April 1865

Saturday 01:

In Petersburg, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee begins his final offensive.

Sunday 02:

American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet flee the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.

Monday 03:

American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the break-away Confederate States of America.

Tuesday 04:

American Civil War: A day after Union forces captured Richmond, Virginia, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln visits the Confederate capital.

Thursday 06:

Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia fights its last major battle while in retreat from Richmond, Virginia.

Sunday 09:

American Civil War: Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, effectively ending the war.

Wednesday 12:

American Civil War: Mobile, Alabama falls to the Union Army

Friday 14:

Abraham Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth; he dies the next day.

Saturday 15:

Andrew Johnson becomes the 17th President of the United States.

Monday 17:

Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Wednesday 26:

Union cavalry troopers corner John Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln's assassin, in a barn in Virginia. Booth is shot dead by cavalryman Boston Corbett.

Thursday 27:

The steamboat Sultana, carrying 2,300 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing 1,700, most of whom were Union survivors of the Andersonville Prison.