April 28, 1865---"A stand cannot be made in this country."

APRIL 28, 1865:       

“A stand cannot be made in this country” --- Varina Davis

I

 

Varina Davis, the First Lady of the Confederacy, fleeing southward with her children, is, if she only knew it, less than a full day ahead of her husband, who is desperately trying to find her. At Abbeville, South Carolina she writes him a long letter, imploring him not to linger in the South; she has seen enough to convince her that the spirit of the Confederacy is nearly dead. Knowing that her husband wants to make a stand in the Trans-Mississippi, she encourages this, but also warns him that the overland route to Texas is fraught with risk of capture. Better, she advises, to flee south to Florida, take ship to Cuba or the Bahamas, regroup there, and then join General Kirby Smith in Shreveport. 

She fears that Jefferson will be captured if he tries to reach her; she leaves word of her own ultimate destination, “beyond Florida.” Apparently, the two have an understanding as to what this means. 

Lastly, she warns him against trusting in General Braxton Bragg C.S.A., whom she, like so many others, despises. “I entreat you not send B.B. to command here . . . the country will be ruined by intestine (sic) feuds.”

Most Southerners detest Bragg, “an old porcupine” whom they blame for the current state of things. Bragg, inflexible, unimaginative, and antisocial, had failed to go to the aid of Fort Fisher when called, and this led to its fall and the loss of the Confederacy’s last major port; afterward, his hysteric reports on conditions in Wilmington led to the premature abandonment of that city.   

  

Davis, however, has a long-standing fondness for Bragg, not least inspired by the fact that Bragg tells him what he wants to hear; and Bragg, for his part, gives Davis a doglike, if mindless, loyalty. 

 

II

Just as Varina Davis dispatches her letter, Jefferson Davis enters the town of Yorkville, South Carolina.  The small towns of Yorkville and (ironically) Union now form the heart of the unspoiled Confederacy, and bands play as Davis arrives. He makes a quick speech and gets down to what business he has.

Yorkville is filled with surrendered and deserted Confederate soldiers who take heart at the arrival of their President. Over 2,000 volunteer as his escort, bringing it up to full strength. Among them is General Braxton Bragg, leading a company of officers and men. Although Bragg surrendered and was paroled on the morning of the 26^th (before Johnston’s surrender) he violates his parole to join the Davis caravanserai. An overjoyed Davis names “his favorite general” as General-in-Chief of all Confederate armies (in effect, the commander of the Presidential Escort) and immediately begins ignoring advice from anyone but Bragg. Members of Davis’ following drop out in disgust.   

 

The reception at Yorkville, and Bragg’s fawning obsequiousness convinces Davis that he is right: The fight can go on. 

Together with Bragg, Davis plots an escape route on a map. Davis’ plan is to head south toward Tallahassee and then move cautiously across Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, into the Confederate-held areas of that State, from which he can reinvigorate The Cause. 

Bragg draws a comfortable, if long, squiggle across his campaign map. He tells Davis that the important thing is to avoid Stoneman’s Cavalry, which is bearing down on them from the north along the very road they are on. 

Bragg typically never considers that there are Federal troops along the intended southwestern route; but in fact, Wilson’s Cavalry is pounding northward along the selfsame road looking for the Confederate President. Davis does not know it, but he is the moving endpoint of two rapidly converging lines, and it only remains to see which line intersects with him first. 

III

The Lincoln Funeral Train arrived in Cleveland, Ohio at 6:50 A.M., heralded by a 36-gun salute, one for each State of the Union.  It was a miserable, rainy day, and the weather matched the sorrow of the crowds. 

Despite the rain which was sometimes heavy, Cleveland’s leaders held Lincoln's funeral and viewing out-of-doors. His body was protected from the weather by an offbeat pagoda-looking structure that carried the catafalque and casket. In total, more than 150,000 people were able to see their beloved President. While this was far from the largest number of viewers at a given location, it was the largest number of people in a given period of time --- eleven-and-a-half-hours, from 10:30 A.M. to 10:00 P.M. 

IV

Although Kentucky had a Unionist Governor --- Thomas E. Bramlett --- and two Confederate Governors --- George Johnson and Richard Hawes --- by the end of April 1865, all real power in the State rested in the hands of John Palmer, the Military Governor. A Lincoln appointee, Palmer had once been a Union General. He resigned his commission in the middle of the Battle of Chickamauga (the only U.S. officer ever to resign while in battle). Despite this dramatic episode, he appeared to have moderated his attitudes by 1865, and seemed to Lincoln like a good choice for Military Governor of the divided Border State. 

In truth, Palmer was a Radical Republican firebrand and a rabid abolitionist who did everything he could to grant full rights to African-Americans within his jurisdiction despite the fact that Kentucky as a Union State was exempted from the Emancipation Proclamation. Palmer never forgot that Kentucky had a star on the Confederate flag, and he never let Kentuckians forget it either. 

One of his earliest acts as Military Governor was to issue “Free Passes” (as they were known to the former slaves) or “Palmer Passes” (as they were known to whites) allowing African-Americans the freedom to travel throughout the State to seek paid work. He also hired (or forced the hiring of) thousands of blacks for jobs such as train stationmasters and the like. While good ideas in theory, most of the hired blacks were uneducated and ill-trained for the jobs they received. Palmer did start some educational programs for the freed slaves, but they were grossly insufficient. 

When white Kentucky males (Blue and Gray) returned home they often found their prewar jobs taken by former slaves. This did not engender good feelings between the races in Kentucky. However, the simple fact that blacks received pay for their labor did much to undermine the underpinnings of slavery in the State.

As soon as the war wound down, (and with Lincoln’s moderating influence removed) Palmer reinforced the Unionist State Militia by inducting thousands of newly-freed blacks. Once armed, they were given carte blanche to hunt down “Secesh” Kentuckians. Palmer even sweetened the pot by putting a bounty on Confederates’ heads. Along with “real” Confederates, many of the “Rebels” so pursued and often killed were Unionist former slaveowners and overseers. Throughout the Spring and Summer of 1865, Kentucky, which had been relatively peaceful during the closing months of the war, exploded into violence. 

The idea of armed blacks (soldiers or not) “hunting” whites (rebels or not) added to the outrage in Kentucky, even among otherwise moderate factions, and this no doubt led to the eventual cementing of the State’s Post-Reconstruction “Black Codes.”  

At his life’s end, Palmer was pleased that he had “eradicated slavery root and branch” from Kentucky, but generations of Kentucky-born African-Americans yet to be born paid the price for his skewed vision.