May 2, 1865---"I will not be beholden to any Yankee."

MAY 2, 1865:   

“The United States Army has better things to do.” --- General William Tecumseh Sherman

I

A throng as great as yesterday’s accompanied Abraham Lincoln’s body back to the Funeral Train. The train left Chicago at 9:30 A.M.  It would take nearly 24 hours to reach Springfield as it moved majestically past mourners lined along the tracks sometimes two and three deep to a side in a line that stretched nearly unbroken from the Windy City to the State Capitol.

 

II

President Andrew Johnson formalizes the rewards offered for Jefferson Davis and other wanted men. 

Johnson has the Reward posters distributed literally everywhere --- including Europe and Edo (Tokyo), Japan in case his numerous quarries manage to flee that far:

Proclamation 131

Rewards for the Arrest of Jefferson Davis and Others

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Whereas it appears from evidence in the Bureau of Military Justice that the atrocious murder of the late President, Abraham Lincoln, and the attempted assassination of the Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, were incited, concerted, and procured by and between Jefferson Davis, late of Richmond, Va., and Jacob Thompson, Clement C. Clay, Beverley Tucker, George N. Sanders, William C. Cleary, and other rebels and traitors against the Government of the United States harbored in Canada:

Now, therefore, to the end that justice may be done, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do offer and promise for the arrest of said persons, or either of them, within the limits of the United States, so that they can be brought to trial, the following rewards:

One hundred thousand dollars for the arrest of Jefferson Davis.

Twenty-five thousand dollars for the arrest of Clement C. Clay.

Twenty-five thousand dollars for the arrest of Jacob Thompson, late of Mississippi.

Twenty-five thousand dollars for the arrest of George N. Sanders.

Twenty-five thousand dollars for the arrest of Beverley Tucker.

Ten thousand dollars for the arrest of William C. Cleary, late clerk of Clement C. Clay.

The Provost-Marshal-General of the United States is directed to cause a description of said persons, with notice of the above rewards, to be published.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 2d day of May, A. D. 1865, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-ninth.

ANDREW JOHNSON.

By the President:

W. HUNTER,

Acting Secretary of State.

  

When General William Tecumseh Sherman receives his copies he destroys them and issues orders that no man of his command is to pursue Davis. He is still enraged at Johnson and Stanton for having abused him so badly during the Bennett Place peace negotiations and he snarls that “A posse can be raised, or any simple County Sheriff can be paid, if Johnson and Stanton want Davis so badly. The United States Army has better things to do.”

This pronouncement does little to cool Sherman’s rage. Indeed, he then takes steps that are grossly insubordinate at the least and wildly treasonous at the most. Together with Admiral David Dixon Porter (who is infuriated at what he considers Johnson’s crocodile tears over Lincoln’s death and Stanton’s utter disregard of the slain President’s wishes for reconciliation with the South) Sherman contacts Jefferson Davis through a backchannel.

The offer the General and the Admiral make is extraordinary. They offer Davis the use of a United States warship --- flagged for the duration as a Confederate vessel --- to transport Davis, his family, and their selected companions anywhere in the world away from Johnson and Stanton’s jurisdiction.

Davis rather stupidly turns the offer down flat, saying, “I will not be beholden to any Yankee.”  Getting Davis’ curt answer, Sherman and Porter abandon him to his fate.

III

Jefferson Davis and his shrinking party enter the town of Abbeville, South Carolina about thirty hours after Varina and the children have left.  The Confederate President is put up at the Armistead Burt House (the Burt-Stark Mansion) in the same room where Varina slept. He is probably relieved to know he can lay his head on his wife’s pillow. 

Although the Burts and many of the people of Abbeville are still strong for The Cause, Davis cannot ignore all the indicators of collapse around him. Threadbare Southern refugees are everywhere, being preyed upon by leaderless men in gray.

Responding to his citizens’ calls for aid, Davis asks for volunteers to step forward to fight the bushwhacker gangs in the area. No one does. He then orders a group of young, uniformed Confederate parolees into the field. “I will lead you,” he promises.

Their answer shocks him. “Our lives are as important to us as yours is to you,” one man retorts. “We’re not going to die for no reason. The war is over. We’re going home.”

When Davis responds that he is Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, another man is scornful. “There ain’t no Jeff Davis anymore, and there ain’t no Confederacy nohow.”

Civilians accuse him of running away. “You’re rich; we know you’ve got gold in those strongboxes. Where are you running to? Because we can’t run.”

The dejected Davis returns helplessly to the Burt-Stark House. Near midnight he calls for a War Council. After making a stirring appeal to Confederate patriotism he asks for opinions. His remaining Cabinet members and his few loyal Generals are blunt, even Bragg: 

--- We can carry on the fight, yes, but at the price of what misery to the South, sir? 

--- Sherman will march again, and there will be nothing left of what little there is. As it is there are few food stocks and almost no munitions left to fight with. And the Yankees will exact an even more terrible price now for the life of Mr. Lincoln.

--- The dream of independence has died, sir.

--- If we can raise just 3,000 men, the people will rally, Davis insists stubbornly. Their spirit is strong and they love their country.

--- The people are all used up, Mr. President.

--- Where can we make this stand Mr. Davis?

--- The Trans-Mississippi. General Kirby Smith has 40,000 troops there, and we can reach Shreveport with some effort if we try. I propose to rally General Taylor’s forces in Alabama and Mississippi. He will ensure us safe passage westward . . .

--- Taylor has entered into a cease-fire with the Yankees.

--- What?  I have not heard this news.

--- It is true. We are done, Mr. President. The Confederacy is finished.

--- Then why are you men still in the field?

--- To protect you, sir, and ensure your safety. And that is the only reason.

Davis tottered on his feet, and tears started in his eyes --- 

Then all is lost

 --- he said brokenly, leaving the room.

IV

Belatedly realizing that continuing disorder north of his border is helpful to his imperialist agenda, the Austrian-born and French-speaking Emperor of Mexico, Maximilian I, orders that his armies provide weapons and ammunition to any Confederate forces along the Mexico-C.S.A. border. In fact, there are places where Union and Confederate forces are allying to either support the democratic Mexican nationalist movement under Benito Juarez, or fighting against both sides in that war so as to keep it from spilling into Texas. Maximilian’s order will provide a strange twist to the end of the Civil War.