1865 in the United States
Events from the year 1865 in the United States. The American Civil War ends with the surrender of the Confederate States, beginning the Reconstruction era of U.S. history.
Incumbents
Governors and Lieutenant Governors |
Governors
- Governor of Alabama:
- Governor of Arkansas: Harris Flanagin (Democratic) (until May 26), Isaac Murphy (Democratic) (starting May 26)
- Governor of California: Frederick Low (Republican)
- Governor of Connecticut: William A. Buckingham (Republican)
- Governor of Delaware: William Cannon (Republican) (until March 1), Gove Saulsbury (Democratic) (starting March 1)
- Governor of Florida:
- Governor of Georgia:
- Governor of Illinois: Richard Yates (Republican) (until January 16), Richard J. Oglesby (Republican) (starting January 16)
- Governor of Indiana: Oliver P. Morton (Republican)
- Governor of Iowa: William M. Stone (Republican)
- Governor of Kansas: Thomas Carney (Republican Party) (until January 9), Samuel J. Crawford (Republican Party) (starting January 9)
- Governor of Kentucky: Thomas E. Bramlette (Democratic)
- Governor of Louisiana: Henry Watkins Allen (Democratic) (until June 2), James Madison Wells (Republican Party)
- Governor of Maine: Samuel Cony (Republican Party)
- Governor of Maryland: Augustus Bradford (Unionist)
- Governor of Massachusetts: John Albion Andrew (Republican)
- Governor of Michigan: Austin Blair (Republican) (until January 3), Henry H. Crapo (Republican) (starting January 3)
- Governor of Minnesota: Stephen Miller (Republican)
- Governor of Mississippi:
- Governor of Missouri: William Preble Hall (Republican) (until January 2), Thomas Clement Fletcher (Republican) (starting January 2)
- Governor of Nevada: Henry G. Blasdel (Republican)
- Governor of New Hampshire: Joseph A. Gilmore (Republican) (until June 3), Frederick Smyth (Republican) (starting June 3)
- Governor of New Jersey: Joel Parker (Democratic)
- Governor of New York: Reuben Fenton (Republican) (starting January 1)
- Governor of North Carolina:
- Governor of Ohio: John Brough (Republican) (until August 29), Charles Anderson (Republican) (starting August 29)
- Governor of Oregon: A. C. Gibbs (Republican)
- Governor of Pennsylvania: Andrew Gregg Curtin (Republican)
- Governor of Rhode Island: James Y. Smith (Republican)
- Governor of South Carolina:
- Governor of Tennessee:
- Governor of Texas: Pendleton Murrah (Democratic) (until June 17), Andrew J. Hamilton (Democratic) (starting June 17)
- Governor of Vermont: J. Gregory Smith (Republican) (until October 13), Paul Dillingham (Republican) (starting October 13)
- Governor of Virginia: William Smith (Democratic) (until May 9), Francis Harrison Pierpont (Republican) (starting May 9)
- Governor of West Virginia: Arthur I. Boreman (Republican)
- Governor of Wisconsin: James T. Lewis (Republican)
Lieutenant Governors
- Lieutenant Governor of California: Tim N. Machin (Republican)
- Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Roger Averill (Republican)
- Lieutenant Governor of Florida: William W. J. Kelly (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
- Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Francis Hoffmann (Republican) (until January 14), William Bross (Republican) (starting January 14)
- Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Paris C. Dunning (Democratic) (until January 9), Conrad Baker (Republican) (starting January 9≈)
- Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Enoch W. Eastman (Republican)
- Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: Thomas Andrew Osborn (Republican) (until January 9), James McGrew (Republican) (starting January 9)
- Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: vacant
- Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Benjamin W. Pearce (Democratic) (until March 4), Albert Voorhies (Republican) (starting March 4)
- Lieutenant Governor of Maryland: Christopher C. Cox (Unionist)
- Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Joel Hayden (political party unknown)
- Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Charles S. May (Republican) (until month and day unknown), Ebenezer O. Grosvenor (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
- Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: Charles D. Sherwood (Republican)
- Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: vacant (until January 2), George Smith (Republican) (starting January 2)
- Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: John S. Crosman (political party unknown)
- Lieutenant Governor of New York: Thomas G. Alvord (Republican) (starting January 1)
- Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Charles Anderson (Republican) (until August 29), vacant (starting August 29)
- Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Seth Padelford (political party unknown) (until month and day unknown), Duncan Pell (political party unknown) (starting month and day unknown)
- Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina:
- until May 25: Robert McCaw (Democratic)
- May 25-November 30: vacant
- starting November 30: W. D. Porter (no political party)
- Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Fletcher Stockdale (Democratic) (until June 17), vacant (starting June 17)
- Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Paul Dillingham (Republican) (until October 13), Abraham B. Gardner (Republican) (starting October 13)
- Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Samuel Price (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Leopold Copeland Parker Cowper (Whig) (starting month and day unknown)
- Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Wyman Spooner (Republican)
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Events
January–March
April–June
Fires in
Richmond, Virginia burn out of control in the largely abandoned city after Evacuation Sunday (April 2)
- April 1 – American Civil War – Battle of Five Forks: In Petersburg, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee begins his final offensive.
- April 2 – American Civil War: "Evacuation Sunday": Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet flee the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, which is taken by Union troops the next day.
- April 9 – American Civil War: General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, effectively ending the American Civil War.
- April 14 (Good Friday)
- April 15 – Inauguration of Andrew Johnson: President Lincoln dies of his gunshot wound early this morning and Vice President Andrew Johnson becomes the 17th President of the United States.
