When did the war end?

Worn down Bobby Lee communicates with Grant the morning of April 9, 1865 just after the CSA tried to break out so to speak, and fails at Appomattox Courthoue. Lee realizes the local Union cavalry is backed up by about 20,000+ Union infantry. He and Longstreet agree they cannot prevail. The two will meet, Grant a bit saddened by the meeting, at first talking small talk about their Mexican American War experience. Lee will remind him of the occasion and will put pen to surrender papers for the Army of Northern Virginia.
April 26,1865 - CSA General Joseph Johnston surrenders his Army of Tennessee to Union General William T. Sherman in Durham, N.Carolina.
June 2, 1865 - CSA General E.Kirby Smith surrenders the last CSA Army (Trans-Mississippi) in Galveston,Tx.
Thank God "The War" is over. Sort of !
http://thecivil-war.com/

Cash,
I think mostly you and I agree, I could be wrong… but I do agree with most of what you post. However, this is how I interpret the situation.

The first phase of Reconstruction, Lincoln’s phase (briefly) and later Johnson’s, attempted two broad ideologies. The first, that the former Confederate states be readmitted to the Union as quickly as possible and with little or no punishment for it’s citizens. The second, full emancipation for the freedmen, with rights to legal employment and property ownership. What other rights would have been secured to the former slaves is somewhat unclear. But these were the basic principles of Lincoln’s ‘with malice towards none’ line of thinking.

The second phase, the Congressional phase, we see the unified Radicals dominance over matters concerning the south. The radicals were vocal in their desire for full citizenship and political equality for the freedmen. They sought economic compensation for the freedmen in the ‘40 acres and a mule’ concept (that went over well) and most importantly they wanted, sometimes demanded stricter punishments for the former Confederates. One program was aimed at punishing southern rebellion by denying the former rebels representation in the federal government, they certainly made the requirements for representation stricter. Coincidentally, with the radical emergence in Congress, we begin to see also the emergence of the KKK, as well as early Lost Cause theories.

Former Confederates were already experiencing the after-effects of defeat and all that comes with it.
‘

Men like Thaddeus Stevens were very vocal in their idea or wish to treat southern states as ‘conquered provinces’. If the radicals had full government control (which they wanted) there is no doubt, in my opinion, that former Confederate officers would have been imprisoned, high ranking officers and politicians executed for treason. The average southern man and woman were quite aware of the dark clouds circling. Defeat, wholesale destruction of land and cities, economic collapse… mix this with the radical’s attempt to push through their own agenda, how could Southerners not feel subjugated? Is it any surprise that we see Jim Crow laws and the re-emergence of white supremacy by the third and final phase?

Reconstruction was a debacle. It’s a shame too, because fundamentally the radicals had a lot of good ideas, but instead of focusing their energies on the common good, it seems their ultimate motive was revenge. The real losers in all this mess, were the freedmen who were bounced back and forth like ping-pong balls in the political circus of the times.

Thanks Union Blue! I don't think anybody here is giving a wrong answer it just depends on how one views history. JFK in 1963 gave strict order to the US Marshals at old Miss not to fire bullets at anti integration rioters on the fear of starting civil conflict. Luckily the US Army Airborne came at just the right time for the USMS ran out of tear gas. In my opinion war ends when either both sides can work out a compromise or one side concedes defeat. Has we know there was armed conflict between US soldiers and former confederates during reconstruction. The Military Channel had a good documentary about reconstruction where they covered the exploits of former Union soldier Daniel Upton who led Ark State Militia in a take no prisoner battle with the KKK. I don't claim to know all the details of that conflict I do know there was some sharp fighting however in Ark . Today there is no legal slavery ( there will always be some such has in the sex trade) and Afro-Americans have full and equal legal rights. It just took a long time to get there.

Leftyhunter

You left out a great deal, such as why Presidential Reconstruction failed, thus necessitating Congressional Reconstruction, and how the Radicals, who were a small, though vocal, faction, got a measure of control. You also have the motivation of the Radicals all wrong.

