Combat· American Civil War
Appomattox and Greensboro CSMC surrenders
The dissolution of the Confederate States Marine Corps.
The Confederate Marines who had survived the retreat from Richmond were given up with the armies that surrendered at the war's close: those who had marched with Lee were paroled at Appomattox Court House after his surrender on 9 April 1865, and others, including officers of Raphael Semmes' naval brigade, were paroled at Greensboro, North Carolina, later in the month under the terms of Johnston's surrender to Sherman. Among the Confederate Marine officers caught up in these final scenes was the former United States Marine who had led the storming of the engine house at Harper's Ferry in 1859. The paroles ended the brief, four-year history of the Confederate Corps of Marines. No fighting and no casualties attended the surrenders, which were the quiet administrative close of a service that had ceased to have a country.
Podcast episodes on American Civil War
Record no. 402