13. The Civil War ended when Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House
When Lee surrendered to Grant in April 1865, receiving generous terms for the treatment of his men from the Union commander, major combat operations of the Civil War were at an end. At least in the Eastern Theater of the war, fighting continued in several regions. General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to William T. Sherman at the end of April, with Sherman following Grant’s lead and offering generous terms to his beaten enemies. Across the South, resistance continued for a few weeks, as one Southern department after another conceded defeat. The last land battle of the Civil War, other than some guerrilla raids, occurred at Palmito Ranch in Texas, a two-day engagement in which John J. Williams, the last combat fatality of the war, was killed.
On May 10, 1865, Andrew Johnson declared the armed rebellion to be at an end, and Jefferson Davis was taken into Union custody the same day. Still, the war was not declared to be over. The Confederate raider CSS Shenandoah was still at large at sea, where the vessel had captured or sunk 38 Union ships in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Shenandoah continued to raid Union ships until the end of June 1865, when it learned of Lee’s surrender while cruising in the Pacific. Shenandoah then embarked on a three-month cruise from the Pacific to Liverpool, England, where it surrendered to the Royal Navy on November 6, striking for the last time the flag of the Confederate Navy. The following August Andrew Johnson declared the war was officially over.