Thomas F. Harney

[L Verge]

Gene, if you are disagreeing with Rick's statement about it being an "act of war during a time of war" on the grounds that the war was over when Lincoln was killed, please remember that Lee did not control the bulk of the Confederate forces. I believe that the consensus now is that the event marking the end of the Civil War was when Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of Confederate forces west of the Mississippi, signed the surrender terms offered by Union negotiators on June 2, 1865. With Smith's surrender, the last Confederate army supposedly ceased to exist.

Between April 9 and Lee's surrender and June 2 and Smith's surrender, however, there were still many Confederate forces that had to be conquered. Mosby didn't disband his Partisan Rangers until near the end of April; Gen. Johnston had numerous armies under his command until he surrendered on the same day Booth was killed. Cherokee leader and Confederate General Stand Watie was the last Confederate general to surrender (I think), and that was on June 23 of 1865. There was also the Battle of Palmito Ranch in May, and I believe there was a Confederate naval force that made it to England and didn't surrender until sometime in 1866. Finally, President Johnson did not proclaim the war over until August of 1866.

I have always felt that the celebrations in D.C. on April 13 (and before) were more related to the fall of Richmond and the scattering of the political entity of the Confederacy rather than to a military victory of defeating Lee's forces.

As to heads of state of the enemy, where is it written that they are not legitimate targets during periods of war?