The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1869-01-09
From aekarSs Monthly.
The Flight and Capture of Jefferson
Davis.
BY EDWARD A. POLLARD.

While Grant and Lee thundered before
| Petersburg, Jefferson Davis fed from Rich
mOnd without word of public explanation,
with none of that benediction or encourage.
ment which a great leader is expected to
/ impart to his people in such a catastrophe
escaping with the ignominy of an obscure,
mean fugitive, if not positively in the char
acter of a deserter. Some explanation has
been offered of his singular neglect on this
occasion of those whom, in his day of
power, he was accustomed, after the afecta-
| ton of fond and Daternal ruler, to call
his people" in the statement that the Gov
ernment at Richmond had no expectation of
! Lees disaster, and was thus painfully
hurried in its. evacuation of the capital
| The statement is untrue, and the excuse
| is unavailing The writer we'll knows, what
has not heretofore been impaired to public
curiosity, that jefferson Davis had, many
weeks before Lees catastrophe, made the
most careful and exacting preparations for
his escape. The matter had been fully con-
suited with his Cabinet, in profoun nd secresy
and it had been agreed that to secure the
escape of the President and his principal
officers, the Shenandoah should be ordered
to cruise off the coast of Florida, to take
the distinguished fugitives on board, who
had selected the coast for their exit from
ConfederacY, and their extricatiOn from its
| falling fortunes These orders had been
sent to the Confederate cruiser many days
before Lees lines were broken. 1t was cal
culated that the Presidents Uarty might
make an easy and deliberate escape in the
way agreed upon, as the communications
with the Florida coast were then scarcely
| doubtful, and once on the Shenandoah, q
| fast sailer, the most valuable remnant of the
Confederate navy, they might soon obtain
/ Inn Oh
preparations were made for the fight; all
the papers of the Government were revised
and marked for destruction, abandonment
or preservation, according to their contents !;
and even Mr.. Davis private baggage was
/ put in order for transportation. Of course,
the public knew nothing Of these prepara-
| tions, and it did not even suspect them. Mr..
| Daniel, of the Richmond Examiner, had re-
peatedly said, with bitterness that what
ever the event of the war, whatever its mis-
| fortune, Mr.. Davis would be certain to pro-
vide for his personal safety, above that of
| all others and indeed this journal has sug-
gested that, for this mean reason, the Presi-
dent had invariably blanched at any retalia-
ton upon the enemy involving the penalty
of death. But many people resented this
] thought of the EE0R1tRer they persisted in
believing that President Davis would stand
with the army when the Confederate flag
was lowered, and accept a common lot
with them and the people and they called
to mind his heroic words, spoken to the
| troops in Virginia in 1861. at the beginning
of the war: " when the last line of bayonets
| is levelled l will be with you"
By the way, it is remarkable that so little
has been obtained, by the capture or dis
covery of documents, of the secret history
of the Confederacy. True, there have been
collected at Washington some documentary
relics, under the title of I" Rebel Archives ;"
and the pretentiOus construction of a Bureau
to take care of them, and certain foolish
provisions against the access to them of pub
lie curiosity, have given the idea of some
value and mystery attached to them. But
they are historically worthless scarcely any
thing more than the official platitudes, dry
and barren amplifcatiOns of stories which
have been told Numbered times in the news
papers. There was captured in Richmond
only the refuse of the Confederate archives.
1t is a curious and romantic fact, not gener-
ally known, that the bulk of the valuable pa
pers of the Confederate Government, includ-
ing the correspondence of Jefferson Davis,
exists to-day IN concealment; that many
days before the fall of Richmond there was
a careful selection of important papers, es-
pecially those In the Office of the President,
and letters which involved condolences in
the North and in Europe, and that these
were secretly conveyed out of Richmond,
and deposited In a place where they remain
concealed to this time, and will probably
not be unearthed in this generation. Where
is this repository of the secrets of the Con
federate Government the writer is not pre-
pared to say. Indeed, he has never been
able to obtain other than very general in-
formation of the present place Of these pa
pers, and even as to the limits of the locality
he was bound by obligatisns Of private con-
idence, which it is impossible to violate.
Yet the world may know, and it is at least
some historical satisfaction, that the most
valuable papers of tbe Southern COnfeder-
acy, including the correspondence of Jeffer-
son Davis, reported to have been held with
important parties in the North and in
Europe, and which might yet involve the
pers 0nal safety of some of them, and posi-
bly, found prosecutions, did not perish In the
catastrophe of Richmond; that they are yet
preserved In a manner and place to defy
discovery, and secure against loss or mutila-
tion-dedicated, perhaps, to the curiosity of
distant generation.
After having safely bestowed his impor-
tant papers, and by this measure consulted
to some degree his personal safety, it might
be supposed that Mr.. Davis would be pre-
| pared to leave Richmond with some appear
ance of self-possession and dignity. But after
all the provisions for his flight, the signal for
it was so sudden and ddramatic-announced
to him in the shape of Lees dread telegram,
while he sat in St Paurs Church, with the
sunshine Of calm and beautiful day pulsing
through che windows-as to have some effect
of surprise at least, breaking down his
| equanimity, and reducing him to that condi-
| tiOn of huster and tremulousness with
which the weak man receives the news of
misfortune, no matter how long he has
vaguely expected it, and practised against
| the moment Of its announcement
BE nervously prepared at his house his
private baggage, assisted by Mrs Davis, and
he never ventured in the streets until, under