Under Presidential Reconstruction, abetted by Andrew Johnson, the former confederates set about imposing slavery by another name on their black residents. While the rest of the country wasn't egalitarian by any stretch of the imagination, they didn't like seeing the former rebels back in charge and up to their old tricks again. In the 1866 elections, the Republicans won big, and the moderate Republicans threw their support to the Radicals, who, as a whole, were not so much about punishing anyone (though some of them were very much so) as protecting the newly freed African Americans.

The Radicals weren't behind the "Forty Acres and a Mule." That was Sherman's formulation in a very limited and specific area, not throughout the former confederate states.

Knowing the former rebels would not go along with protecting the freedmen, and insulted that men who were obvious traitors and who had been at the head of armies fighting against the United States mere months ago were now coming to Washington to sit in the Congress, they refused to seat these representatives and senators and established military districts in the former confederate states, placing the condition that they ratify the 13th Amendment, and later the 14th and 15th Amendments. They also made it possible for some freedmen to be elected to office and passed, over Johnson's veto, the first civil rights bill in US history. The former confederates retaliated by initiating a campaign of terrorism with violent groups such as the KKK.

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=133

See Eric Foner's book, Reconstruction.

Judging by the attacks on the Confederate flag, most recently NASCARs refusal to let the General Lee car from the Dukes of Hazzard go on the track, I'd say it is still on.

For many of us it will finally be over on Saturday when Missouri plays Kansas for the last time and the Border War officially ends.

Isn't there something about a Civil War between Oregon and Oregon State. Every year about the time that football game is played my Civil War alerts kind goes in that direction.

I don't think the Civil War was really over until 1870 when all the southern states were finally readmitted into the Union. However, the economic, political and social effects of the war lasted for well over a century.

April 9, 1865- Lee Surrenders.
April 9, 1865 - Battle at Sumterville, S.C.
April 10, 1865- Sherman advances in N.C. engages CSA units at Neuse River, N.C.
April 10, 1865- Lowndesboro, Ala. 2d Brigade 1st Div Cav engages CSA units. (Wilson's Raid)
April 12th-13th, 1865 -Montgomery Ala. 2d Brig. 1st Div Cav, Military Div. of the Mississippi, engages CSA (Wilson's Raid)
April 12th, 1865 -Stoneman's Raid, Grants Creek, Salisbury N.C.
April 12th, 1865 -3d Div. 13th Corps, Army of the West Mississippi engages CSA forces at Whistler's Station.
April 16th, 1865 - 2d. Brig. 1st Div. Cav, Army of the Mississippi (Wilson's Raid) Fort Taylor, West Point Ga.
April 16th, 1865- 4th. Div, Cav, Div of Army of the Mississippi, (Wilson's Raid) Columbus, Ga.
April 17th, 1865- Mosby surrenders to Hancock's command, Berryville, Va.
April 18th, 1865- Department of the South engages CSA troops, Boykin's Mill (Bradford's Springs, S.C.)
April 19, 1865- Department of the South engages CSA @ Swift Creek, S.C.
April 19, 1865- Stonemans Raid, Dallas, N.C.
April 20, 1865- Stonemans Raid, Catawba, S.C.
April 20, 1865- 17th Indiana Mounted Infantry (Wilson's Raid) Tobosofkee, Ga.
April 20, 1865- 2nd Div., Wilson's Cav. Corps; Wilson's Raid.
April 22, 1865- 1st Brig. 1st Div. Cav, Military Div. of the Mississippi (Wilson's Raid) Talladega, Ala.
April 23, 1865- 1st Brig.. 1st Div. Cav. Military Div. of the Mississippi (Wilson's Raid) Mumford's Station, Blue Mount, Ala.
April 23, 1865- Gillem's Cav, Suwano Gap, N.C.
April 26, 1865- Johnston's Surrender, Armies of the Tenn., Ga. and Ohio.
May 4, 1865- Taylor's Surrender
May 10th, 1865- 1st Wisconsin & 4th Michigan Cav; Capture of Davis, Irwinsville, Ga.
May 10th, 1865- Sam Jones & men surrender to Detachments of Wilson's Cav. @ Tallahassee, Fla.
May 11th, 1865- Jeff Thompson's surrender to Gen. Dodge's forces @ Chalk Bluff. Ark.
May 13th, 1865- 62nd USCT & 34th Indiana Vol. engage the 2nd Texas Cav. @ Palmetto Ranch, Texas
May 26th 1865- Kirby Smith surrenders to Maj. General Canby's command.

