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 26th
(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.
