The Chicago Tribune's front page captures America in the chaotic aftermath of Lincoln's assassination and the Civil War's end. The biggest story reveals complete details of Confederate General Dick Taylor's surrender at Citronelle, Alabama on May 4th, bringing forces from East Louisiana, West Mississippi, Alabama and East Florida under the same terms Grant gave Lee - officers keep their side-arms and horses, everyone gets paroled. Meanwhile, what looked like a major rebel threat turns out to be pure bluster: the 'large force' demanding Lexington, Missouri's surrender was actually just a handful of guerrillas 'more anxious to surrender themselves than accept the surrender of others.' The paper reports that General Sherman has arrived in Washington to testify before the Committee on the Conduct of the War, and plans to launch his own campaign against Secretary Stanton, General Halleck, and 'the loyal Press of the North' over criticism of his controversial peace negotiations with Johnston.

This May 13, 1865 edition captures America at a pivotal crossroads - the war is effectively over but the peace remains fragmented and uncertain. With Lincoln dead just a month earlier, President Johnson is managing the delicate transition while Confederate forces continue surrendering piecemeal across the South. The paper reflects a nation simultaneously celebrating victory and grappling with enormous questions about reconstruction, military demobilization, and how to reintegrate the defeated states. Stories about guerrilla activities, military tribunals for Lincoln's conspirators, and the establishment of new loyal governments in Virginia show how messy and incomplete this 'peace' really was.

• Mrs. Perrine is on trial for helping Confederate cavalry during Early's Maryland invasion by 'pointing out the trunks of Union officers on board a captured train, shaking hands with the rebels, kissing one Gilmore, giving her fan to this and her glove to that one' - behavior that 'must have astonished Mr. Perrine if he were present'
• The 'Mexican fever is raging furiously in New York' with returned Civil War volunteers 'full of the spirit of adventure' flocking to recruiting offices for 'the grand emigration to the land of the Aztecs'
• A massive thunderstorm in the East on Thursday was so severe that at Philadelphia 'twenty houses were blown down,' at Brooklyn 'twenty houses were unroofed,' and at Danville, Connecticut it 'assumed the dimensions of a tornado'
• General Meredith was removed from command at Paducah, Kentucky because his policy 'didn't tend to protect the lives or property of Union men,' while his predecessor General Paine was removed for the opposite reason - because his policy 'did tend to protect' Union men
• An astounding $13,762,800 worth of seven-thirty bonds were sold yesterday alone, with Chicago's Second National Bank purchasing $515,000 of them

• The rebel ram Stonewall mentioned arriving at Nassau was an ironclad built in France for the Confederacy - it would eventually be sold to Japan and become one of the first modern warships in the Japanese Navy
• That massive immigration figure of 281,595 people landing in 1864 helped fuel America's westward expansion - many of these new Americans would soon be building the transcontinental railroad
• General Sherman's bitter feelings toward Secretary Stanton mentioned here would last for decades - Stanton had publicly rebuked Sherman's peace terms as treasonous, a humiliation Sherman never forgave
• The 'Mexican fever' recruiting drive was for the unofficial American intervention supporting Mexican President Juárez against French-backed Emperor Maximilian - thousands of Civil War veterans would join this shadow war
• Governor Pierpont mentioned moving to Richmond was known as the 'Restored Government of Virginia' - he'd been governing loyal Virginia from a hotel in Alexandria throughout the war with just a handful of counties under Union control