Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-10-11

repairing to the well-known sound, the
people were silent and inactive and the
pusillanimous Rienzi, deploring their in
gratitude with signs and tears, abdicated
the government and palace of the repub-
&c"
The fall of Richmond was the fatal event
of the Confederacy. The black banner
which the smoke from its confagration set
in the sky signalled from the Potomac to
the Mississippi the end of the war, the de-
spair and submission Of the South. 1t was
under that sign that the army of General
Lee commenced it's toilsome retreat, and
the train of officials set out to find some
theatre of the war beyond Virginia, some
remnant of a government, the humiliation
of which they had not yet fully realized
We have said that in these last painful
days Of the Confederacy there was but hit
| tie of dramatic scence to heighten and
adorn the last act of the tragedy. tat
| tered and travel stain ed armymoved through
the woods and Oh blind roads, with strag-
Cling, distressed trains, its march dotted
With dead and famished soldiers, until bro
ken down by toll and hunger, it quietly
surrendered, and, with q mere instrument
Of writing laid down its arms at AppOmat-
tox Court House Richmond had been de-
serted without conference; there had been
no final scene at the co1ncil-board, no high
debate, no official speech or inspiration
that could properly mark the great historl-
cal interest of the event. It was vul gar
| tumult in which the Confederate Capitol
| had been abandoned. Tame and unworthy
were the last days of an empire whose
prowess had once challenged the admira-
| ton of the world, whose arms had twice
penetrated the enemy's territory, whose
| two hundred cannon had beloved for
peace on the heights of Gettysburg. whose
campfire had more than once been lighted
| in the very fore ground of Washington.
But in this poverty of scenery and Incl
| dent in which the Southern COnfederacy
perished there was yetone remarkable in
terview or council which has heretofore
[ been lost to the current and popular hlstO-
ries of the war-a scene which, though TAX
ing place on a small and obscure theatre,
yelled from public knowledge, is ofintense
dramatic interest, and is likely yet to fur
nish the last illuminated page to some al
tistic historian of the war, who, like Ma
caulay, shall produce the very images OF
the past along with the record of events
It was the last interview, the last confer
ence of Jefferson Davis and his officers. 1t
took place in little town in South Carroll
ma it was known only to the few men who
assembled there with their fugitive chief =;
yet it was properly the last scene of the
wars great drama It had dignity that
had not yet appeared in the final chapter
of misfortune, and it is memorable alike
for its artistic effects and its historical i'm
portance.
The ex-President of the Confederacy had
issued, at Danville, Virginia, an ingenious
! and sanguine proclamation, which possibly
might have aroused his countrymen to fur
Their efforts in the war had not the effusion
Df T
surrender. This event appeared to deter
mine the last hopes Of the Southern people,
to convince them that further prosecu-
ton of the war was useless, and even
criminal in a fruitless consumption of hu-
man life. Not so with Mr.. Davis. He
was remarkable for a sanguine tenn
permanent he had that disposition,
at once imperious and weak, which, de-
handing that all things must be as it wishes,
believes them so; and what the world
thought the swollen boasts of desperate
and failing leader were really the sincere
illusions of proud man who never, indeed,
fully realized the extremity of his cause
until 1.-the iron entered his soul in the
classmates of Fortress Monroe. In his
strangely deliberate and leisurely retreat
through the Carolinas, he had not appeared
for q moment to realize that he was fu-
gitive, and he looked with complacency
upon the disordered fragments of the army
that had gathered on the line of his flight,
and that he pursued it with q vague and
uncertain design. An officer who was con-
stantly in his company in what might be
thought days of anguish and despair to the
fallen chief testifies Mr. Davis was ap-
parently untouched by any Of the de-
moralization which prevailed-he was atfa-
bic, dignifed, and looked the very per,
Of ,ioba tod
, age" He yet persisted that the cause was
not lost although Lee had surrendered
although Johnston had furled his banners
without q battle, and although all that
, was visible Of the great armies that haC
stood from Richmond to Augusta, on the
, dominant lines of the war, were less thar
: one thousand soldiers fragments Of brigadeE
| that assembled around him at Abbeville
South Carolina, when he paused there for
final council with his Generals.
There is something curious, even painful
in this delusiOn, yet admirable and sub
lime. The ex-President refused to read the
word " failure, which the public had pro
nounced against him, and which he might
ed and dispirited soldiers who yet attend
ed him. His glittering eye was not YET
quenched hisslackened nervers were strung
up with new resolution and hope he was
= practising that most difficult art of life
. which maintains even manners in sudden
= adversely, and with the trained gamblers
steady challenge, coolly and deliberately
tries the last resource Of fortune. But even
that last resource was denied him. For
= tune had no more stakes for him and
: with the sharp pain of the CANISTER, who
: prepares for the last chance. and then finds
he has miscounted, and has not means ever
to try that, the man who had bargainet
for empire, and played with the destinies
, of whole communities suddenly found him
self without single soldier at his com
mand, and hunted fugitive in peril of his
> life
2 In the little town of Abbeville Mr. Davis
, summoned his officers to council; he wa
! determined to try their resolution, and anx
! ious to ascertain the spirit of their men
e The only full Generals who yet atten
g ded him were Bragg, his "militalJ
adviser, and Breckenridge, lately Secreta
2 ry of War. There were five brigade com
y manders present at the conference. Tc
! this small but important audience Mr.. Da
q Wis addressed himself with all the powers
of his wonderful ard subtle intellect The