Question of the Week: What was the most important event of 1865?
As we knock on the door of the 160th anniversary, what do you think was the most important event of 1865?
As we knock on the door of the 160th anniversary, what do you think was the most important event of 1865?
Ratification of the 13th amendment.
Fall of Richmond.
Tim, you beat me by three minutes! Yes, ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment. A close second is the parliamentary maneuver by Thaddeus Stevens, George Boutwell, and other Radical Republicans to prevent ex-Confederates from being seated in Congress, also in December 1865, thus ensuring a Republican majority large enough to facilitate passage and enactment of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments in the coming years, what historians now rightfully call “The Second Founding” of America.
Lincoln’s assassination, which changed the course of postwar policies
The Rebellion was suppressed.
Tim and Jeffrey are spot on. On February 1, 1865, President Lincoln approved the resolution which was sent to the state legislatures for ratification. On December 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment was ratified erasing a black mark from the portrait of our nation. Slavery should have been addressed in 1787. Congress did outlaw the importation of slaves in 1808, but by then it was too late. The 13th Amendment was critical to America’s pursuit of freedom and liberty.
The Battle of Palmito Ranch Texas- Final battle of the war.
Lee’s surrender.
Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. That prompted Booth to assassinate Lincoln. It led directly to the other Confederate armies surrendering, and thus, ended the war. It set the stage and tone for Reconstruction.
I am of the opinion that the collapse of the Confederate rebellion was the most important event of the year 1865. Without the war ending nothing else that happened in that year would have mattered . Even if Lincoln lived, I think he would have had just as serious a problem in dealing with the radical members of Congress as President Johnson had. Given the two term limit precedent of the presidency, I think Grant would have been elected in 1868. Ending the war was absolutely the tantamount event of that pivotal year 1865.
The most important event of 1865 was December 4, 1865 when Thaddeus Stevens orchestrated the parliamentary maneuver that kept the ex-Confederates from taking over Congress. Without this, things would have reverted by to the antebellum period complete with a new form of slavery provided by the Black Codes. Also, the 14th and 15th Amendments would have been passed and there would have been no Reconstruction. For more information, go to this link:
https://thaddeusstevenssociety.blogspot.com/2023/12/thaddeus-stevens-chronicles-no-36.html
The 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution limiting the Presidential term limit was ratified in 1951; therefore, Lincoln was not limited to two terms. Franklin Delano Rossevelt was elected to the Presidency 4 times. Grant’s attempt at a third term was defeated at the Republican convention of 1880, not by constitutional mandate.
You’re right about the amendment. But I didn’t say it was the limited by Constitutional amendment at the time, just the precedent or perhaps the traditional view set by the previous Presidents on how many terms a president should serve.
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Amendment ending slavery in USA.
Lincolns assassination and ratifying the 13th Amendment.
Lincoln’s assassination. At the start of 1865 Union victory was inevitable but Lincoln’s assassination was not.
The most important event of 1865 is that my great-great-grandfather, George Washington Mohney (Mani) after serving three years and eight months in the 67th Pennsylvania – he made Sergeant, was captured at Second Winchester, exchanged, fought at Cedar Creek, where his best friend was killed beside him with a rifle ball through the forehead – was mustered out and came home to the family farm of 600 acres in July 1865. He’d come through the war unscratched, but his two younger brothers and their uncle died at Andersonville, and his close friend, my great-grand-uncle, was killed at Glendale. The younger brother of that man, my other great-great-grandfather, was also a friend – after the war he married the cousin of E. A. Irvin, of the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves, the Bucktails.
George became a coal mine foreman, and for the rest of his life carried a Colt Army revolver wherever he went. His Captain wrote of him, “There was never a braver or truer soldier than Sergeant Mohney. He was always at his post and always done his duty.” When he passed away in 1919 the local newspaper wrote, “Thousands attended his funeral. He was known throughout the region as a man of the greatest integrity.” He had two wives – not at the same time – 13 children and 40 grandchildren. He gave his army relics to his namesake grandson, who became my grandfather, and upon his passing, he gave them to me. Photographs reveal the three of us to be dead ringers for each other. George lived in my grandfather’s home when my grandpa was a boy, and he told him all about his years in the army – so I grew up with a man who had seen and talked with a Civil War soldier – as well as his friends and other relatives who were veterans – and that is priceless to me. The anecdote that struck me the most is that George’s regiment was placed under Sheridan’s command in the fall of 1864, and so he took part in Sheridan’s burning of the Shenandoah Valley. He told my grandfather, “It was the only thing I done in the war that made me feel ashamed.”
Wonderful story, thanks Eric for reminding us of the human side of that terrible conflict.
Thank you, Jeffrey, for your very kind words. I view it as a gift – that nearly 30 of my ancestors served in the war, and that they left three diaries and numerous letters and mentions in newspapers and of course, the stories they told their grandchildren, my grandparents, who shared them with me. One of these men is portrayed in my book, ‘Till The Stars Appeared,’ along with minor mentions of some of the others; all the rest will be detailed in my following book, tentatively entitled ‘Soldiers.’ I’m hoping to have ‘Stars’ completed and released by the fall of 2025.
I’ll look forward to both books. I had the honor of writing a biography of a family member, George Boutwell, who experienced the Civil War and Reconstruction in a very different way. It’s coming out in a few weeks. And, discovering while participating in Wreaths Across America at Arlington National Cemetery in 2019 that another family member, Pvt. John Boutwell from New Hampshire, was a Medal of Honor recipient. The stories are endless and deserve to be told.
Birth of Erich Ludendorff
Lee’s surrender of his army in an intact fashion, under authority. Led to the other Confederate forces surrendering in a similar fashion.