The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1877-07-26
JEFF DAVIS.
Flight of the Confederate President from
Richmond,


Flight of the Confederate President from
Richmond.
| [Gen. James Fl. Wilson, in Philadelphia Times
! On the first Sunday of April, 1866.
while seated in ST. Pauls Church in
Richmond, Jefferson Davis received a
telegram from Lee announcing the fall
of Petersburg, the partial destruction of
his army, and the immediate necessity
for fight. Although he could not have
been entirely unprepared for this intelli-
gence, it appears that he did not receive
it with possession or dignity; but
with tremulous and nervous haste, like
weak man IN the hour of misfortune. he
LETT the house of worship and hurried
home, where he and his more resolute
wife spent the rest of the day in packing
their personal baggage. Those who are
acquainted with the character of Mrs.
Davis can readily imagine with what
energy and determination she must have
prepared her family for flight, and with
what rage and disappointment she re-
signed the scepter she had welded over
the social and fashionable life Of erich
mond on the James," They may be
sure, too, that, although heartsick and
disguised, there was nothing irresolute
or vacillating in her actions. At night
fall everything was in readiness; even
the gold then remaining in the treasury.
not exceeding in all $40, 600, was packed
among the baggage, and under cover Of
darkness the President of the Confed-
eracy, accompanied by his family, and
three members of his Cabinet, Breckin-
ridge, Benjamin and Regain, drove rap
idly to the train which had been pre-
pared to carry them from Richmond.
This train, it is said, was the one which
had carried provisions to Amelia Court
House for Lees hard-pressed and hun
CRY army, and having been ordered to
Richmond had taken those supplies to
that place, where they were abandoned
for more ignoble freight. AS matter
Of course the starving rebel soldiers SUI
fered, but Davis succeeded in reaching
Danvllle in safety, where he rapidly re-
covered from the fright he had sustained,
and astonished his followers by a proc
lamation as bombastic and empty as his
fortunes were Strengthened and desperate.
It is stated upon what appears to be
good authority that Davis had, many
weeks before Lees catastrophe, made
"the most careful and exacting prepare
lions for his escape, discussing the mat
ter fully with his Cabinet in profound
secrecy; and deciding that, in order to
secure the escape of himself and his
principal officers, the Shenandoah should
be ordered to cruise off the coast of
Florida to take the fugitives on board. :"
These orders were sent to the rebel
cruiser many days before Lees lines
were broken. 1t was thought that the
party might make an easy and deliberate
escape in the way agreed upon, as the
communications with the Florida coast
we're at that time scarcely doubtful, and,
once on the swift-sailing Shenandoah,
the most valuable remnant of the Anglo.
Confederate navy, "they might soon OBJ
tain an asylum on a foreign shore.
When Davis and his companions left
Richmond in pursuance Of this plan
they believed that Lee could avoid sur
render only short time longer. A few
days thereafter the news of this expected
calamity reached them, when they turned
their faces again toward the South.
Breckenridge, the Secretary of War, was
sent to confer with Johnston, but found
: him only in time to assist in drawing up
the terms OF his celebrated capitulation
) to Sherman. The intelligence of this
: event caused the rebel chieftain to renew
his fight, but, while hurrying onward,
some fatuity induced him to change his
plans, and to adopt the alternative of
trying to push through the Southwest
toward the region which he fondly be-
lieved to be yet under the domination Of
Forrest, Taylor and Kirby Smith, and
within which he hoped to revive the des-
perate fortunes of the rebellion. He
confided his hopes to Breckenridge, and
when he reached Abbeville, S. c., he
called council Of war to deliberate upon
the plans which he had conceived for re-
generating what had now become in fact
"The Lost Cause" The council was
composed of Gems. Breckenridge, Bragg,
and the commanders Of the cavalry force
which was then escorting him. All
united that it was hopeless to struggle
longer, but they added that they would
not disband their men till they had
guarded their chieftain to a place of
safety. That was the last council of the
Cenfederacy. t: