April 1865. |
May 4. |
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in a railway carriage.
There they remained until the 15th,
when, it being seen that the surrender of Johnston was inevitable, they again took flight, on horseback and in ambulances (for Stoneman had crippled the railway), for Charlotte, in Mecklenburg County, which Davis proposed to make the future capital of the Confederacy.
There the fugitives first heard of the surrender of Johnston, through an electrograph to his wife, then abiding in Charlotte, telling her he would be with her in a few days.
This was the final blow to the insurgent armies; and now the Confederate Government vanished into nothingness.
The ring of Stoneman's sabers was heard, and startled the Conspirators, and away they fled on horseback, escorted by two thousand cavalry, across the Catawba, with their faces toward the Gulf of Mexico, for the way to the Mississippi and beyond, was barred.
George Davis, the “Attorney-General,” resigned.
his office at Charlotte; Trenholm gave up the place of “Secretary of the Treasury” on the banks of the Catawba, when Davis appointed his now useless “Postmaster-General,” Reagan, to take Trenholm's place, temporarily.
On they went, the escort continually dwindling.
“Delays,” said one of the party, “were not now thought of; and on toward Abbeville, by way of Yorkville, in South Carolina, the party struck, taking full soldiers' allowance of turmoil and camping on the journey, only intent on pushing to certain points on the Florida coast.
Rumors of Stoneman, rumors of Wilson, rumors of even the ubiquitous Sheridan, occasionally sharpened the excitement.
The escort, for the sake of expedition, was shorn of its bulky proportions, and by the time we reached Washington,
in Georgia, there was only enough to make a respectable raiding party.”
1
At Washington, after there had been a scramble for the gold which the “Government” was running away with,2 the remainder of the “Cabinet,” excepting Reagan, deserted the “President.”
Mallory, the “Secretary of the Navy,” doubting whether his official services would be needed on the Gulf, fled, with the notorious Wigfall, by railway, to La Grange, where he found his family, and was subsequently arrested.
Benjamin, the “Secretary of State,” mysteriously disappeared, after making ample provision for his own comfort.
He afterward solved the enigma by showing his person in England.
Of all the “ministers,” only Reagan remained faithful to the person of the chief.
Up to this time, Davis's wife and children, and Mrs. Davis's sister, Miss Howell, had accompanied the fugitive “Government” from Danville.
Now, for prudential reasons, this family took another, but nearly parallel route, in the flight toward the Gulf, traveling in wagons.
Information soon reached Davis that some Confederate soldiers, believing that the treasure was with Mrs. Davis, had formed a plot to seize all her trunks, in search of it. He instantly hastened to the rescue of his family and property, and to provide for the protection of all. For this purpose he rode rapidly eighteen
1 History of the Last Days and Final Fall of the Rebellion, by Lieutenant C. E. L. Stuart, of Jefferson Davis's staff.
2 “ At Washington there was a scramble for specie. It was determined to give the cavalry some few dollars each. They were impatient, and helped themselves as soon as they discovered where to get it. The result was an inequitable distribution — many got too much, many got nothing; and ‘dust-hunters’ picked up a good deal the following day — a good deal that was trampled under foot during the contemptible scramble.” --History, &c. by C. E. L. Stuart.
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