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n– 1865
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nOnnthis date in 1865, the Confederate ship C.S.S. Shenandoahnfinally stopped fighting the Civil War, more than three months afternLee surrendered his Confederate army!
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nYounsee, the ship had been in the Pacific Ocean, finding and attackingnUnion whalers and other merchant vessels. This is a kind of warfarencalled “commerce raiding,” and it’s meant to steal wealth from annenemy, to make the ocean unsafe for enemy ships—unsafe for whalingnor trading—to discourage and maybe even terrorize. The Shenandoahnburned or scuttled most of the ships they captured, and bondednthe rest to be used carrying prisoners to Brazil. (The prisoners werenthe ships’ crew and passengers who wouldn’t join the Confederatennavy. Many men did join the Shenandoah‘s crew!)
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nBeingnin the middle of the Pacific Ocean, back in the 1800s, meant thatnCaptain Waddell and the other officers aboard the Shenandoahnwere pretty cut off from news. However, on June 27, Captain Waddellnwas shown a newspaper article about Lee’s surrender. However, thensame paper contained Confederate President Jefferson Davis’snproclamation that the war would be carried on with renewed vigor. n
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nSonWaddell continued to attack whalers—capturing ten more before henheard that Confederate generals Johnston and Smith and Magruder alsonsurrendered, and that Mr. Davis and his cabinet had been captured.
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nAtnthat point, Captain Waddell disarmed the ship and went back tonEngland to surrender his ship.
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nHmm…backnto England?
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nCaptainnWaddell did not go back to the United States because he feared thatnhe and his crew would be tried and executed as pirates. I mean, whatnthey’d done on the high seas WAS piracy, pretty much, but it wasnsupposedly LEGAL piracy, if you look at it from the Confederatengovernment’s point of view.
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nWaddellnsuspected that Yankee courts would not see it from the Confederatenpoint of view!
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nAlso,nthe C.S.S. Shenandoah was built in Scotland as a Britishntrading ship. So Liverpool, in Great Britain, was home for the ship.n(By the way, the Shenandoah was the only Confederate ship thatncircumnavigated the globe.) n
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nWhenndid the war REALLY end?
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nI’dnalways accepted that the U.S. Civil War ended when Lee surrendered onnApril 9, 1865. Apparently that is the “official” ending date.
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nHowever,nother dates are:
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nthen last battle of the Civil War was in Texas on May 12 and 13.
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nthen last significant Confederate army to surrender was Cherokee Brig.n General Stand Watie and his Indian soldiers, on June 23.
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nthen very last Confederate surrender was Captain Waddell’s surrender ofn the Shenandoah—which happened months after he disarmed andn started back to England. Apparently the ship didn’t reach Liverpooln until November 6, 1865!
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nAlsonon this date:
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nStatue-of-Liberty sculptor Frederick Bartholdi’s birthday
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nIlinden and Day of the Republic in Macedonia
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