1865 — Century Dispatch Archive

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January

New Year 1865: Lincoln counts his $18M cotton haul as the Confederacy crumbles

January 2, 1865: Hood's Army Flees Alabama as Union Closes In

January 1865: Rebels raid Union lines while deserters flood the mountains

🔒 Escaped from hell: A Union officer's 15-month Confederate prison nightmare...

1865: The $5,000 Ram, a Hatchet-Wielding Wife, and 20,000 Cannonballs That...

1865: Sherman Declares 'Savannah Already Gained' + Gold Miners Fill Pans with...

1865: Sherman Rules Savannah as Civil War Nears Its End

The Single Word That Let a Confederate Army Escape—and 13 Officers' 80-Day...

January 1865: Ohio Debates $200 Soldier Bounties as Union Victory Nears

1865: Why Worcester cared more about Italian politics than Civil War news

📰 Jan 1865: Confederate Senator Declares 'We Are Upon the Very Verge of Ruin'

Jan 1865: While Civil War raged, Maine paper ran juicy tales of Washington...

January 1865: Confederate Senator Captured Fleeing Dixie, Anti-Slavery...

The Secret Peace Mission That Had Both Capitals Guessing

January 18, 1865: Fort Fisher Falls! The Confederacy's Last Port Sealed

The Final Letter: A Founding Father's Last Words & A Wife's Secret Theater...

Jan 20, 1865: Confederate plot to raid from Canada exposed as Fort Fisher falls

1865: When 57,000 Union soldiers vanished & Idaho struck it rich with $6M in...

January 1865: Knife Fight in DC & Sherman's Army on the March

The theater ads that survived Lincoln's assassination—Washington, 1865

1865: Romance novels, insurance ads, and Fast Day rebels in wartime Connecticut

Jan 27, 1865: Lee's Intercepted Telegram Spells Doom — 'I Must Evacuate...

The 1865 Catfish Scheme: When Bachelors Dressed as Peddlers to Spy on Potential...

1865: Chicago Fights Railroad Barons & War Conspiracy Unfolds

1865: Northern Refugee's Hair-Raising Escape from Confederate Charleston

January 31, 1865: Steamboat explodes killing 105 as woman shoots Treasury clerk...

February

February 1, 1865: 'FREEDOM TRIUMPHANT' — The Day Congress Voted to End Slavery...

The German Butcher's Son Who Owned Half of Manhattan (And Never Paid for That...

Lincoln's Secret 16-Hour Peace Mission: The Civil War Conference That Almost...

1865: Massachusetts lawmakers scramble for unanimous slavery vote & a fiery...

1865: 'A mortality that would depopulate any city' - War correspondent exposes...

Feb 9, 1865: 'Peace bubble has burst!' — Lincoln's re-election confirmed as war...

The Day Peace Died: Lincoln's Complete Account of the Failed Confederate...

February 1865: 'Like chaff before a hurricane' — Sherman advances as prisoner...

February 13, 1865: Confederate Railroad Network Crumbles as Richmond Erupts in...

Lincoln Changes His Mind & Traitors Plot Prison Break: Feb 14, 1865

Feb 1865: War Bonds, Fortune Tellers & French Horsewomen in Lincoln's Washington

Feb 16, 1865: 'South Carolina Under His Heel' — Sherman's Army Cuts Confederacy...

1865: The mother who spun, knit & mailed stockings to her soldier son in 12...

Feb 18, 1865: Sherman closes in on Charleston as Chicago counts its war dead

Sherman Takes South Carolina's Capital as Illinois Politicians Get Caught...

1865: Congress votes to kill state banks while debating tobacco rations for...

Feb 21, 1865: Confederate Admits Arming Slaves Would Be 'Abolition' 📰

February 1865: When Confederate-Union armies almost joined forces (plus a...

The Secret Telegrams That Could Have Ended the Civil War Early

Feb 25, 1865: Senate erupts over honoring the judge behind Dred Scott (plus:...

Feb 26, 1865: Rebels Float 200 Torpedoes Down River as Wilmington Falls

Feb 27, 1865: 400 Union prisoners found as 'skeletons' in fallen Wilmington

February 28, 1865: Wilmington Falls as Confederacy Debates Arming the Enslaved

March

Sherman Closes In: March 1865 Portland Paper Predicts Charleston's Fall

📰 1865: When a Maine paper published Civil War romance (and ads for artificial...

