The conclusion of the war has been marked by a series of events, each considered by some persons to be the end.
Today, however, the war comes to a final conclusion when the last Confederate army, that of General Edmund Kirby Smith in Texas, formally surrenders. There will be a few more surrenders of small forces in the months to come, but the armed Rebellion is now officially over.
In Corsicana, Texas, lawyer and Baptist layman Jacob Eliot has for weeks considered the war to be concluded. This week Federal soldiers borrow his ox wagon and drover and park a former Confederate government wagon on his property. “Thus taking private and public property,” Eliot muses in his diary. He figures the U.S. government owes him rent in excess of $1000. Whether or not he will ever be paid is another matter.
Sources: Conclusion of the American Civil War (link) and (link) and (link); “Jacob Eliot’s Civil War Journal” (link)
