JUNE 2 = The Last Confederate Army Surrenders

 The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when the guns in the harbor of Charleston Bay opened fire upon the Federal held Fort Sumter across the Bay. This would be the start of the longest and bloodiest war in our nation's history. Four years later, General Edmund Kirby Smith (left) signed the final surrender document of the last Confederate army still in existence at Galveston on board the U.S.S. Fort Jackson on today's date, June 2, in 1865. The Confederacy had at long last come to her end.

The Death of the  Confederacy  

We've covered two other parts of the death of the Confederacy - the main event, which was of course General Lee's surrender to General Grant on April 9, 1865. And we have also covered the last battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Palmetto Ranch which begun on May 12 in 1865. But there were any number of Confederate troops still under arms after not only Appomattox but also Palmetto Ranch. General Joseph E. Johnston's Army of the Tennessee was still officially in the field with @100,000 men spread over several states from the Carolinas to Florida. Johnston surrendered his troops to General Sherman on April 26, 1865 at Bennett Place in Durham, North Carolina.

Smith Commands the Trans-Mississippi

On January 14, 1863, Smith was sent to command the Trans-
Mississippi Department. But with the South's defeat at the Battle of Vicksburg, (July, 1863) the Mississippi River fell under the control of the Union. Thus all of the Confederate troops to the west of the Mississippi were cut off from communication with Lee and the rest of the command structure of the Southern forces (see map below). They were effectively on their own.  With Smith at their helm the Rebel

forces were able to score some successes, but cut off from everything east of the Mississippi, and unable to send anything east, their effectiveness was shrinking.  By 1865 the Confederate troops under Smith's command remained  unbeaten and were still in existence as an army numbering some 20,000 men. Utilizing supplies that they had been able to get from Mexico, Gen. Smith still had thoughts of continuing to fight on in what was clearly a dying struggle against the Union. But Smith's Chief of Staff had been in talks with Union Gen.

 Edward Canby (left) with the idea of surrendering the Trans-Mississippi. At this time, Smith, still having hopes of going on with the struggle had been on his way to Houston. Arriving there on May 27, he found the rebel forces disorganized and falling apart. With this realization upon him, Smith regretfully concluded that the right course was surrender. With this in mind, he went to Galveston, Texas, and signed the final document of surrender aboard the U.S.S. Fort Jackson. With this surrender of the last rebel army, the Confederacy at last died, and the American Civil War finally came to an end. That fuse which had been lit back in April of 1861 wound up costing @  620,000 dead total on both sides. Smith himself returned to the United States from his exile in Cuba and took an oath of amnesty at Lynchburg, Virginia, on November 14, 1865. He died on March  28, 1893.

Sources =

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Kirby_Smith

https://www.facebook.com/ShilohNMP/posts/gen-kirby-smith-finally-surrenders-june-2-1865gen-edmund-kirby-smith-was-the-las/831680786921909/

 https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/american-civil-war-ends 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Kirby_Smith

https://www.thoughtco.com/general-edmund-kirby-smith-2360303