Lincoln's 'Malice Toward None' Speech + Andrew Johnson's Awkward Debut

March 1865: Sherman's 22,500 Illinois boys march toward Richmond as the war's...

March 1865: Sherman's Final Push & the Chicago Conspiracy That Almost Was

March 9, 1865: Sheridan Captures Early's Army as Confederate Collapse...

📰 March 1865: 'Only 1 in 7 survived' - A haunting Civil War reality check from...

1865: When a Civil War bride dressed as a soldier and charged into battle

March 1865: Confederates arm enslaved people as rebellion collapses

The $14,000 Onion King & Vermont's $6,300 Vote: March 1865

March 15, 1865: Sherman's 'All is well' as the Confederacy crumbles

March 16, 1865: Sherman's army burns Columbia as the Confederacy crumbles from...

Grant Crushes War Profiteers & A Blind Woman Sees for the First Time

March 18, 1865: Nature's fury silences the war news — except from enemy papers

March 20, 1865: Military trials, war bonds, and opera — Washington 3 weeks...

March 20, 1865: Confederate Congress's Secret $3M Coin Tax & Lee's Rejected...

March 1865: 'Rebeldom quakes' as Chicago celebrates the Civil War's final act 🎭

1865: When a 108-acre farm cost $6,500 and fancy chickens ruled Worcester

📰 March 1865: 'Like opposing jaws of a terrible vice' - The final squeeze on...

1865: When rival magicians turned a Mississippi steamboat into a floating circus

The Great Bounty Jumper Sting: How 700 Civil War Fraudsters Got Trapped with a...

March 26, 1865: Lee's Last Gamble Fails Spectacularly - 2,700 Rebels Captured

March 27, 1865: Sherman's Juggernaut Rolls On as Confederate Terrorist Burns in...

1865: Sherman's slaves ask 'Is you Mr. Sherman?' as the Confederacy crumbles

March 29, 1865: 'The rebel game is up' — Grant & Sherman close in for the kill

Death, Salvation & $2.25M Insurance: A Connecticut Town 3 Weeks Before War's End

March 31, 1865: Sherman Arrives as Lee Launches His Last Desperate Gamble

April

April 1, 1865: Grant launches the final offensive that will end the Civil War...

April 2, 1865: Grant's 'Much Hard Fighting' Begins the Campaign That Will End...

The 29-year-late letter & other wild tales from April 1865

$3,000 shawls and petroleum shoes: What America obsessed over 5 days before...

April 1865: 'Poor whites' revelation & flowers blooming from Civil War...

Three Days Before Surrender: Confederate Paper Still Debating Military Strategy

April 1865: Union prisoners sing from Dixie just days before Lee's surrender

April 8, 1865: 'The End is at Hand' — Chicago Celebrates Lee's Crushing Defeat

April 9, 1865: Grant Confident of Lee's Surrender (Happening Today!)

🎆 April 10, 1865: 'The Rebellion Has Ended!' - Chicago Erupts as Lee Surrenders

🎉 1865: 'Bulls Embraced Bears' — Chicago Goes Wild as Lincoln Reclaims 'Dixie'

April 12, 1865: Portland paper unleashes fury on 'crocodile tears' Britain

April 13, 1865: Confederate General Forrest Captured as Civil War Nears End

📰 The Morning Lincoln Died: Rags to Riches & Sherman's Threats (April 14, 1865)

The Vice President Was Drunk: A Shocking 1865 Inauguration Scandal

April 16, 1865: Lincoln's Last Autograph and a Nation in Shock

The Day Chicago Voted While Lincoln's Assassin Ran Free — April 18, 1865

April 19, 1865: The Conspiracy Widens—Grant & Butler Were Next to Die

April 20, 1865: A Nation Buries Lincoln as Johnson Promises to Finish the War

The $10 Fake News Story That Killed a Civil War Sister

April 1865: 'More dreadful than any dramatic stage' — Portland mourns Lincoln

1865: Lincoln's funeral train stops the nation — and his medieval royal...

April 25, 1865: 75 One-Legged Veterans Hobble In to Say Goodbye to Lincoln

When Booth predicted Lincoln's death 10 months early (and other chilling...

