May 9, 1865---“You have been good soldiers, you can be good citizens.”

MAY 9, 1865:   

“You have been good soldiers, you can be good citizens.” --- General Nathan Bedford Forrest C.S.A.

I

After a long night’s thought, “The Wizard of The Saddle,” the implacable General Nathan Bedford Forrest C.S.A. announces to his men that their long fight is over. He announces an immediate surrender, and says in his Farewell Address:

By an agreement made between Lieutenant General Taylor, commanding the Department of Alabama. Mississippi, and East Louisiana, and Major General Canby, commanding United States forces, the troops of this department have been surrendered.

I do not think it proper or necessary at this time to refer to causes which have reduced us to this extremity; nor is it now a matter of material consequence to us how such results were brought about. That we are BEATEN is a self-evident fact, and any further resistance on our part would justly be regarded as the very height of folly and rashness.

The armies of Generals LEE and JOHNSON having surrendered. You are the last of all the troops of the Confederate States Army east of the Mississippi River to lay down your arms.

The Cause for which you have so long and so manfully struggled, and for which you have braved dangers, endured privations, and sufferings, and made so many sacrifices, is today hopeless. The government which we sought to establish and perpetuate, is at an end. Reason dictates and humanity demands that no more blood be shed. Fully realizing and feeling that such is the case, it is your duty and mine to lay down our arms -- submit to the “powers that be” -- and to aid in restoring peace and establishing law and order throughout the land.

The terms upon which you were surrendered are favorable, and should be satisfactory and acceptable to all. They manifest a spirit of magnanimity and liberality, on the part of the Federal authorities, which should be met, on our part, by a faithful compliance with all the stipulations and conditions therein expressed. As your Commander, I sincerely hope that every officer and soldier of my command will cheerfully obey the orders given, and carry out in good faith all the terms of the cartel.

Those who neglect the terms and refuse to be paroled, may assuredly expect, when arrested, to be sent North and imprisoned. Let those who are absent from their commands, from whatever cause, report at once to this place, or to Jackson, Miss.; or, if too remote from either, to the nearest United States post or garrison, for parole.

Civil war, such as you have just passed through naturally engenders feelings of animosity, hatred, and revenge. It is our duty to divest ourselves of all such feelings; and as far as it is in our power to do so, to cultivate friendly feelings towards those with whom we have so long contended, and heretofore so widely, but honestly, differed. Neighborhood feuds, personal animosities, and private differences should be blotted out; and, when you return home, a manly, straightforward course of conduct will secure the respect of your enemies. Whatever your responsibilities may be to Government, to society, or to individuals meet them like men.

The attempt made to establish a separate and independent Confederation has failed; but the consciousness of having done your duty faithfully, and to the end, will, in some measure, repay for the hardships you have undergone.

In bidding you farewell, rest assured that you carry with you my best wishes for your future welfare and happiness. Without, in any way, referring to the merits of the Cause in which we have been engaged, your courage and determination, as exhibited on many hard-fought fields, has elicited the respect and admiration of friend and foe. And I now cheerfully and gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to the officers and men of my command whose zeal, fidelity and unflinching bravery have been the great source of my past success in arms.

I have never, on the field of battle, sent you where I was unwilling to go myself; nor would I now advise you to a course which I felt myself unwilling to pursue. You have been good soldiers, you can be good citizens. Obey the laws, preserve your honor, and the Government to which you have surrendered can afford to be, and will be, magnanimous.

N.B. Forrest, Lieut.-General

Headquarters, Forrest's Cavalry Corps

Gainesville, Alabama

May 9, 1865

II

Gideon Welles, the Secretary of the Navy, confides to his diary about dissensions in the Cabinet, particularly on the subject of suffrage for the former slaves. The rights of the former bondsmen would become a point of contention that would dog Andrew Johnson’s Presidency, impact a century of subsequent American history, and is a social issue that continues to this day.

Wrote Welles:

A proclamation of amnesty proposed by [James] Speed was considered and, with some changes, agreed to.

