Saturday, April 25, 2015

May 5, 1865---" . . . a fit subject for a lunatic asylum”



MAY 5, 1865:     

“Any man who is in favor of further prosecution of this war is a fit subject for a lunatic asylum” --- General Nathan Bedford Forrest C.S.A.

I

As the former Confederate armies begin to disperse, in middle Tennessee General Nathan Bedford Forrest C.S.A. is still raiding Union depots for food and supplies. He hasn’t authorized an offensive action in nearly three weeks, but that does not mean that there hasn’t been shooting and killing.

 
Forrest has been biding his time. Lee’s surrender impacted him little, and Johnston’s scarcely more (though he was technically Johnston’s subordinate). The death of President Lincoln disturbed him mainly because he thought it dishonorable and because it made individual Yankees harder to fight. He has nothing to say about Jefferson Davis, who, even while he implores others to stand and fight, continues fleeing the enemy.   

Richard Taylor’s surrender on May 4th is another matter. Without Taylor’s forces nearby, Forrest’s command is utterly isolated, and subject to complete destruction.

The ironwood Forrest has begun to contemplate surrender.

At least that is what he implies when the refugee Confederate Governors of Mississippi and Tennessee enter his lines today, and encourage him to resume offensive actions against the Federals. Forrest retorts, “Any man who is in favor of further prosecution of this war is a fit subject for a lunatic asylum,” and sends them on their way.  

 
Further south, the Confederate District of the Gulf, controlling today’s “Redneck Riviera” an area between Pensacola and New Orleans, commanded by Major General Dabney Herndon Maury, surrendered to Union forces.


II

The last Confederate Cabinet meeting is held at night in the midst of a driving icy rainstorm in Washington, Georgia.  The “Cabinet Room” is a wooden boxcar on a siding, and cold drops work their way through the roof beams and spatter on the heads of the men hunkered down in a circle on the floor. 


Davis implores the men sitting on the dirty and wet floor of a leaky freight car to carry on the fight for Confederate independence.

One by one they shake their heads. In turn, John C. Breckinridge, the Secretary of War, Judah P. Benjamin, the Secretary of State, and Stephen Mallory, the Secretary of the Navy, rise, shake hands with Davis, and depart. The only Cabinet member who remains is John H. Reagan, the Confederate Treasurer. The rest of the men are Generals. Altogether, they command less than 2,500 troops.

Davis makes an impassioned speech, again asking them to carry on the fight. Even at this late date, he believes that the Confederacy can be reconstituted in the Trans-Mississippi.

Davis asks each man to draft an opinion letter, summarizing what each individually believes regarding the present position of the Confederacy. For a while there is the scratching of pens, and then Davis receives a small handful of envelopes. As he reads each, his face falls. Unanimously, the belief is that the situation is beyond salvaging. Each makes the same suggestion, that the Government, nonfunctional, be dissolved.

To their unified opinion Davis assents, though he personally vows to work toward the re-establishment of Confederate authority as soon as is practicable. 

And with this exchange, the Confederate States of America ceases to be.*


*Lost Cause romantics and Neo-Confederates insist that the C.S.A. still exists sui juris since a bill to formally dissolve the government was never voted on by the Confederate Congress, the only body Constitutionally empowered to unmake the nation; according to this argument, the Congressional term of 1864 is only in indefinite adjournment, and the action of the rump Cabinet in Washington, Georgia on the night of May 5, 1865 was an illegal arrogation of power to the Executive, and void. Others argue that since the rump Cabinet was never approved by the Senate it had no legal authority. Still another point favored by such revisionists is that the actual Cabinet lacked a proper quorum --- only Reagan was present with Davis. Davis’ non-acquiescence or forced acquiescence is also cited as legal grounds for the continuance of the Confederacy. According to this strand of logic, the Emperor of China is still on the Dragon Throne, Napoleon’s descendants are the Imperial Family of France, Mussolini’s government is still legally empowered to operate in Italy, and Michael Romanov is the Tsar of All The Russias.


III

The first train robbery in U.S. history occurs at North Bend, Ohio, when a train belonging to the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad is relieved at gunpoint of passengers’ valuables and several safes full of U.S. bonds. The perpetrators are never caught, though the James brothers, Jesse and Frank, former members of Quantrill’s Raiders are prime suspects.  As the Civil War ends the era of the Wild West begins. 



IV

Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., black activist, pastor and educator, is born in Franklin County, Virginia.














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