April 27, 1865: Lincoln's Funeral Train Crosses New York as America Mourns

April 1865: When Confederate generals mourned Lincoln and surgeons performed...

The day a Black war reporter claimed Jefferson Davis's chair (and other April...

April 30, 1865: Rebel ram races toward New Orleans with Jefferson Davis's gold...

May

May 1, 1865: 'We should hardly recognize him' - Eyewitness to Lincoln's funeral...

When Thoreau seemed selfish: A Vermont paper's 1865 verdict on America's most...

May 3, 1865: Marriage licenses require loyalty oaths & the wild true story of...

🎭 While Lincoln's funeral train reaches Springfield, Washington theaters...

The Day They Buried Lincoln: A Nation Mourns and Rebuilds

May 6, 1865: Jefferson Davis flees with stolen Confederate jewelry as...

The Funeral Train That United America: Lincoln's 1,600-Mile Final Journey

May 1865: Inside Robert E. Lee's Seized Mansion, Now a Union Cemetery

1865: When oyster licenses cost more than newspaper ads (and other post-war...

1865: 'Hang Jefferson Davis!' — plus the 41-year turtle tracking experiment

May 13, 1865: Sherman plots revenge, Mexican fever grips NYC, and Mrs....

🔍 Lincoln Conspiracy Trial Opens to Press + Mexico's Emperor Flees North (May...

May 15, 1865: 'Coward!' Jefferson Davis captured in women's clothing

May 16, 1865: Jeff Davis Caught in Petticoats — 'The Most Terrible Sarcasm Ever...

May 17, 1865: $5,000 bounty placed on Confederate governor as Tennessee seeks...

The Confederate Turncoat Who Saved 4,000 Lives & The Secret Origins of American...

May 19, 1865: When a $3 carpet saved a Pennsylvania marriage (and maybe a...

May 1865: 'Has This War Paid?' — A Doctor's Answer & $1,000 for an Old Coin

May 21, 1865: Jefferson Davis Behind Bars—The Rebel President's Dramatic Capture

May 22, 1865: Jefferson Davis caught in dress and bonnet — 'those No. 13...

May 24, 1865: 'A pageant never witnessed before' — Union armies march in...

1865: How to pay off $3 billion in war debt (and a deadly cheese delivery)

When British satirists ate crow: London's Punch apologizes for mocking Lincoln

May 27, 1865: Confederate General Plans Escape to Mexico as Jeff Davis Faces...

🕵️ The Confederate spy network that planned Lincoln's murder (and their...

1865: When Spanish miners, orangutan footmen, and a $12 annual salary made the...

The Yellow Fever Plot to Kill Lincoln & Johnson's Plan to Rebuild America

May 31, 1865: Jefferson Davis wanted Lincoln's entire cabinet dead, plus...

June

Grant's War Horse Heads to Chicago as America Mourns Lincoln & Celebrates...

1865: The Congressman Who Refused to Beg Lincoln for His Constituent's Freedom

1865: When a Philadelphia socialite discovered that farm life beats high society

June 1865: Confederate VP in secret prison cell & Chicago's $100 dead animal...

When Sherman Exploded: The General's Furious Letter That Shook Washington

The day Johnson pardoned the South (but kept the rich rebels out) — June 6, 1865

June 1865: Presidential order rebuilds the Union while explosion kills 200 in...

When Britain's Greatest Philosopher Warned America Not to Be 'Too Gentle' with...

June 1865: Inside Lincoln's Assassination Trial & Confederate Steamboat...

June 1865: Grant's Victory Tour Meets Torture Scandal in Illinois

Is Jefferson Davis Faking Insanity? Chicago Reports on the Confederate...

June 1865: A Boston streetcar lesson in grace (and the marriage that ended over...

June 1865: 'Punish the Traitors' & Europe's Assassination Spree

French Royal Cousins Trade Poison Pen Letters & A Preacher Compares Booth to...

When 'Uncle Amos' Built a Church for 6 Families (And Other 1865 Small-Town...

1865: When Union generals turned on each other & Dickens recalled his reporter...

June 17, 1865: New Yorkers raise $60K for Robert E. Lee (seriously)

June 1865: Explosive evidence against Jeff Davis emerges as defiant Confederate...

