Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 10:32am

May 26, 1865: Kirby Smith Surrenders

In charge of the last major Confederate force to surrender, General Edmund Kirby Smith, the commander of the sprawling Trans-Mississippi Department, signed the articles of surrender on May 26, 1865 in Galveston, Texas.  Consisting of Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana, the Trans-Mississippi had been cut off from the rest of the Confederacy since the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson in mid 1863.  Smith then conducted the War in his sprawling Department on his own initiative, his command becoming known in the rest of the Confederacy as “Kirby Smithdom”.

After the surrender Smith, fearing charges of treason fled to Mexico and Cuba.  Smith returned to the country in November 1865.  He eventually became a noted botanist of all things, part of his specimen collection being donated after his death to the University of North Carolina, Harvard and the Smithsonian.  When he died in 1893 he was the last surviving full general of the Confederacy.

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Wednesday, May 27, AD 2020 12:44am

General Edmund Kirby Smith had an interesting life – West Point grad, Mexican-American War Veteran, US Army and Confederate Army officer, college professor, university chancellor, businessman, husband and family man.
I didn’t realize that there was still fighting after General Lee’s April 2nd surrender at Appomattox. General Smith surrendered on May 26th and signed the terms of surrender on June 2nd. Brigadier General Stand Watie and the 1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles regiment did not surrender until 23 June 1865. Kirby was the last full general to do so.
Interesting note that Kirby Smith fled to Mexico and Cuba after the surrender fearing treason charges. At first that seemed odd but I guess any Confederate senior officer, particularly those that had resigned their US Army commissions, knew there was the possibility of hanging for treason.
Kirby’s manservant, his father’s slave, by the name of Alexander H. Darnes was with him throughout the Civil War. After emancipation Francis Smith Webster, Kirby’s older sister, paid for Darnes education. He became Howard University trained MD. A descendant of the Smith’s sculpted the two men as adults sided by side at the Segui-Kirby Smith house in St. Augustine.

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