Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-01-27
Capt, ], H, Latimer Retired
NJ C, & St, |, Worker
Tells of Aiding President
of Confederacy
BY HUNTER BELL.

third year is the man who piloteo
Jefferson Davis and his cabinet on
the last lap of their journey through
South Carolina as the Confederate
chief executive and his associates
were retiring southwark after. the
fall of Richmond.
He is Captain =. H. Latimer. the
oldest employee of the N, c. & St
L., former conductor, who retired
from active duty as a travelling pas
senger agent eight years ago, after
fifty-seven years in the service OF
the railroad. He now resides with his
son, J. II. Latimer, Jr., at SO Willard
street, in West End.
Captain Latimer was at Newberry,
S. c., when Mr.. Davis and his cabi-
net reached that town on their jour.
ney towards Georgia. Obtaining an
engineer, the two fired up a loco
motive which had lain cold" for
several months and carried the Con-
federate president 'and his party to
Abbeville, S. c., where the officials
took to wagons for the trip to Wash
ington, Ga.
From Charleston, Mr.. Davis and
his party came to Winnsboro, S. c..
and then by wagons to the bridge
over the Broad river" Captain Lati-
mer said Wednesday. after cross.
ing the river, they caught a freight
train and came to Newberry, where
I had been marooned for several
months on account of washed out
tracks between there and Columbia.
81 was we'll acquainted with Mr..
Davis because I had hauled him dur
ing the war, and when he heard I
was in town, he sent for me. The
first thing he said was: What are
you doing here?'
Presidents Party Worried
81 laughed and replied that was
doing the same thing he was-try-
ing to get away. He told me that
he must reach Abbeville by the fol-
lowing morning.
My engine had been lying cold for
several months, had no cars, and,
besides, didn't know where to locate
my engineer. had been in charge
of hauling freight for the Confed-
crate government for several years.
II went out into the yards and
found coach and baggage car and
then located my engineer. That took
about two hours and then we lit
out for AbbevilIe. 1t was about the
sAddest night l ever spent. Mr.. Davis
and his associates were naturally
very much disturbed about their flu
ture and I wasn't anyways joyful
way up there several hundred miles
from home and the end of the war
leaving me with nothing to do.
at took me about seven or eight
hours to reach AbbeVille-craWling
over rails which looked like two
streaks of rust. Mr.. Davis and his
men sat in the coach, huddled up
together and talking in low tones.
Stored in the baggage car was what
little gold and silver had been carted
away from Richmond.
when we reached Abbeville,
Mr.. Davis and his cabinet officials
took the wagons for the trip to
Washington, Ga. They were cap
tired soon afterward, so the train
which I piIoted as conductor was
the last train on which they rode
before being taken"
Under Federal SheIlfire
Captain Latiner- worked in the
old Nashville and Chattanooga rail
road before it was known as the
Nashville, Chattanooga and st. Louis
railroad. He remembers when there
were no trains around Murfreesboro,
Tenn, his home town, and tells how
his father carried him to see his
first engine, then running out of
Nashville on a 16-mile strip of track
When the Federal armies attacked
Chattanooga, Captain Latimer was
in Knoxville, in charge of a train
hauling salt out of the Virginia
mines. He ran his train into Dali
ton, Ga, over what was then known
as the East Tennessee railroad and
cutting off the cars, took the engine
into Chattanooga while the north
ern troops were Smelling that city.
<a1ISI wal U.s. L d IGdIIl
load of machinery into Atlanta" he
recounted. I'VE set up shops in De.
catur, which at that time was little
more than a pine forest. Later, aft.
err Atlanta was taken, I moved to
Augusta and began hauling stuff
for the Confederate armies between
Augusta and Wilmington.
ION my first trip into Newberry,
was marooned there by a wash
out which destroyed the road for
twenty-five miles from Columbia up
to Aston. The track was rebuilt
after several months delay but be-
fore I could leave, Sherman's army
destroyed it again.
Won Bride in Newberry
'In fact, I stayed in Newberry
from Christmas, 1854, until Septem.
Der II, 1S66-long enough to help
Jefferson Davis escape into Georgia
and long enough to marry young
lady who came here from Charles.
ton. She was Miss Abel Kittle-
band, who refugeed there with her