Confederate VP demands 'rights' not pardon + Johnson appoints new Southern...

June 20, 1865: 'Cutting off ears and noses' — the brutal birth of Reconstruction

1865: 'No such word ever came' — Why Maine blamed Robert E. Lee for prison...

The Cow That Marched with Sherman & Other Tales from 1865

Grant visits West Point: Why 30% of Southern cadets stayed loyal to the Union

The Baptist minister's son who tried to kill Lincoln's cabinet

June 25, 1865: Confederate VP's Daring Escape to Cuba in a Turtle Egg Diet

30,000 Candles, Russian Ice Hills, and Jefferson Davis in Chains

1865: The boy who cut off his arm to skip school & other post-war oddities

Lincoln's Secret Letters on Black Voting Rights (And a $1000 Horse Race Gone...

July

A Talking Wolf, Confederate Cash, and Spanish Plots: July 1, 1865

Train Plunges Into Hudson River, Plus NYC's Seedy Underworld Exposed (July 1865)

The Day Arkansas Rewrote Itself: Complete 1865 Constitution Abolishes Slavery,...

🎆 July 4th, 1865: America's first post-slavery Independence Day celebration

1865: When Tiny Weevils Nearly Starved a Nation (And Presidential Horse Drama)

July 1865: When freed slaves said 'no thanks' to their old jobs — and their...

July 1865: 'The war will have been in vain' - Boston's dire warning about...

July 1865: Assassin's final words, Confederate revenge killings, and 109° heat...

1865: When Chicago Roasted Detroit's 'Farce' Convention (Plus Jeff Davis's...

1865: The Impossible Alpine Railway That Gripped Mountains with Sideways Wheels

July 1865: Maine Governor's Radical Plan for Black Voting Rights (Before It Was...

1865: When stealing from your future brother-in-law seemed totally reasonable

1865: When a Pastor Lost Everything on Wall Street & Freed Slaves Faced...

July 1865: 400 emigrants burn at sea while America sells its future to pay for...

July 19, 1865: Murder trial grips Chicago as Lincoln conspirators head to...

July 1865: Key Lincoln conspiracy witness fights back & federal troops deployed...

July 21, 1865: 'She was innocent' — Shocking deathbed confession about...

The 92-year-old widow of Aaron Burr dies, taking Revolutionary secrets to her...

The Victorian Romance That Ends With 'Grandmamma' — Plus Tiger Hunting & Comets...

1865: Georgia's governor declares 'slavery exists no more' + the fisherman who...

📜 1865: A 133-year-old will promises the widow 'two payr of Good Shoos' annually

1865: 'Four million ignorant voters' — How America debated Black suffrage

1865: When Civil War Veterans Told 'Copperheads' to Shove It

August

1865: When Cross-Dressing Soldiers Fought Demon Rum in Maine

1865: When war heroes begged for bread and housewives hunted deer in their...

1865: 'Nine out of ten freed slaves will vote with their former masters' —...

August 1865: Indian War Ends, Admiral Captured (by Love), and a Rebel Agent...

The British 'Baron's Son' Who Swindled All of Wall Street in 1865

1865: The Atlantic Cable, Drunken Rebel Generals, and America's Messy Peace

Lost in Louisiana: A frontier adventure and the lawyers rebuilding the South...

1865: When Connecticut families scattered west & libraries were only open twice...

🔌 When a 2-inch wire fragment nearly broke the world's first internet (1865)

1865: When a reporter got kicked off the world's biggest ship & 100 died in a...

1865: Inside NYC's Criminal Underworld — Swell Mobsmen, Counterfeit Millions &...

Female pardon brokers, Grant's hero tour, and the ship that killed 100+ burns

1865: Why Arkansas Newspapers Were Obsessed with British Slavery Statistics

The Wall Street Scandal That Shocked 1865: A Son's $5M Betrayal

1865: Confederate Governor's Brutal Confession — 'Our Hearts Were Never In It'

1865: The Great Cable Disaster—How a 2-inch wire sank the internet of its day

1865: When NYC's Biggest Financial Fraud Made Millionaires 'Walk Streets in...