Except, EXCEPT, for prisoners, a majority of whom are black.

Note the wording in the 13th Amendment:

The documentary "Slavery by Another Name" aired on PBS recently during "Black History Month" addresses this issue.

The trailer:



The full program can be viewed here:

http://video.pbs.org/video/2176766758

HOW Slavery is still legal under the US Constitution





The Prison Economy - Prison Labor (statistics)

http://www.prisonpolicy.org/prisonindex/prisonlabor.html

Taking these facts into consideration, it seems to me only the military conflict ended in 1865, and although "chattel slavery" was abolished "Slavery by another name" is still with us and continues to tear the Union apart in ways that aren't openly talked about.

I agree that the Jim Crow laws were terrible and were designed to disempower and disenfranchise African Americans. If you want to say, they were used to perpetuate slavery by a different method or manner, you have a strong argument.
but those other two clips....sorry...They are just flat out wrong.
the way i read the the language of the 13th amendment is that the "except by conviction" phrase apples to the term involuntary servitude. is a person convicted of a crime and put into jail forced into involuntary servitude? Yes, but when the term of his or her sentence ends, the servitude ends. That may be ten years, it could be thirty days, it could be "time served". to equate that with slavery, where you are bought and sold, is just wrong.
I would also point out, the cost of building jails and incarcerating inmates far outweighs any "profits" these videos make it sound like some unnamed corporations can make. is the idea, let's incarcerate these guys so we can pay 50k a year to house and feed each one of them, so we can make cheap license plates? Please.
finally the first video talks about corrupt judges and law enforcement. I happen to know a fair number of judges and law enforcement personnel. The video slanders all of them without, of course, knowing a single one of them or knowing a single fact about them.
do we as a nation incarcerate too many people for non violent crimes? Yes, probably so. is that slavery under a different name? Hardly.

Zero dollars a day. Zero. Is this not slave labor? What difference does it make how long prisoners have to endure it. One day of work for a private corporation at zero dollars is still slave wages.

Why should corporations profit from slave or cheap labor, and by cheap I mean $0.16 a day. Even sweat shop workers in China make more than that.

http://www.wpi.edu/News/TechNews/010327/prisonlabor.shtml

Well, they don't do it any more.... was it wrong, of course. What does a prisoner earn on a daily basis today.
BTW it was not corporations profiting from slave/prisoner labor. It was usually an individual or individuals

No, it's not slave labor...it's unpaid labor by prisoners. and, while that may be less then what they pay in Chinese sweatshops, my guess it's about the same as they pay in Chinese PRISONS.
And it makes a tremendous difference in my opinion as to how long they have to endure it. a person who is forced to work for a month without pay while in prison is not a slave...he or she is a convict who everyday is one day closer to being free. how many slaves in 1850, say ,could that be said about?

On April 2, 1866, President Johnson issued a proclamation that the war (labelled an "insurrection") was over in all but Texas, and followed that with another proclamation on August 20 later that year after Texas installed a new state government.

This is today. Did you read the entire post?

That's not the same as working for a private corporation that profits off the labor.

I apologize as I did not see the balance of the article, however it is flawed. Prion industries Unicor does NOT manufacture furniture. They buy it and resell it to the government at prices that no furniture dealer can compete with. There have been any number of congressional investigations of these practices and yet, to my knowledge, it continues. I know this as I am in the office furniture business.
I can't speak to the other examples, but I would not be surprised. Don't for a moment think the government cares about citizens, or jobs or anything of that sort...