Sherman 's Carolina Campaign , in which his troops marched in 50 days , was similar to his march to the sea through Georgia , although physically more demanding . However , the Confederate forces opposing him were much smaller and more dispirited . When Joseph E. Johnston met with Jefferson Davis in Greensboro on April 12 – 13 , he told the Confederate president : On April 18 , three days after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln , Johnston signed an armistice with Sherman at Bennett Place , a farmhouse near Durham Station . Sherman got himself into political hot water by offering terms of surrender to Johnston that encompassed political issues as well as military , without authorization from General Grant or the United States government . The confusion on this issue lasted until April 26 , when Johnston agreed to purely military terms and formally surrendered his army and all Confederate forces in the Carolinas , Georgia , and Florida . It was the second significant surrender that month . On April 9 , Robert E. Lee had surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House . It was the virtual end for the Confederacy , although some smaller forces held out , particularly in the Trans-Mississippi region , into the summer
assassination of
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Campaign of the Carolinas