Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 05.pdf/105

100 This statement and the highly-colored description which follows, of the "packing" and of the "rage and disappointment" of Mrs. Davis, are pure fiction, presumably of General Wilson's own invention; for it is well known that Mrs. Davis and all the President's family had left Richmond some time before, and were at this very time either in Raleigh or Charlotte, North Carolina. The "packing" of Mr. Davis' official papers was done by the gentlemen of his personal staff; that of his wearing apparel by his servants.

It would be beyond the scope of my present purpose to pause here to pay more than a casual tribute to the soldier-like and chivalrous magnanimity that could invent a story like this for the sake of making an opportunity to jeer and sneer at the distress of a lady in time of danger and calamity.

3rd. "He drove rapidly to the train, *   *   *  accompanied by his family."

This statement is merely a variation of the previous fiction, without even an atom of foundation in fact, and needs no further comment.

4th. He was also accompanied, says General Wilson, by "three members of his Cabinet, Breckinridge, Benjamin, and Reagan."

He was really accompanied by five members of his Cabinet, Messrs. Benjamin, Mallory, Reagan, Trenholm, and Davis; Gen. Breckinridge was not among them, and did not leave Richmond until the next morning. The misstatement in this case is altogether immaterial. It seems to spring out of the very wantonness and exuberance of untruthfulness in the narrator; but it serves to show how much reliance may be placed upon the accuracy of his assertions in minor matters, as well as in greater.

The two other statements which, by way of abundant caution against doing any injustice even to General Wilson, I have designated merely as "improbable" and scarcely consistent with known facts, are first, that the gold in the Confederate treasury was "packed among the baggage," which from the context seems to be intended to mean that it was packed among the President's baggage; and second, that the train in which the party traveled, "it is said," was one which had carried provisions to Amelia Courthouse for Lee's army, had thence been ordered to Richmond, and had abandoned the supplies for a "more ignoble freight."