 1863 Proclamation and the surrender terms at Appomattox would allow full pardons for soldiers and generals if they agreed to stop fighting and turned in their guns. Sherman was expansive and generous in describing the terms. Several days later, when the surrender reached President Johnson and his cabinet, the surrender terms were rejected. Sherman was reprimanded by Secretary of War Stanton for getting into political matters.

Lincoln may have approved the April 17 surrender terms or come back with compromise terms. Sherman clearly exceeded his authority. This is one situation where Lincoln may have made a difference in the outcome.

After April 1865

Finally, a look at events after April 1865. It is not a pretty picture.

There were too many entrenched opposing forces in Washington during the Reconstruction Era, 1865 to 1880. The Radical Republicans got their way.

President Johnson opposed the congressional Republicans. President Johnson did not get along with Stanton. Congressional Republicans did not like President Johnson and passed stringent laws against the formerly rebellious states, at times overriding Johnson’s vetoes. The Supreme Court issued restrictive decisions that narrowed or negated laws passed by Congress to protect the newly freed Black citizens.

Most of the wealthy elites, newspaper editors, merchants, and working-class Whites in the Southern states did not cooperate with Reconstruction. They resisted the so-called “carpetbag” state governments. Violence was used to intimidate. The Ku Klux Klan used killings and fear to silence and re-subjugate Black citizens.

By 1885, Reconstruction was over:

All Union soldiers had been withdrawn from the Southern states. The state governments that had been elected by Black and White citizens in the early stage of Reconstruction had been dismantled and returned to state governments controlled by Democratic white supremacists.

Black codes and Jim Crow laws returned Black citizens to a condition as close to slavery as possible, despite the 13th Amendment.

Supreme Court decisions severely limited the application of the 14th and 15th Amendments. In 1883, the Supreme Court struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875.

Black men’s right to vote as set forth in The 15th Amendment became an illusion. By 1885, Black citizens were prevented from voting throughout the South through intimidation and violence.

And up North? By 1890, people in the Northern states were done with Reconstruction. They forgot the problems that still plagued the once-enslaved Black citizens. The nation had become complacent about denial of rights to Black citizens. Instead, there was an industrial revolution going on, and the nation was headed west. White supremacy was accepted and/or tolerated throughout America.

April 1865 was both an end and a beginning.

FJG/April 30, 2024

?