April 23, 1865

Confederate President Jefferson Davis writes to his wife, Varina, of the desperate situating facing the Confederates, today in 1865.  Things 

were falling apart very fast for the Confederacy in the last three weeks. “Panic has seized the country,” he wrote to his wife in Georgia. Davis was in Charlotte, North Carolina, on his flight away from Yankee troops. It was three weeks since Davis had fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, as Union troops were overrunning the trenches nearby. Davis and his government headed west to Danville, Virginia, in hopes of reestablishing offices there. When Confederate General Robert E. Lee was forced to surrender his army at Appomattox Court House, 

Virginia, on April 9, Davis and his officials had traveled south in hopes of connecting with the last major Confederate army, the force of General Joseph Johnston. Johnston, then in North Carolina, was himself in dire straits, as General William T. Sherman’s massive force was

bearing down on him.  Davis continued to write in his letter to his wife, “The issue is one which it is very painful for me to meet.  On one hand is the long night of oppression which will follow the return of our people to the ‘Union’; on the other, the suffering of the women and children, and carnage among the few brave patriots who would still oppose the invader.”

The Davis’ were reunited a few days later as the president continued to flee and continue the fight for Southern independence, but it was just not to be.  Two weeks later, Union troops finally captured the Confederate president in northern Georgia.  Davis was charged with treason, and put in prison in a casemate at Fortress Monroe, on the coast of Virginia, on May 19, 1865.  He was placed in irons for three days.  Davis was indicted for treason a year later. but he was never tried.  After two years of imprisonment, Davis was released on bail of $100,000 (which would be $1,563,464.44 in 2015), which was posted by prominent citizens of both Northern and Southern states, including Horace Greeley, Cornelius Vanderbilt and Gerrit Smith.  he died at age 81 in 1889.

 

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