The Jewish celebration of Passover, marking the Exodus from Egypt and freedom from slavery was celebrated for 1865 during this week.  (By John Osborne)

The U.S.S. Rodolph was a 217-ton sternwheeler attached to the Union fleet on the Blakeley River in Alabama in operations against Mobile.  Towing a salvage barge to the place where a Confederate mine had sunk the U.S.S. Milwaukee three days before, she, too, was hit with a floating mine that blew a ten-foot hole in her bow. She sank in a few minutes. Four of her sixty-man crew were killed and eleven injured.   (By John Osborne) 

The U.S.S. Milwaukee was a 1300-ton, 250 foot double-turret monitor attached to the Union fleet threatening Spanish Fort in the Blakeley River in Alabama, east of Mobile. During operations there she fell victim to a Confederate mine that exploded under her stern and sank in minutes. None of the approximately 130 Union sailors aboard lost their lives, however.  (By John Osborne) 

Fort Sumter had capitulated on February 22, 1865 and three weeks later an elaborate ceremony in Charleston Harbor, in the early afternoon, saw the raising of the United States national flag over its defenses almost four years to the day that it was hauled down at the start of the war.  Raising it on the flagpole was Major (now General) Robert Anderson, who commanded the garrison in 1861.  Thousands attended, including scores of military, civilian, and religious dignitaries. Henry Ward Beecher was the main speaker. (By John Osborne)