The condition of North Carolina was taken up, and a general plan of organization intended for all the Rebel States was submitted and debated. No great difference of opinion was expressed except on the matter of suffrage. Stanton, Dennison, and Speed were for negro suffrage; McCulloch, Usher, and myself were opposed. It was agreed, on request of Stanton, we would not discuss the question, but each express his opinion without preliminary debate. After our opinions had been given, I stated I was for adhering to the rule prescribed in President Lincoln's proclamation, which had been fully considered and matured, and besides, in all these matters, I am for no further subversion of the laws, institutions, and usages of the States respectively, nor for Federal intermeddling in local matters, than is absolutely necessary in order to rid them of the radical error which has caused our national trouble. All laws, not inconsistent with those of the conquerors, remain until changed to the conquered, is an old rule.

This question of negro suffrage is beset with difficulties growing out of the conflict through which we have passed and the current of sympathy for the colored race. The demagogues will make use of it, regardless of what is best for the country and without regard for the organic law, the rights of the State, or the troubles of our government. There is a fanaticism on the subject with some who persuade themselves that the cause of liberty and the Union is with the Negro and not the white man. White men, and especially Southern white men, are tyrants. Senator Sumner is riding this one idea at top speed. There are others, less sincere than Sumner, who are pressing the question for party purposes. On the other hand, there may be unjust prejudices against permitting colored persons to enjoy the elective franchise, under any circumstances; but this is not, and should not be, a Federal question. No one can claim that the blacks, in the Slave States especially, can exercise the elective franchise intelligently. In most of the Free States they are not permitted to vote. Is it politic and wise, or right even, when trying to restore peace and reconcile differences, to make so radical a change,—provided we have the authority, which I deny,—to elevate the ignorant negro, who has been enslaved mentally as well as physically, to the discharge of the highest duties of citizenship, especially when our Free States will not permit the few free negroes to vote?

The Federal government has no right and has not attempted to dictate on the matter of suffrage to any State, and I apprehend it will not conduce to harmony to arrogate and exercise arbitrary power over the States which have been in rebellion. It was never intended by the founders of the Union that the Federal government should prescribe suffrage to the States. We shall get rid of slavery by constitutional means. But conferring on the black civil rights is another matter. I know not the authority. The President, in the exercise of the pardoning power, may limit or make conditions, and, while granting life and liberty to traitors, deny them the right of holding office or of voting. While, however, he can exclude traitors, can he legitimately confer on the blacks of North Carolina the right to vote? I do not see how this can be done by him or by Congress . . .

This whole question of suffrage is much abused. The negro can take upon himself the duty about as intelligently and as well for the public interest as a considerable portion of the foreign element which comes among us. Each will be the tool of demagogues. If the negro is to vote and exercise the duties of a citizen, let him be educated to it. The measure should not, even if the government were empowered to act, be precipitated when he is stolidly ignorant and wholly unprepared. It is proposed to do it against what have been and still are the constitutions, laws, usages, and practices of the States which we wish to restore to fellowship.

Stanton has changed his position, has been converted, is now for negro suffrage. These were not his views a short time since. But aspiring politicians will, as the current now sets, generally take that road.

The trial of the assassins is not so promptly carried into effect as Stanton declared it should be. He said it was his intention the criminals should be tried and executed before President Lincoln was buried. But the President was buried last Thursday, the 4th, and the trial has not, I believe, commenced.

I regret they are not tried by the civil court, and so expressed myself, as did McCulloch; but Stanton, who says the proof is clear and positive, was emphatic; and Speed advised a military commission, though at first, I thought, otherwise inclined. It is now rumored the trial is to be secret, which is another objectionable feature and will be likely to meet condemnation after the event and excitement have passed off.

The rash, impulsive, and arbitrary measures of Stanton are exceedingly repugnant to my notions, and I am pained to witness the acquiescence they receive. He carries others with him, sometimes against their convictions as expressed to me.

The President and Cabinet called on Mr. Seward at his house after the close of the council. He came down to meet us in his parlor. I was glad to see him so well and animated, yet a few weeks have done the work of years, apparently, with his system. Perhaps, when his wounds have healed and the fractured jaw is restored, he may recover in some degree his former looks, but I apprehend not. His head was covered with a close-fitting cap, and the appliances to his jaw entered his mouth and prevented him from articulating clearly. Still, he was disposed to talk, and we to listen. Once or twice, allusions to the night of the great calamity affected him more deeply than I have ever seen him.

III

 

Georgia Governor Joseph Brown is arrested at Milledgeville by Union forces. His plan for an independent “Confederate Republic of Georgia" dies stillborn.

