Conclusion of The American Civil War - Surrender of Kirby Smith (May 26)

Surrender of Kirby Smith (May 26)

General Kirby Smith tried to send reinforcements from his Army of the Trans-Mississippi east of the Mississippi River to relieve Vicksburg, Mississippi, in the spring of 1864 following the Battle of Mansfield and the Battle of Pleasant Hill. This was not practicable due to the Union naval control of the Mississippi River. Smith instead dispatched Major General Sterling Price and his cavalry on an invasion of Missouri that was ultimately not successful. Thereafter the war west of the Mississippi River was principally one of small raids. By May 26 a representative of Smith's negotiated and signed surrender documents with a representative of Major General Edward Canby. Canby in Shreveport, Louisiana, then took custody of Smith's force of 43,000 soldiers when they surrendered, by then the only significant Confederate forces left west of the Mississippi River. With this ended all organized Southern military resistance to the Union forces. Smith signed the surrender papers on June 2 on board the U.S.S. Fort Jackson just outside Galveston Harbor.