- April 18 – Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his entire cabinet arrive in Charlotte with a contingent of 1,000 soldiers.
- April 26
- April 27
- May 4 – American Civil War: Lieutenant General Richard Taylor, commanding all Confederate forces in Alabama, Mississippi, and eastern Louisiana, surrenders his forces to Union General Edward Canby at Citronelle, Alabama, effectively ending all Confederate resistance east of the Mississippi.
- May 5
- May 10 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is captured by Union troops near Irwinville, Georgia.
- May 12–May 13 – American Civil War – Battle of Palmito Ranch: In far south Texas, more than a month after Confederate General Lee's surrender, the last land battle of the civil war with casualties ends with a Confederate victory.
- May 23 – Grand Review of the Armies: Union Army troops parade down Pennsylvania Avenue (Washington, D.C.) to celebrate the end of the American Civil War.
- May 25 – Mobile magazine explosion: 300 are killed in Mobile, Alabama when an ordnance depot explodes.
- May 26 – Indigenous tribes who supported the Confederate States of America hold the Camp Napoleon Council in Indian Territory.
- June 2 – American Civil War: Confederate forces west of the Mississippi under General Edmund Kirby Smith surrender at Galveston, Texas under terms negotiated on May 26, becoming the last to do so.
- June 19 – American Civil War: Union Major General Gordon Granger lands at Galveston, Texas and informs the people of Texas of the Emancipation Proclamation. (an event celebrated in modern times each year as Juneteenth).
- June 23 – American Civil War: At Fort Towson in Indian Territory, Confederate General Stand Watie, a Cherokee Indian, surrenders the last significant Confederate army.
July–September
- July 5 – The U.S. Secret Service is founded.
- July 6 - The Nation political magazine begins publication.
- July 7 – Following Abraham Lincoln's assassination on April 14, the 4 conspirators condemned to death during the trial are hanged, including David Herold, George Atzerodt, Lewis Payne and Mary Surratt. Her son, John Surratt, escapes execution by fleeing to Canada, and ultimately to Egypt.
- July 21 – Wild Bill Hickok – Davis Tutt shootout: In the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots Little Dave Tutt dead over a poker debt in what is regarded as the first true western "fast draw" showdown.
- July 30 – The steamer Brother Jonathan sinks off the California coast, killing 225.
October–December
- October 25 – The paddlewheel steamer SS Republic sinks off the Georgia coast, with a cargo of $400,000 in coins.
- November 6 – American Civil War: Surrender to the British at Liverpool of the commerce raider CSS Shenandoah (Captain James Waddell), the last significant organized Confederate unit.
- November 10 – Major Henry Wirz, the superintendent of a prison camp in Andersonville, Georgia, is hanged, becoming the only American Civil War soldier to be executed for war crimes.
- November 18 – Mark Twain's story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is published in the New York weekly The Saturday Press in its original version as "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog".
- December 11 – The U.S. Congress creates the House Appropriations Committee and the Committee on Banking and Commerce, reducing the tasks of the Committee on Ways and Means.
- December 18 – The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (which forever abolishes slavery) is declared ratified by three-quarters of the states of the United States.
- December 21 – The Kappa Alpha Order is founded at Washington College.
- December 24 – The Ku Klux Klan is formed by six Confederate Army veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee, to resist Reconstruction and intimidate "carpetbaggers" and "scalawags", as well as to repress the freed slaves.
Undated
Ongoing
Births
- January 5 – Johnson N. Camden, Jr., U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1914 to 1915 (died 1942)
- January 10 – Mary Ingalls, blind older sister of author Laura Ingalls Wilder (died 1928)
- January 28 – Verina Morton Jones, African American physician, suffragist and clubwoman (died 1943)
- February 1 – Henry Luke Bolley, plant pathologist (died 1956)
- February 28 – Alexander Henderson, businessman (died 1925)
- March 19 – William Morton Wheeler, entomologist (died 1937)
- April 28 – Charles W. Woodworth, entomologist (died 1940)
- May 2 – Clyde Fitch, dramatist (died 1909)
- May 3 – Henry Francis Bryan, governor of American Samoa (died 1944)
- May 25 – John Mott, YMCA leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (died 1955)
- May 26 – Robert W. Chambers, artist (died 1933)
- June 25 – Robert Henri, painter, leader of the Ash Can School (died 1929)
- June 29 – William Borah, U.S. Senator from Idaho from 1907 to 1940 (died 1940)
- July 14 – Arthur Capper, U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1919 to 1949 (died 1951)
- August 2 – Irving Babbitt, literary critic (died 1933)
- August 27
- September 24 – Mollie McConnell, actress (died 1920)
- October 14 – Mary Margaret O'Reilly, Assistant Director of the United States Mint (died 1949)
- October 15 – Charles W. Clark, baritone (died 1925)
- October 17 – James Rudolph Garfield, politician (died 1950)
- October 22 – Raymond Hitchcock, actor (died 1929)
- October 26 – Benjamin Guggenheim, businessman (died 1912)
- November 2 – Warren G. Harding, U.S. Senator from Ohio from 1915 to 1921 and 29th President of the U.S. from 1921 until 1923 (died 1923)
- December 19 – Minnie Maddern Fiske, stage actress (died 1932)
- December 20 – Elsie de Wolfe, socialite and interior decorator (died 1950)
- December 25 – Fay Templeton, singer and actress (died 1939)
Deaths
Further reading
External links
1865 in North America |
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