ith the ratification of the 13th Amendment, signed on 1/2/1865. See 16/6/1858. The slave trade to the United States had been prohibited in 1807 but slavery continued in the southern States as the cotton trade grew. The publication of Harriet Beecher’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852 convinced many of the evils of slavery but Northerners were still reluctant to back a full abolitionist policy. But they did not wish to see slavery spread from the South either and this led to the American Civil War of 1861-65 after the election of Abraham Lincoln as president. Slaves were freed in areas joining the Northern side and in all areas after the 13th Amendment was passed.
8/7/1865. Four of the conspirators involved in the murder of President Lincoln (see 15/4/1865) were hanged. Another three were sentenced to life imprisonment.
26/5/1865. The Confederate Army under General Kirby Smith surrendered in Texas, fully ending the American Civil War.
10/5/1865. Jefferson Davies, Confederate President of the USA, was taken prisoner by Union forces in the American Civil War.
27/4/1865, In the US, the paddle steamer Sultana exploded on the Mississippi River, killing 1,600 people on board.
26/4/1865, John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, died of a bullet wound incurred whilst resisting arrest in a burning barn on a farm near Bowling Green, Virginia.
9/4/1865. The American Civil War ended when General Robert E Lee surrendered his Confederate army to General Ulysses S Grant at the Appomattox Court House, Virginia. The 27,000-strong Confederate army was effectively beaten but was seeking to gain access to a railway which could have taken them south to join with General Johnson’s forces in North Carolina. But Union forces blocked this move. The Confederate soldiers were allowed to keep their horses and small arms, on condition that they did not take up arms against the North again. This surrender effectively ended a conflict that had set brother against brother, and taken over half a million lives. 5/4/1865. Union troops destroyed the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia.
2/3/1865. President Lincoln rejected Confederate attempts to negotiate, demanding unconditional surrender.
22/2/1865. Wilmington, the last Confederate port, fell to the Union forces.
6/2/1865, Robert E Lee became Commander of the Confederate forces in America.
1/2/1865, President Abraham Lincoln signed a Resolution proposing the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery in the USA.
24/12/1864. General Sherman captured Savannah, Georgia, from the Confederates.
15/11/1864, General Sherman set out on his march to Savannah, leaving Atlanta a ruin so the Confederates could not use it. He destroyed all arsenals, public buildings, machine shops, and depots, having evacuated all civilians.
31/10/1864, Nevada became the 36th State of the Union.
19/10/1864, At the Battle of Cedar Creek, in the American Civil War, General Sheridan defeated the Confederates.
17/8/1864, Eight crewmen on the Confederate submarine HL Hunley sank the Union warship Housatonic with an explosive charge, killing five Northern sailors. This was the first time a submarine had sunk an enemy ship in wartime. The Hunley surfaced to signal success to shore with a blue light, then resubmerged. She never resurfaced.
5/8/1864, The Battle of Mobile Bay.
27/6/1864, Battle of Kenesaw Mountains, Georgia. Confederate troops defeated Sherman’s forces, killing 2,000 of them to losses of only 270 of themselves.
18/6/1864, The USS Kearsarge, captained by John Wilmslow, sank the British built warship Alabama, a Confederate ship, off Cherbourg.
15/6/1864, Arlington Cemetery, the site of the unknown soldier, was established near Washington.
5/6/1864, Battle of Wilderness; Unionist victory.
3/6/1864, Battle of Cold Harbor. Fought in Virginia during the American Civil War, General Ulysses S Grant’s Unionist forces suffered heavy losses, 12,000 men, in an ill-judged attack on General Robert E Lee’s well-defended Confederate position. Although a Confederate victory, this battle served to maintain the Unionist strategy o