Did you know that last shots of the American Civil War did not take place in the continental United States but rather in Alaska? It's true. http://www.nps.gov/cwindepth/StateByState/Alaska.html It was about hundred and 50 years ago that supposedly neutral Great Britain secretly transferred to the Confederate Navy at a rendezvous off the coast of Africa a ship, the Sea King, that was renamed the
Shenandoah. Built in Great Britain as a supposed troop transport, Great Britain, who claimed to be neutral in the war, constructed of 1160 ton steamer with a smokestack that could be lowered and its masts and sails switched to look like a different ship. Its mission was to disrupt union shipping.

It fired upon and burned American flagged ships in the South Atlantic and Indian oceans. But it was decided to send it to the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea where ships were gathering much needed  oil to support the union military operation. Whalers boiled down whale tissue to obtain about 120 barrels of oil for each whale.  To cut off the supply of oil to the Union army the mission of the ship was to destroy the fleet.

Setting sail for the Bering sea the Confederate ship captured or destroyed about 30 United States merchant and whaling ships between June and August in 1865. What the captain didn't know was that the war had ended before he arrived. Lee had already surrendered in April and the war was over. Word, however, didn't reach the Alaska ship until the first week in August after the damage had been done. Upon receiving the news from a passing British ship the captain decided to set sail to surrender in Liverpool, Enland not wanting to face trial in the North. After a few years the captain and crew were able to return to the United States, but it was after Alaska had been purchased.

With the war over Secretary of State Seward negotiated a treaty with Russia in 1867 to purchase the Alaska territory and in 1868 Congress allocated the money to make the purchase.

So there you have it. The final shots of the civil war were fired after the war had ended and in a place  far away from the disputed territories involved in the war.