Confederacy Collapses: Davis Captured by Union Troops

Union cavalry found Jefferson Davis hiding in his wife's shawl and waterproof cloak near a pine grove outside Irwinville, Georgia, on the morning of May 10, 1865. The Confederate president had been fleeing south for over a month since evacuating Richmond, hoping to reach Texas and continue the war from a government-in-exile. His capture ended the last serious possibility that the Confederacy might survive in any form. Davis had left Richmond by train on April 2, 1865, as Union forces broke through the city's defenses. He moved south through Danville, Virginia, then into North Carolina, holding cabinet meetings and issuing orders to armies that had largely ceased to exist. Lee's surrender at Appomattox on April 9 did not immediately end the war; Confederate forces under Joseph Johnston surrendered on April 26, but Davis refused to concede defeat. The Confederate cabinet dissolved in stages as Davis moved south. Treasury gold, roughly $500,000 in coin, traveled with the presidential party and was disbursed in shrinking amounts to pay escorts and buy supplies. Davis's entourage shrank from a column of officials and cavalry to a small band of family members and loyal officers riding mules through the Georgia pine forests. The 1st Wisconsin and 4th Michigan Cavalry closed in on Davis's camp near Irwinville before dawn. In the confusion, the two Union units briefly fired on each other, killing two soldiers. Davis attempted to escape on foot but was detained by a trooper who threatened to shoot. Northern newspapers gleefully reported that Davis had been disguised in women's clothing, a story that was exaggerated but rooted in the cloak and shawl his wife had thrown over his shoulders in the predawn chill. Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe, Virginia, for two years, initially shackled in a stone casemate. He was indicted for treason but never tried, as the Johnson administration feared a trial might generate sympathy or raise constitutional questions about secession that the government preferred to leave unresolved. Davis was released on bail in May 1867 and spent his remaining years writing a lengthy defense of the Confederate cause. He died in 1889, never having sought or received a pardon.