The Great Navy Yard Sale: 63 Warships, $625K, & the End of America's River Fleet

1865: Transatlantic cable dies in 2,000 fathoms as Reconstruction violence...

The Andersonville Monster's Trial Stalls & Lincoln's Successor Hits Pause on...

1865: Connecticut Towns Battle to Build New State Houses (Plus 10¢/Mile for...

The Trial That Defined War Crimes: Andersonville's Commandant Faces Justice

August 1865: Johnson Digs In, Lee Hides Out, and a Gold Speculator Vanishes...

The $4 Million Fraudster Who Hid by Shaving His Mustache

1865: When a Wall Street fraudster said 'all right' to his own arrest (and an...

1865: When 'returned rebels' shot each other at barbecues & Mrs. Grant got...

1865: When America's railroads were death traps & a blind man wrote the Bible...

September

1865: When War Heroes Ran for Office and 'Buttернuts' Got Roasted

🧊 When Boston ice saved New Orleans & other wild tales from 1865

The day Mississippi declared secession 'null and void' (plus a shocking murder...

1865: When America Debated Drilling Schoolboys and Told Tragic Tales of Lost...

1865: When Front-Page Fiction Featured Buried-Alive Children (and $240M...

1865: When Dead Cattle Formed Bridges Across the Nile & a Boxing Vicar Fought...

1865: 'We own everything by conquest' — Sherman's shocking speech & the...

When Napoleon III was a 'shirtless outcast' in NYC (plus poker cheats &...

1865: War crimes trial exposes Confederate horrors while new rebellion brews in...

When Tyler's Widow Tried the Ultimate Inheritance Scam (Plus: Brazilian Navy...

The Secret Story Behind Fort Sumter's Fall — Finally Revealed

1865: 'Baby is King' & 175 Generals Drain the Treasury

1865: Confederate raiders still burning ships, chloroform burglars, and why...

🚢 1865: Napoleon's Secret Mexican Army & Midnight Irish Rebels

🌊 Terror 77 feet under Lake Michigan + a French baron's scandalous Spanish wife

1865: Chicago's Wheat Market Crashes, Politicians Trade Insults, and 4,718 Dogs...

September 1865: When Confederate Militias Refused the Stars & Stripes

1865: When Connecticut Voted on Black Suffrage (Spoiler: It Failed)

1865: Cuckoo clocks baffle New England & a preacher baptizes a ferryman at...

1865: 'Slavery is dead forever' — A defeated governor's stark ultimatum

September 1865: War crimes trial grips the nation as an entire Louisiana court...

A deadly insult, a leaky newsroom, and the Radical problem of 1865

Armed Civil War Vets Plot Irish Invasion (Plus: Giant Frescoes & a President...

🎪 1865: Grant's victory tour, Fenian plots exposed, and why South Carolina said...

Confederate General Savages Jefferson Davis (Plus: The Worst Houseguests of...

When America's Top Comedian Crashed with Celibate Dancing Shakers (Plus: What...

October

When Confederate 'Duke' Gwin begged for pardon & boys robbed the Boston post...

1865: Inside America's $30M gold vault (and the general who tried to rob it)

1865: Baltimore Workers March for 8-Hour Days While Reconstruction Stumbles...

Confederate VP paroled as the South writes whites-only constitutions

When Andersonville Was Described as a Thriving Shopping Mall (Seriously)

October 1865: When America's Former Mayor Was a Suspected Rebel Spy

Oct 8, 1865: North Carolina abolishes slavery forever (and Philadelphia's...

1865: Robert E. Lee Becomes College President & Other Strange Turns

October 1865: When freed slaves got the right to testify & oil boomtowns turned...

1865: Union General Caught Red-Handed Stealing $120K + The Secret Offer to...

🔍 Oct 14, 1865: Johnson decides Jefferson Davis must face treason trial +...

1865: Vote or Lose It Forever—NYC's First Voter Registration Crisis

Oct 16, 1865: War crimes lawyer storms out, Confederates regain the vote

1865: When ex-Confederates begged for pardons & judges sold freed slaves back...

When Churches Refused to Thank God for Winning the Civil War

The War Crimes Trial That Started It All: America's First Reckoning With...

1865: When freed slaves told Union officers 'we want nothing to do with white...

The millionaire congressman's oil boom publicity stunt (and the insane...

