Davis - Burke Davis on the Civil War: the long surrender, Shermans march, to Appomattox, and they called him Stonewall

Burke Davis on the Civil War

The Long Surrender, Shermans March, To Appomattox, and They Called Him Stonewall

Burke Davis

CONTENTS

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

Copyright The Long Surrender 1985 by Burke Davis

Copyright Shermans March 1980 by Burke Davis

Copyright To Appomattox 1959 by Burke Davis

Copyright They Called Him Stonewall 1954 by Burke Davis

Grateful acknowledgement is made to:

Bertram Hayes-Davis of Richardson, Texas, president of the Davis Family Association, for permission to quote from the correspondence of Jefferson and Varina Davis.

Southern Historical collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for permission to quote from the John Taylor Wood Diary.

Manuscript Department, Perkins Library, Duke University, Durham, N. C. and to Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Stowe, for permission to quote from the Clement Claiborne Clay Papers.

Mrs. Frances Stern Lowenstein of Greensboro, N. C. for permission to quote from the correspondence relating to Abram Weill.

Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts, for permission to reprint selections from THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARGARET J. PRESTON, edited by Elizabeth Preston Allan, copyright, 1903, by Elizabeth Preston Allan.

Fleming H. Revell Company, Westwood, New Jersey, for permission to reprint excerpts from EARLY LIFE AND LETTERS OF GENERAL THOMANS J. (STONEWALL) JACKSON, by T. J. Arnold, copyright, 1916, by Fleming H. Revell Company.

Charles Scribners Sons. New York, New York, for permission to adapt and reprint excerpts from WAR YEARS WITH JEB STUART, by W. W. Blackford, copyright, 1945, by Charles Scribners Sons.

The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for permission to reprint excerpts from NATURAL BENT, by Paul Barringer, copyright, 1949, by Anna Barringer; I RODE WITH STONEWALL, by R. K. Douglas, copyright, 1940, by The University of North Carolina Press; FOREIGNERS IN THE CONFEDERACY, by Ella Lonn, copyright, 1945, by The University of North Carolina Press; and RUSTICS IN REBELLION, by G. A. Townsend, copyright, 1950, by The University of North Carolina Press.

Cover design by Amanda Shaffer

ISBN: 978-1-5040-4549-0

This edition published in 2017 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

180 Maiden Lane

New York, NY 10038

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The Long Surrender

Burke Davis

To Juliet

Contents

PART 1

FLIGHT

We have to save the people, spare the blood of the Army and save the High Civil functionaries. Your plan, I think, can only do the last Commanders believe the troops will not fight again. We think your plan impracticable. [You should flee] without loss of a moment.

GENERAL JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON TO JEFFERSON DAVIS

PART 2

THE PURSUIT

let them go! We dont want to be bothered with them. Frighten them out of the country. Open the gates, let down the bars. Scare them off.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN ON JEFFERSON DAVIS AND HIS CABINET, APRIL 14, 1865 .

Follow them to the ends of the earth if necessary.

BRIGADIER GENERAL GEORGE STONEMAN, U. S . CAVALRY, TO TROOPS IN PURSUIT OF DAVIS PARTY , APRIL 27, 1865 .

PART 3

THE CAPTURE

I drew a net around Mr. Davis that would have reflected credit upon a detective policeman.

MAJOR GENERAL JAMES H. WILSON, U.S. ARMY

PART 4

THE PRISONER

With all the archives of our government in the hands of your government, do they despair of proving him a rogue, falsifier, assassin and traitorthat they must in addition guard him like a wild beast, and chain him for fear his unarmed hands will in a casemated cell subvert the government? He is not held for the ends of Justice but for those of torture. Is no one among you bold enough to defend him?

VARINA DAVIS TO HORACE GREELEY, BEGGING AID FOR HER HUSBAND .

PART 5

THE PHOENIX

The war being at an end, I believe it to be the duty of everyone to unite in the restoration of the country.

ROBERT E. LEE

The Confederates have gone out of this war, with the proud, secret, deathless, dangerous consciousness that they are THE BETTER MEN, and that there was nothing wanting but a change in a set of circumstances and a firmer resolve to make them the victors.

Edward A. Pollard, The Lost Cause, 1866

Acknowledgments

For aid in the preparation of this narrative I am indebted to numerous descendants of chief actors in the drama, including:

Bertram Hayes-Davis of Richardson, Texas, great-grandson of Jefferson Davis; former Congressman Robert Grier Stephens of Athens, Ga., collateral descendant of Confederate Vice-President Alexander H. Stephens; George Rountree III of Wilmington, N.C., great-grandson of Confederate Attorney General George Davis; Mary Elizabeth Stokes of Gurley, Ala., great-granddaughter of Virginia Clays adopted daughter, Betty Lumsden; Mary Lewis Rucker Edmunds of Greensboro, N.C., great-great-granddaughter of N.C. Governor John M. Morehead; Frances Stern Loewenstein of Greensboro, N.C., great-granddaughter of Abram Weill; Anne Springs Close of Fort Mill, S.C., and Jane Carlton Anderson of Charlotte, N.C., great-great-granddaughters of Colonels A. B. Springs and Wm. Elliott White; Will Molineux of Williamsburg, Va., great-grandson of Gen. Edward L. Molineux, USA.

Also:

Ms. Mary Willey, Special Collections Librarian, Seymour Library, Knox College, Galesburg, Ill.; Dr. Martha Russell, director, and Ms. Ellen G. Gartrell, Manuscript Dept., Perkins Library, Duke University, Durham, N.C.; Ms. Carolyn Wallace, Director, and Richard A. Strader, Reference Archivist, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C.; Ms. Linda L. Crist, Editor, The Papers of Jefferson Davis, Rice University, Houston, Texas; Newton W. Carr, Jr., Superintendent, Beauvoir, Biloxi, Miss.; R. C. Peniston, Director, and John Hughes, former Curator, Lee Chapel, Washington & Lee University, Lexington, Va.; Chester D. Bradley, M.D., former Director, Jefferson Davis Casemate, Hampton, Va.; William J. Moore, Director, Greensboro Historical Museum, Greensboro, N.C.; Jack Claiborne, Associate Editor, Charlotte