May 8, 1865---One road to Hell and the other to Mexico

MAY 8, 1865:    

“If one road led to Hell and the other to Mexico I would be indifferent as to which one to take” --- General Nathan Bedford Forrest C.S.A.

I

General Nathan Bedford Forrest C.S.A. rides away from his campsite, off into the countryside, accompanied by a single aide. When they reach a crossroads, the aide asks, “Which way, General?” and Forrest replies, “It makes no difference to me. If one road led to Hell and the other to Mexico I would be indifferent as to which one to take.”

In truth, the question of where he was going had assumed a much greater importance to Forrest than the choice of a fork in a physical road. Forrest had ridden out alone (for all intents and purposes) to meditate on the idea of surrender.

Late that night, he came to a decision.

II

Jefferson Davis meets his wife Varina in the midst of the Georgia countryside. Although she is traveling with a number of wagons, slaves, children, family members, and a small military escort, Varina (who has adopted the transparent nom de guerre of “Mrs. Jones”) has been unharassed by passing Union patrols who are seeking her husband (taking her prisoner or following her would have been “ungentlemanly”, another remnant of the chivalric code).  Varina implores her husband to follow her to Florida, where they can find passage to Cuba or the British West Indies from whence they can travel to Texas. Davis mulishly insists he will follow the overland route. Despite the fact that Davis needs to travel faster than Varina’s slow wagons, he cannot bear to tear himself away from her and the children who he has not seen in over a month since the fall of Richmond.

  

Davis’ self-destructive stubbornness has been remarked upon by many historians and commentators as an element that caused the fall of the Confederacy. It certainly caused the fall of Jefferson Davis.

Davis had been born in Kentucky in 1808, six months before, and less than one hundred miles from, Abraham Lincoln. But where Lincoln’s family moved north to Indiana to escape the slaveocracy, Davis’ family moved south to Mississippi to embrace it. They became Planters, and Jefferson himself was sent to West Point for a military education. Shortly after graduating, he married the daughter of his commanding officer, General Zachary Taylor, the future President. His young wife died of a fever after only a few months. Davis never really ever recovered, either from her death, or the fever (which he had also suffered).

Davis was a slaveholder, and by all accounts (including his former slaves’) he was an extraordinary Master. He treated his slaves with consideration and care. Christmastime saw expensive, high-quality, sometimes indulgent gifts.  His overseer, James Pemberton (always “Mr. Pemberton” in public and “James,” never “Jim” in private) was one of his slaves. Pemberton was allowed to indulge in his Master’s cigars (and whiskey, on special occasions). Slave disputes and infractions were referred to a special “slave court” that Davis had created, allowing for the appointment of “attorneys” (other slaves) and juries (also other slaves) to represent the parties. Davis acted as a one-man Supreme Court, ameliorating harsh sentences. Whippings and other physical punishments were forbidden. Sexual exploitation of slaves was forbidden. The selling off of family members was forbidden. Davis did not believe that blacks were the equals of whites, but he did believe that with the proper exposure to white culture blacks could (eventually) become productive free members of the larger society. He acted accordingly. But he was temperamentally incapable of grasping that other Masters did not hold these views, and despite the evidence of his own lying eyes, refused to believe that Masters abused, beat, raped, or otherwise injured their slaves.  This inability or unwillingness to acknowledge what others considered obvious was a character flaw that would mark all his days.  

He fought in the Mexican War with distinction, becoming a sectional hero and a national figure. After the war, he used his family’s money and his Taylor connection to set himself up in politics. In the late 1840s, he was named a Senator for Mississippi (Senators were then chosen by State Legislatures, not popularly elected), eventually becoming the U.S. Secretary of War in 1853.  He is widely considered the best Secretary of War in United States history, and thoroughly modernized the American military, making it capable of fighting a 19^th Century war. After his term as Secretary of War, he returned to the Senate in 1857.

It was a stormy time. The Panic of 1857 had shattered the American economy, the Kansas-Nebraska Act had polarized the nation sectionally, and it was clear to those with eyes to see that the nation was fracturing. Davis was a thoroughgoing Southern States’ Rights advocate, but did not support secessionism (he was considered a “moderate,” illustrating just how divided the nation was).