Britain Tells America to Buzz Off (Politely) — Plus Mexico's Death Decree

1865: 'Free Trade!' screams war-torn Louisiana as merchants hawk morphine and...

The hangman waits: Andersonville's commandant faces judgment as America...

When Pennsylvania Burned Down Squatters' Cabins (And Other Wild Tales from 1771)

October 1865: When Mexico's Emperor Named His Heir & Baltimore Battled Over...

1865: Irish Immigrant Offers $1,000 to Avoid Political Office (Plus: Do Fortune...

The Newlyweds Who Never Made It Home: 1865's Deadliest Steamboat Disaster

November

1865: When government women dressed like 'Parisian grisettes' and farmers fed...

When George Washington's general said no: A Civil War town remembers...

When the news stopped being 'exciting': An Iowa town's post-war economic...

1865: Cholera Quarantine Traps 458 Passengers as America Faces New Threats

1865: When ancient plagues met post-Civil War politics (and Democrats couldn't...

November 1865: Republicans Crush 'Copperheads' as Wirz Awaits the Gallows

Nov 1865: Union victories sweep the North as America tries to heal from its...

1865: 'Will Nobody Be a Martyr?' — When Confederate Die-Hards Begged for...

Murder Mystery on the Prairie: When Small-Town Papers Served Up Thrills with...

1865: Oil Boom Fortunes, Poisoned Bullets, and the Traveling Newspaper That...

1865: President's brother dies in Texas, Fenians threaten Canada, and French...

Nov 18, 1865: Confederate General Demands His Horses Back + Oil Boom Fraud

1865: Iowa's Thanksgiving, Missing $176M in Whiskey Taxes, and Why...

1865: How America planned to force freed slaves back to cotton fields to save...

1865: When donating your personal library launched a civic revolution

1865: America owes a fortune but nobody's worried (plus the gossip queen who...

1865: When Boston editors packed 10-barrel revolvers and Baltimore's economy...

When the Star of the West's owner ran for NYC mayor (plus: are all Democrats...

Souvenir hunters devour Lee's surrender tree & other post-war chaos from 1865

1865: Doctors Find 2-Year-Old Knife Blade Inside Patient's Back

$12 million to kill 25 Indians: A devastating 1865 exposé of America's failed...

The First Settler of Willimantic & a Case of Mistaken Identity in Buffalo

December

December 1865: Congress Locks Out the South, Defies President Johnson

December 1865: $700K NYC Inferno Kills Fireman as Mexico Teeters

Dec 6, 1865: Johnson's Big Reconstruction Speech (Plus You Can Buy Robert E....

December 1865: America's First Post-Civil War Thanksgiving & a $3 Billion Debt...

1865: When Former Slaves Demanded the Vote & Whiskey Smugglers Used Fake Babies

December 1865: Should America ditch its Civil War paper money? 💰

Dec 13, 1865: Jeff Davis gets 'genteel wardrobe' while Congress fights over...

1865: When Farmers Thought They Could Read Jupiter's Weather Belts (Plus 2...

1865: Confederate Exiles Flee to Brazil While Hawaii Sells Pain Killer by the...

When Nashville Sold Anchovy Paste and Italy Found Democracy

1865: When 'Blockade Runner' umbrellas and $500 musical boxes ruled the ads

December 1865: Fenian millions, exploding arsenals, and the debut of 'In God We...

Dec 20, 1865: Johnson's healing words vs. desperate cotton ads in post-war...

Dec 21, 1865: Senator's Fiery Speech Exposes Post-War Southern Violence

Dec 22, 1865: Congress Demands Jefferson Davis Trial, Plans to Buy Ford's...

1865: When Christmas ads sold Confederate generals & gold pens came with dating...

Christmas 1865: Mules who never see sunlight & bonnets uglier than sin

Grant Heads to Mexico, Underground Frogs, and a Christmas Riot — Dec 27, 1865

1865: When a Miser Died from Tax Grief & Reporters Got Mugged for 10 Cents

1865: How Iowa Processed Civil War Trauma Through Biblical Satire & Denture Ads

Dec 30, 1865: When a Plantation Shooting Split a Hawaiian Jury

New Year's Eve 1865: The South celebrates freedom from 'bayonet rule' (spoiler:...