Thursday, 4 May 1865
At Washington, Georgia, Confederate President Jefferson Davis holds his last cabinet meeting. Davis is reluctant, and actually unable, to disband the government because he has no power to do so under the Confederate Constitution. Southern officials continued leaving to join their families, however, and Davis and his dwindling entourage again move further south toward Eatonton, Georgia.
Skirmishing breaks out at Wetumpka, Alabama, in the Mobile Campaign.
Federal troops scout from Pine Bluff to Noble's Farm, Arkansas, against Southern partisans, a reported "...lawless band of robbers..."
Skirmishing occurs with partisan guerrillas at the Star House, 2 miles from Lexington, Missouri. The outnumbered attacking Southerners are finally forced to retreat.
Approximately 40 miles north of Mobile, Alabama, Confederate Lieutenant General Richard Scott Taylor, youngest child of former United States President Zachary Taylor, surrenders to Union Major General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby to formally end the Mobile Campaign. As Taylor surrenders his Confederate forces to Canby at Citronelle, this ends all organized Confederate resistance east of the Mississippi River.
President Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States of America is finally laid to rest, after returning to his hometown of Springfield. Illinois. Lincoln was buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield. As many as seven million people had witnessed some part of Lincoln’s funeral procession from Washington, DC, to Springfield.
During this period, the CSS Shenandoah "made northings" towards the Bering Sea whaling ground through pleasant seas that would soon change in the high parallels. After departing Lea Harbor, Ponape, in the Caroline Islands, on 13 April, the lone raider had experienced fine cruising-except for lack of prizes. Commander James Iredell Waddell wrote:
"Never in our various experience of sea life had any of us seen such or more charming weather than we now enjoyed. The sun shone with a peculiar brilliancy and the moon shed that clear, soft light which is found in this locality, in which the heavens seem so distant and so darkly blue, while the vast expanse of ocean was like a great reflecting mirror. The track for vessels bound from San Francisco and many of the ports, on the west coast of America to Hong Kong lies between the parallels in north latitude of 17º and 20º Here the winds are better than are found in a more northerly route, while the track to San Francisco and other ports along the west coast of America from China lies between the parallels of 35º and 45º, because here west winds prevail..."
"After the vessel had reached the parallel of 43º north the weather became cold and foggy and the winds were variable and unsteady, and that ever reliable friend of the sailor, the barometer, indicated atmospheric changes."
"The ship was prepared for the change of weather which was rapidly approaching. Soon the ocean was boiling with agitation, and if the barometer had been silent, I would have called it only a furious tide but a dark, then a black cloud, was hurrying towards us from the N. E. and so close did it rest upon the surface of the water that is seemed determined to overwhelm the. ship, and there came in it so terrible and violent a wind that the Shenandoah was thrown on her side..."
"Squall after squall struck her, flash after flash surrounded her, and the thunder rolled in her wake. It was the typhoon. The ocean was as white as the snow and foamed with rage. A new close-reefed main topsail was blown into shreds, and the voice of man was inaudible amid this awful convolution of nature..."
The CSS Ajax, commanded by Lieutenant John Low--born in Aberdeen, Scotland--entered St. George's, Bermuda, from Nassau. The Confederate captain had not yet learned that his government had collapsed that Generals Lee and Johnston had surrendered the preceding month. He attempted to obtain guns for delivery to Havana but Governor W. G. Hamley refused to permit it. He advised Low: "The Ajax has been a suspected vessel ever since she was launched. She has the appearance of a gunboat; she has never carried merchant cargo; she changed owners at Nassau; she is now commanded by an officer in the service of the Confederate States; in short, she wants nothing but armament to be in a position to take the seas as a privateer."
Union Rear Admiral Henry Knox Thatcher accepted an offer this morning from Commodore Ebenezer Farrand, CSN, to "...surrender all Confederate naval forces, officers, men, and public property yet afloat under his command and now blockaded by a portion of our naval forces in the Tombigbee River [Alabama]." The formal capitulation will take place on the 10th and include the CSS Nashville, Morgan, Baltic, and Black Diamond.
