Page:A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Confederacy, Including the Diplomatic Correspondence, 1861-1865, Volume I.djvu/51

Rh War followed, and was prolonged for four years, during which time Mr. Davis was continued as President. In November, 1861, an election was held under the permanent Constitution, and he was chosen President, without opposition, for six years. The first Congress under the permanent government met in Richmond on February 18, 1862, and he was inaugurated on the 22d of that month. The Confederate army in Virginia under General Lee surrendered April 9, 1865, and soon after the war ended. Mr. Davis left Richmond on Sunday night, April 2, and went to Danville, Va., and from there to Charlotte, N. C., where he remained until the 26th of April, when he left with a small force of cavalry as an escort. He reached the Savannah River and crossed it May 4, and went to Washington, Ga., where he remained a few days. In his work, the "Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government," Mr. Davis says: "When I left Washington, Ga., with the small party which has been enumerated, my object was to go to the south far enough to pass below the points reported to be occupied by Federal troops, and then turn to the west, cross the Chattahoochie, and then go on to meet the forces still supposed to be in the field in Alabama. If, as now seemed probable, there should be no prospect of a successful resistance east of the Mississippi, I intended then to cross to the Trans-Mississippi Department, where I believed Gens. E. K. Smith and Magruder would continue to uphold our cause." On May 10 he was captured by Federal cavalry, and, with members of his family, his wife and several small children, one an infant, who were traveling with him, was carried to Macon, Ga., and from there to Hampton Roads. He was then removed to Fortress Monroe, and incarcerated in a cell, his wife and family being returned to Savannah, Ga. In mentioning his imprisonment at Fortress Monroe, in his work to which reference has just been made, he says: "Bitter tears have been shed by the gentle, and stern reproaches have been made by the magnanimous, on account of the needless torture to which I was subjected, and the heavy fetters riveted upon me, while in a stone casemate and surrounded by a strong guard; but all these were less excruciating than the mental agony my captors were able to inflict. It was long before I was permitted to hear from my wife. and children, and this and things like this was the power which education added to cruelty; but I do not propose now and here to enter upon the