It was in this Senate term that his personal flaws began to consume him. Davis was a diligent Senator. He carefully studied an issue before taking a position. However, his positions often owed as much to his personal beliefs as to study, and Davis never altered a position once he had adopted one, regardless of changes in conditions. Rather, he tried to manipulate conditions to suit his positions. He was usually not successful.

When the Civil War broke out, Davis was at first appointed Provisional President of the Confederacy, and then elected President. It was his first elected office. As Lincoln’s opposite number he utterly lacked the Union President’s bonhomie and instinct for horsetrading. As an appointee throughout his life, he knew nothing of compromise and negotiation. Worst of all, he lacked the ability to convince.

His inability to press the Confederate Congress to move in a more timely fashion on the issue of arming slaves --- though he was personally certain that this was the path to take in order to win the war --- may have been his grossest political defeat.

Assuming that others were acting from the same high moral principles as he, Davis was a ready mark for flatterers and self-aggrandizing manipulators. He appointed men (like Braxton Bragg) to offices (or dismissed them, like Joseph E. Johnston) on the basis of his personal relations with them, not their competence to carry out the tasks demanded of them. At a time when his new nation needed stability and unity, the Confederate White House became a vortex of instability, disunity, and factionalism. Although Davis tried to be above the fray, he couldn’t. Retreating from problems made him look cold and aloof. Immersing himself in problems made him look arbitrary and capricious. Davis was a splendid administrator and probably would have made a fine Chief of Staff. As an Executive, he was a dynamic failure.

In the late Winter of 1864 and the Early Spring of 1865, there was much that Davis could have done to spare the South greater destruction, but he lost himself in unreality, planning campaigns with nonexistent troops, a level of self-delusion that was almost Hitlerian and puts one in mind of the madness in the Fuhrerbunker in April 1945. Not that Davis was a mass killer. Still, by late April 1865, he could not see himself a beaten man, as though he had become the physical embodiment of the Confederacy. By mid-May, he was virtually the last Confederate standing, at least within a thousand mile radius.

There are many pictures of Lincoln among men. In them, the President of the United States looks a bit gawky, as if he is not fully comfortable with the deference being shown him. Empathy radiates from him. He is a leader, not a master of men.

There are surprisingly few photographs of Davis taken with others. In every photograph of Davis, his jaw is always set, and his eyes always piercing. Almost always alone, he has the look of a Commander-in-Chief. He is a master of men, not a leader of them.

Davis’ inability to adapt to changing conditions can most definitely be seen in his handling of the war’s end. He could have easily negotiated an end to the war at Hampton Roads, but he preferred not to, prizing “his” Confederacy more than conditions warranted. Likewise, though he knew full well that Richmond would have to be abandoned eventually, he balked when Robert E. Lee gave him the word in early April. As late as the second week in May, and despite the mass surrenders of his armies, Davis clung (some might say desperately) to the idea of carrying on the war from the Trans-Mississippi even when his “White House” had become an abandoned boxcar on a rainy night in Georgia, and his own soldiers were in mutiny.

But he did love his wife and children. He was kind to his slaves, and solicitous of his soldiers. He, like Lincoln, pardoned many men destined for the rope or the rifle. He was not inhuman, nor inhumane.

Did he have a hand in the death of Abraham Lincoln?  This is one of the great unknowns of the Civil War. To the end of his life, Davis was vehement that he did not order the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and there is little reason to believe he lied. However, there is no indication that Davis forbade any attempts on the Union President’s life.

Davis had reason to be angry --- if not at Lincoln, then at someone high in the Union Government. The mysterious Dahlgren Orders of March 1864 apparently specified that Jefferson Davis was to be captured or killed (if possible) during a raid on Richmond. The Raid itself had no chance of succeeding, and the designated perpetrator Ulric Dahlgren, was killed.  The Orders themselves seemingly disappeared after having been seen by the Confederate Cabinet (it is suspected by some that Edwin Stanton issued them, recovered them, and destroyed them at war’s end, all without President Lincoln’s knowledge).  It is also thought by some who speculate that Davis’ visceral hatred of Stanton may have arisen from this event. Davis never spoke of the Dahlgren Orders after the war, and he did not place blame. He may have realized that the Dahlgren Orders were not in keeping with Lincoln’s personality. But others, to whom Lincoln was demonized, may have assumed that Lincoln knew of the Orders and that his signature was absent --- and this assumes it was absent --- from the Orders by way of plausible deniability.    