At Washington, Georgia, Confederate President Jefferson Davis holds his last cabinet meeting. Davis is reluctant, and actually unable, to disband the government because he has no power to do so under the Confederate Constitution. Southern officials continued leaving to join their families, however, and Davis and his dwindling entourage again move further south toward Eatonton, Georgia.
Skirmishing breaks out at Wetumpka, Alabama, in the Mobile Campaign.
Federal troops scout from Pine Bluff to Noble's Farm, Arkansas, against Southern partisans, a reported "...lawless band of robbers..."
Skirmishing occurs with partisan guerrillas at the Star House, 2 miles from Lexington, Missouri. The outnumbered attacking Southerners are finally forced to retreat.
Approximately 40 miles north of Mobile, Alabama, Confederate Lieutenant General Richard Scott Taylor, youngest child of former United States President Zachary Taylor, surrenders to Union Major General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby to formally end the Mobile Campaign. As Taylor surrenders his Confederate forces to Canby at Citronelle, this ends all organized Confederate resistance east of the Mississippi River.
President Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States of America is finally laid to rest, after returning to his hometown of Springfield. Illinois. Lincoln was buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield. As many as seven million people had witnessed some part of Lincoln’s funeral procession from Washington, DC, to Springfield.
During this period, the CSS Shenandoah "made northings" towards the Bering Sea whaling ground through pleasant seas that would soon change in the high parallels. After departing Lea Harbor, Ponape, in the Caroline Islands, on 13 April, the lone raider had experienced fine cruising-except for lack of prizes. Commander James Iredell Waddell wrote:
"Never in our various experience of sea life had any of us seen such or more charming weather than we now enjoyed. The sun shone with a peculiar brilliancy and the moon shed that clear, soft light which is found in this locality, in which the heavens seem so distant and so darkly blue, while the vast expanse of ocean was like a great reflecting mirror. The track for vessels bound from San Francisco and many of the ports, on the west coast of America to Hong Kong lies between the parallels in north latitude of 17º and 20º Here the winds are better than are found in a more northerly route, while the track to San Francisco and other ports along the west coast of America from China lies between the parallels of 35º and 45º, because here west winds prevail..."
"After the vessel had reached the parallel of 43º north the weather became cold and foggy and the winds were variable and unsteady, and that ever reliable friend of the sailor, the barometer, indicated atmospheric changes."
"The ship was prepared for the change of weather which was rapidly approaching. Soon the ocean was boiling with agitation, and if the barometer had been silent, I would have called it only a furious tide but a dark, then a black cloud, was hurrying towards us from the N. E. and so close did it rest upon the surface of the water that is seemed determined to overwhelm the. ship, and there came in it so terrible and violent a wind that the Shenandoah was thrown on her side..."
"Squall after squall struck her, flash after flash surrounded her, and the thunder rolled in her wake. It was the typhoon. The ocean was as white as the snow and foamed with rage. A new close-reefed main topsail was blown into shreds, and the voice of man was inaudible amid this awful convolution of nature..."
The CSS Ajax, commanded by Lieutenant John Low--born in Aberdeen, Scotland--entered St. George's, Bermuda, from Nassau. The Confederate captain had not yet learned that his government had collapsed that Generals Lee and Johnston had surrendered the preceding month. He attempted to obtain guns for delivery to Havana but Governor W. G. Hamley refused to permit it. He advised Low: "The Ajax has been a suspected vessel ever since she was launched. She has the appearance of a gunboat; she has never carried merchant cargo; she changed owners at Nassau; she is now commanded by an officer in the service of the Confederate States; in short, she wants nothing but armament to be in a position to take the seas as a privateer."
Union Rear Admiral Henry Knox Thatcher accepted an offer this morning from Commodore Ebenezer Farrand, CSN, to "...surrender all Confederate naval forces, officers, men, and public property yet afloat under his command and now blockaded by a portion of our naval forces in the Tombigbee River [Alabama]." The formal capitulation will take place on the 10th and include the CSS Nashville, Morgan, Baltic, and Black Diamond.
