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Forrest surrenders at Gainesville; one of the Confederacy's last commands stands down

With Lee already gone, the general rides into Gainesville, Alabama, and lays down his arms rather than fight on for a cause with no government left to serve.

As the Confederacy crumbled in 1865, Nathan Bedford Forrest faced a stark choice: continue fighting a lost war or accept defeat and preserve what remained of his command. With General Robert E. Lee's surrender already echoing through the South, Forrest rode into Gainesville, Alabama, where he made the fateful decision to lay down his arms. His surrender marked the final act of defiance in the dying rebellion, bringing an end to one of the Civil War's most notorious military careers…

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More from May 9
2020

Unemployment hits 14.7 percent; 20 million jobs vanish in seven weeks

The April rate is the highest since the Great Depression, as pandemic shutdowns bring entire industries to a halt.
2022

Biden signs Lend-Lease revival on Soviet Victory Day; weapons pipeline to Ukraine widens

The law cuts red tape on arms shipments to Kyiv, reviving the same World War II program that once armed Britain and the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany.
1955

West Germany joins NATO; a former enemy is now the alliance's eastern front against Moscow

Bonn gains full sovereignty and enters the Atlantic pact today, putting Western troops and nuclear guarantees on the Soviet Union's doorstep.
18651776 Club
The proclamation orders foreign nations to intern or expel rebel vessels still prowling international waters, five weeks after Lincoln's assassination.
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Read the full May 9 edition →Everything that happened on May 9 →
More from Civil War & Reconstruction
1868

Logan names May 30 a national day to decorate soldiers' graves; the order goes to every post in the Union

General Order No. 11 puts the commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic behind a practice Southern women began two years ago.
1862

Seward and Lyons sign a treaty giving both navies the right to search and seize slave ships

The Senate ratifies unanimously the same day, ending half a century of U.S. resistance to British calls for mutual search rights on African and Cuban waters.
1861

Tennessee votes to leave the Union; the eleventh state is also the last

Middle Tennessee swings from 51 percent against secession in February to 88 percent in favor today, providing the decisive margin, though East Tennessee refuses to accept the result.
1863

Pleasonton crosses the Rappahannock at dawn; Stuart's cavalry fights all day to hold Fleetwood Hill

Eleven thousand Union horsemen hit the Confederate camps from two directions at once, and though the Federals withdraw by nightfall, the aura of easy Southern dominance on horseback does not survive the day.
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