On the other hand, rumors may have fed rage among lower-ranking Confederate operatives (like Thompson, Surratt, and maybe even Booth), causing them to plot acts that were broadly permissible under their brief, but which would have been quashed had Davis had first-hand knowledge of them.

There had been attempts on Lincoln’s life --- presumably --- since before Lincoln came to Washington. The rumored, thwarted, attempt at Baltimore on the way to the First Inauguration has every indication of having been real. There had been a fire in the White House stables near the President’s office (Tad’s pony had been killed). There had been Mary’s bizarre carriage accident (the bolts holding the President’s carriage seat were unaccountably loose and / or missing, and Mary had been thrown from the carriage). There had been the shooting of Lincoln’s hat near Soldiers’ Home. There had been the attempt to kill him at Fort Stevens. There had been Booth’s kidnap plot in March of 1865. There had been the bizarre plan to blow up the White House in early April. There were probably other failed attempts unremembered because they never coalesced. And of course, there was Ford’s Theatre.

There are strong indications that the assassination was a Confederate plot, though how high it rose in the hierarchy, and whether Davis knew and approved of it all, is unknown and may never be known. Documents have been destroyed, evidence eliminated, and chains of custody so knotted that their bitter ends are unfindable. 150 years after the event, unknown things scurry about in that darkness, barely heard and still unseen.    

May 7, 1865---"We hope soon to be at home."

MAY 7, 1865:   

“Listen to my tale of woe” --- Lyrics to a popular air

I

Major Henry Wirz, the Swiss-born physician appointed as Commandant of the notorious Camp Sumter (Andersonville, Georgia) Prisoner of War Camp, is arrested and charged with conspiring with Jefferson Davis to "injure the health and destroy the lives of soldiers in the military service of the United States." Of the more than 45,000 Federal P.O.W.s held at Andersonville, 13,000 died.

II

Jefferson Davis moved southwestward through the Georgia countryside with a relatively small escort of several hundred infantrymen and cavalrymen (most of whom were violating their paroles to travel with the Confederate President). Davis was seeking his wife, who he knew was in the general vicinity with her own escort. But he was also dawdling along the way to talk to Confederate families and shake the hands of Southern soldiers. Some of the “Southern” soldiers happened to be Northern spies in disguise, and Davis’ exact location was soon known to the Federal commanders in the area.

John H. Reagan and Braxton Bragg, who had remained traveling with Davis, were stunned at Davis’ seemingly oblivious mien. Despite the fact that he was a hotly pursued man and that they were passing through regions of Georgia burned by Sherman, Davis was, even now, encouraging further resistance to the Yankees. Many Georgians, seeking a scapegoat for their woes, blamed Davis for the destruction of their farms and shops, and jeered at him as he passed. Some sang,

“And we’ll hang Jefferson Davis from a sour apple tree . . .”

 

With great dignity, Davis refused to react. However, when news that (formerly Confederate) raiders intended to interdict Varina Davis’ entourage, Davis rode off heedless of his own safety, to find his wife and children.  Reagan and part of the escort could do nothing but follow.

III

The demobilization of the United States armies begins.  Ira Lucas U.S.A.  writes to Sarah Sherburne:

Dear Friend Sarah

    

This is probably the last letter that I shall write you from Cav Corps. Hospital as all those who needed further medical treatment were sent to Gen. Hospital yesterday and we are to turn in all hospital stuff too morrow.

    

We will probably go to Washington soon and we hope soon to be at home.

    

May 4th I went to Richmond by way of Petersburg. I saw the rebel Capital and went into the Sennet chamber and sat in the chare of the traitors president this I did not considder very honorable. I saw Jeff. Davis' mansion and picked a flower and a leaf from one of the trees in the yard which I intend to keep as a memento of the pleasant places in which treason flourised and decayed and died.

I saw Libby prisson that wretched den in which so many patriots have sickened and died I saw the hole that Capt Strait and his noble fellows dug to escape from that awful denn.

I procured a few mementos from the prison. The main St of the city is in ruins and it looks desolate indeed. Washingtons statue yet remains in the state house and also one on his horse in the yard.

no more at present.

From your Friend

Ira.

IV

Confederates raid and burn the town of Kingsville, Missouri. Eight civilians are killed and two are wounded.