General Butler's failure at taking Fort Fisher, the previous December, was a subject of controversy. The more willing peace factions were talking negotiations, and several parties were endeavoring unofficially to get something started with Richmond. Generally the Northern economy was in good shape and thoughts turned to post-war Western expansion and business opportunities.

Both Congresses were in session.

In Richmond Congress expressed increasing disatisfaction with the Davis administration and talked of restoring Joseph E. Johnston to command, of making Lee General-in-Chief, rehashing whether to use slaves as soldiers, and discussing the possibility of peace overtures.

In the North constitutional abolition of slavery and reconstruction were paramount subjects. Political victors in the election again bombarded Washington for the spoils.

The year opened quietly, with only a skirmish at Bentonville, Arkansas. Throughout most of the month Federals operated against guerrillas in Arkansas.

On the James River General Butler had ordered a canal cut to bypass a large bend in the river at Dutch Gap, Virginia. On the first day of the year the project was to culminate with a powder blast for the final excavation. The explosion came; the dirt and gravel fell back into the ditch. The project was dropped. In the cold trenches of Petersburg, on the streets of Savannah, in Central Tennessee, the Union troops remained largely inactive. Confederates attempted to consolidate, to somehow put together a major fighting force. Their only remaining sizable fighting army was that of Northern Virginia, pinned down at Petersburg and Richmond.

After Admiral David D. Porter's squadron of warships had subjected Fort Fisher to a terrific bombardment, General Alfred H. Terry's troops took it by storm on January 15, and Wilmington, North Carolina, the last resort of the blockade-runners, was sealed off.

Transportation problems and successful blockades caused severe shortages of food and supplies in the South. Starving soldiers began to desert Lee's forces, and although President Davis approved the arming of slaves as a means of augmenting the shrinking army, the measure was never put into effect.

Confederate President Jefferson Davis agreed to send delegates to a peace conference with President Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward, but insisted on Lincoln's recognition of the South's independence as a prerequisite. Lincoln refused, and the conference never occurred.

On March 25, General Lee attacked General Grant's forces near Petersburg, but was defeated -- attacking and losing again on April 1. On April 2, Lee evacuated Richmond, the Confederate capital, and headed west to join with other forces.

General Lee's troops were soon surrounded, and on April 7, Grant called on Lee to surrender. On April 9, the two commanders met at Appomattox Courthouse, and agreed to the terms of surrender. Lee's men were sent home on parole -- soldiers with their horses, and officers with their side arms. All other equipment was surrendered.

On April 14, as President Lincoln was watching a performance of "Our American Causin" at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., he was shot by John Wilkes Booth, an actor in the play from Maryland obsessed with avenging the Confederate defeat. Lincoln died the next morning. Booth escaped to Virginia. Eleven days later, cornered in a burning barn, Booth was fatally shot by a Union soldier. Nine other people were involved in the assassination; four were eventually hung after trial, four others were imprisoned, and one was acquitted.