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.
Oh wow, that’s fantastic. I’ll look for your book. Title? That’s amazing to discover a Medal of Honor winner in the family – any idea where the medal is? My search has been greatly aided by the fact that my maternal grandfather’s family name was so badly misspelled – in two different ways! – that both names are not real names and thus do not exist for any other family in history outside the bloodline. As a result, when I find a Civil War soldier with either of these names, I know he belongs to us. Imagine if we were named Smith…? No medals discovered yet, though I do have my great-great-grandfather’s Grand Army of the Republic badges, which he kept in pristine condition, though as mentioned, the discovery of three unique diaries from three of them – Army of the Potomac, Army of the Cumberland, Army of Northern Virginia – has proved a goldmine for me. Plus the family established Lutheran churches wherever they went; this has proved another good way of finding them.
book title is BOUTWELL: Radical Republican and Champion of Democracy, published by WW Norton on January 21. More info at: http://www.jeffreyboutwell.com
That’s a great question about John Boutwell’s MoH medal…. I have no idea and actually need to do more work on his family tree. Yes, the diaries you have must be fabulous. I will look forward to your books and hope we meet at some point, perhaps at a book talk of mine if convenient for you. all best, j. http://www.jeffreyboutwell.com/events
We shall indeed. I am enormously lucky to not only have a maternal family name that was simple yet so badly mangled in spelling when they arrived in America that the two gross misspellings are not real names. No other family in the world has these two names and so they do not exist outside the bloodline; thus, whenever I am performing research and encounter these names, I don’t have to wonder if they are family or not – it is confirmed. As well, I have not one, not two, but three distant cousins who have performed tremendous genealogical work and prepared highly-detailed, organized family genealogies of 100+ pages that go back to 1605, saving me a thousand hours of research. Without their work my own book would be all the lesser. We’re planning an extensive reading tour, especially in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, so I’ll see you on the trail…
To have both a distinctive family name and detailed genealogies is such an advantage – glad to hear it. There’s a Governor Boutwell House in Groton, Mass., 40 miles west of Boston, that has all of George’s and the family’s papers, which almost no one looked at for more than a hundred years. Lucky me! Do let me know about the reading tour – will definitely come to one.
Our families seem to be special – there is a Mauney Memorial Library in King’s Mountain, North Carolina, a town my ancestor co-founded, where he also built a Lutheran church in the 1870s that stands to this day. In addition, he served four terms as Mayor. Mauney is just one of the numerous misspellings of the original family name. And, for some reason, instead of being pronounced Mah-nee, people there say Moo-ney. On the other hand, they never mispronounce Smith…
Don’t I know about different family spellings (Boutell, Boutelle, Bowtell, etc.) and mis-pronunciations – so many folks want to say Boot-well when it’s so clear it should be Bout-well.
My email is boutwell@alum.mit.edu and I live in Columbia, MD. Where are you? Do look forward to meeting. all best.
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.