In Memory Of Those Who Wore The Blue And The Gray

"After four years of arduous service marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources."

                                                     ~General Robert E. Lee (CSA)

150 Years Ago This Weekend, The American Civil War (War Between The States) 1861- 1865 Officially Ended When Confederate General Robert E. Lee formally surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia near Appomattox Court House on Palm Sunday, April 9, 1865 to Union General Ulysses S. Grant.

However, fighting would continue elsewhere. Confederate General Joseph Johnston would later surrender the  Army of Tennessee, the second-largest effective Confederate army, to Union General William T. Sherman at Durham Station, North Carolina, on April 26. There were still soldiers in the field.

On May 4, Confederate General Richard Taylor surrendered the 12,000 men serving in the Confederate Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana. Then, on May 12–13, more than a month after Appomattox, the last battle of the Civil War took place at Palmito Ranch, Texas. Confederate General Kirby Smith, head of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department, wanted to keep fighting afterward, but Confederate General Simon B. Buckner surrendered for him on May 26.

On June 23, the last holdout, Confederate General Stand Waite, surrendered in Indian Territory (present day US State of Oklahoma) to Union Colonel Asa C. Matthews. However, the war at sea went on until November, when the last Confederate commerce raider, the CSS Shenandoah, learning of the surrender of Lee's Army from captured newspapers, finally surrendered to British authorities in Liverpool, England on November 6, 1865. Its flag, a Confederate Second National "Stainless Banner" was the last Confederate flag to fly in any "official" capacity as the banner of a sovereign nation. 

This post is dedicated not to that ugly and terrible war, but to the memory, the courage, the sacrifices, the individual lives, the devotion to duty, and the overall legacy of the brave American citizen soldiers - Union And Confederate - who served their respective governments and in defense of their homelands; to those who died and to those that survived those four dishonorable years of this nation's history, and ultimately won an honored place in the hearts and the heritage honored by their living descendants.

God Bless America -- South, North and West.

United Confederate Veterans (UCV) Reunion.

United Confederate Veterans In Parade.

Union Veterans, Grand Army Of The Republic (GAR) Reunion.

Grand Army Of The Republic Review.

GAR And UCV Veterans At Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. July 1913.
The 50th Anniversary of the Battle.

Former Enemies - Now American Veterans And Brothers:
Billy Yank And Johnny Reb Meeting At The Stone Wall,
Gettysburg, PA. July 3, 1913

Two American Veterans.

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. July 3, 1938. The 75th Anniversary
of the Battle. Aged Union And Confederate Veterans Shaking
Hands For The Final Time Across The Stone Wall.

Honoring The Confederate Dead.

Honoring The Union Dead.

Union Soldier's Graves.

Confederate Soldier's Graves.

Joint Reburial of Union and Confederate Dead.

USCT Reenactors Rifle Salute.

CSA Reenactors Uncovered To Honor The Dead.

Reenactors Praying.

Heritage, History, And Memory.

Two American Banners: One Honoring The United States,
The Other Southern Cultural Identity.

         In Honor And In Memory Of Those Who Wore The Confederate Gray And The Union Blue.

1861-1865.  

We Will Never Forget.