Yancey returned to Alabama in May 1863, before Congress had adjourned. By the end of June, Yancey was extremely ill from his injures received during the attack by Hill in the Confederate Congress, but he still continued his correspondence with President Davis and others. Finally on July 27, 1863, two weeks before his forty-ninth birthday, Yancey died of kidney disease. Yancey's funeral on July 29, 1863, brought the city of Montgomery to a standstill, and he was buried at Oakwood cemetery on Goat Hill near the original Confederate Capitol.