WHAT ALL HAPPENED APRIL TO MAY 1865
Find out what all happened April to May 1865

American Civil War: the Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi division, is the last general of the Confederate Army to surrender, at Galveston, Texas. (26. May 1865)

American Civil War: Battle of Palmito Ranch – in far south Texas, more than a month after Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender, the last land battle of the Civil War ends with a Confederate victory. (13. May 1865)

U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward and his family are attacked in his home by Lewis Powell. (14. April 1865)

The New York State Senate creates Cornell University as the state's land grant institution. (27. April 1865)

American Civil War: Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrenders his army to General William Tecumseh Sherman at the Bennett Place near Durham, North Carolina. Also the date of Confederate Memorial Day for two states. (26. April 1865)

American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is captured by Union troops near Irwinville, Georgia. (10. May 1865)

The steamboat SS Sultana, carrying 2,400 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing 1,700, most of whom are Union survivors of the Andersonville and Cahaba Prisons. (27. April 1865)

The International Telegraph Union (later the International Telecommunication Union) is established in Paris. (17. May 1865)

American Civil War: Mobile, Alabama, falls to the Union Army. (12. April 1865)

In Mobile, Alabama, 300 are killed when an ordnance depot explodes. (25. May 1865)

American Civil War: The Siege of Petersburg is broken – Union troops capture the trenches around Petersburg, Virginia, forcing Confederate General Robert E. Lee to retreat. (2. April 1865)

American Civil War: A day after Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln visits the Confederate capital. (4. April 1865)

American Civil War: Battle of Five Forks. (1. April 1865)

American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America. (3. April 1865)

Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot the previous evening by actor John Wilkes Booth. (15. April 1865)

Astronomer Pietro Angelo Secchi demonstrates the Secchi disk, which measures water clarity, aboard Pope Pius IX's yacht, the L'Immaculata Concezion. (20. April 1865)

Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Lincoln, in Virginia. (26. April 1865)

American Civil War: The Battle of Sayler's Creek – Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia fights its last major battle while in retreat from Richmond, Virginia. (6. April 1865)

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth (died April 15th). (14. April 1865)

American Civil War: the Battle of Palmito Ranch: the first day of the last major land action to take place during the Civil War, resulting in a Confederate victory. (12. May 1865)