Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/720

 716 DAVIS and Nashville, while Schofield will not let him into Chattanooga or KnoxvUle. Georgia and South Carolina are at my mercy, and I shall strike." Tire conquest of Georgia and South Carolina, the disasters amounting almost to destruction of Hood's army in Tennessee, the defeats of Early in the Shenandoah valley, the steady advance of Gen. Grant upon Richmond, and especially the reelection of Mr. Lincoln, and the evident determination of the north to continue the contest till the Union was restored, had produced at the beginning of 1865 a despondent conviction in the south that the struggle was hopeless. The confed- erate congress which assembled in November, 1864, was palpably demoralized, and made a signal display of timidity and vacillation. It did little in the way of legislation, and its oc- cupation during the winter was mainly crim- ination of the president. Mr. Davis, on the contrary, was still confident and resolute, and with the concurrence of Gen. Lee was planning schemes for concentrating forces to oppose and destroy the army which Sherman was rapidly leading northward from Savannah and Colum- bia. One of the measures he proposed was the emancipation and enlistment of slaves as sol- diers ; but this, which might have been of ser- vice earlier in the war, came too late. An- other measure which attracted great attention at the time was to authorize commissioners to hold a conference with President Lincoln, with a view to discussing terms of peace. The com- missioners appointed were Stephens of Geor- gia and Hunter and Campbell of Virginia, who on Feb. 3 met President Lincoln and Secretary Seward on a steamer anchored in Hampton roads, and had a conference which lasted for several hours, but resulted in nothing. Presi- dent Davis now began to make preparations for the abandonment of Richmond and retire- ment to an interior line of defence near the Roanoke river. A part of his plan involved the union of the armies of Lee and Johnston and the defeat of Sherman by their combined forces. Grant's defeat of Lee, however, at Five Forks on April 1, made this plan imprac- ticable. On April 2, while seated in his pew during divine service in St. Paul's church, Mr. Davis received a note from the confederate war department communicating the news of Lee's defeat, and the consequent necessity of removal from Richmond. His family had been sent southward some days before, and at 8 P. M., attended by his personal staff, members of his cabinet, and several other officials, he left Richmond on the train for Danville, where he issued a proclamation declaring that the capi- tal had been abandoned only in order to leave the army free to act. " Relieved from the ne- cessity of guarding particular points, our army will be free to move from point to point, to strike the enemy in detail far from his base." He declared it to be his purpose never to sub- mit, and exhorted his countrymen "to meet the foe with fresh defiance and with unconquered and unconquerable hearts." An attempt was made to keep up at Danville the forms of gov- ernment, but this was abandoned in little more than a week, when the news arrived that Lee's army had surrendered to Grant. Mr. Davis and his party then went by railroad to Greens- boro, N. C. Here he met Johnston and Beau- regard, who plainly told him it was useless to continue the struggle. From Greensboro he proceeded to Charlotte, where he remained about a week, and where he heard of the assassination of President Lincoln. A few days later he heard that he was accused of having instigated the assassination, and that a procla- mation had been issued offering $100,000 for his apprehension. He still contemplated resist- ance. His plan was to cross the Mississippi with some troops that had joined him from Johnston's army, which, added to the force beyond that river, would make an army re- spectable in numbers and abundantly supplied from a productive and unexhausted country. Before putting this design into execution, how- ever, he sought an interview with his wife, who had preceded him with a small escort; and having overtaken her, he was encamped near Irwinville, Ga., May 10, when a body of Union cavalry commanded by Gen. J. H. Wilson captured his camp and arrested him. At the moment of his arrest he had on his wife's cloak, and with an empty bucket in his hand was seeking to escape under the pretence of being a woman going for water to a neigh- boring spring. He was conveyed to Fortress Monroe, where he arrived May 19, and where he was confined for two years. In May, 1867, he was brought before the United States cir- cuit court at Richmond on a charge of treason, and was admitted to bail, the charge of com- plicity in the assassination of Lincoln being dropped, as there was no evidence to substan- tiate it. He made a brief stay in Richmond, where he was well received by the people, and went thence to New York, and then to Canada. In the summer of 1868 he went to England, a mercantile house in Liverpool having offered to take him as a partner without any capital. On arriving in England he became satisfied that the offer was one which he had best not accept. He made a brief visit to France, and soon returned to America. At the term of the United States circuit court held in Richmond in December, 1868, a nolle prosequi was entered in his case, and he was accordingly discharged. He was included in the general amnesty of Dec. 25, 1868. Since his discharge he has lived at Memphis, Tenn., where he is president of a life insurance com- pany. In June, 1871, he had a public recep- tion at Atlanta, Ga., and made a speech in which he said that he still adhered to the principle of state sovereignty, but declared that the power of the Union was too great to be resisted. He also said, " I don't believe I did any wrong, and therefore don't acknowl- edge it." See "The Life of Jefferson Davis,"