Which Confederate commerce raider fired the last shot of the Civil War?

CSS Shenandoah fired the last shot traditionally associated with the American Civil War.

The Confederate commerce raider was built in Britain as the merchant ship Sea King and entered Confederate service in October 1864. Commanded by Lieutenant Commander James Iredell Waddell, it crossed the Atlantic and Indian Ocean before reaching the Pacific, where it attacked Union shipping and whaling vessels.

Shenandoah continued operating after learning—or failing to learn quickly—that the Confederacy had collapsed. In June 1865, its crew encountered American whalers in waters near the Aleutian Islands and fired across a vessel’s bow. That warning shot is conventionally remembered as the war’s last shot, even though the principal Confederate armies had already surrendered.

The ship’s delayed return created another historical distinction. Rather than risk capture as pirates, Waddell sailed thousands of miles to Liverpool, England. Shenandoah surrendered to British authorities on November 6, 1865, making its crew the last Confederate military unit to formally surrender. Thus, its story connects the war’s final shot with its last official surrender.