"but, relying on God, meet the foe with fresh defiance and with unconquered and unconquerable hearts."

The coming of Lee was anxiously awaited for several days, but no tidings were received, and fears began to be whispered around that all was not right. At last (April 10) came the astounding news of the surrender at Appomattox. Danville was no longer safe, and it was determined to seek shelter with Johnston's army. The party went by railroad to Greensboro in North Carolina, where the citizens received them with so little cordiality that most of them had to live in the cars during the few days spent there. Mr. Davis had an interview in Greensboro with Generals Johnston and Beauregard, with both of whom he had been on bad terms. He told them that in two or three weeks he would have a large army in the field; but General Johnston urged that the time for ending the war had come, and that it would be the greatest of human crimes to attempt to continue it. Mr. Davis would not at first listen to this, but finally consented that General Johnston should ask for an armistice to discuss the question of peace. He did not await the surrender of Johnston's army, but took to flight again, the party this time on horseback and in carriages, for the railway had been destroyed by Stoneman's cavalry. At Charlotte the fugitives were more kindly received than at Greensboro, but after a few days' tarry rumors of the coming of Stoneman again put them to flight. News of Johnston's surrender received there showed Mr. Davis that the end of the Confederacy was at hand, and he saw that his only hope was to get across the Mississippi, where Kirby Smith still had an army, or to reach the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and escape by sea. Rumors of Union cavalry west of them caused the party to go southward. An escort of about two thousand cavalry accompanied them, but its number gradually grew smaller and smaller until, when Washington, Georgia, was reached only a small guard remained. The members of the Cabinet, too, had dropped off one by one, and Mr. Davis was left with but a few followers besides the soldiers. It had been reported that he had a large amount of gold with him, estimated by some as high as thirteen million dollars ($13,000,000). This aroused the cupidity of the escort, and they demanded to be paid for their services before going further, Mr. Davis had

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really but little money, but the soldiers became so clamorous that a few dollars were paid to each. As soon as they found out where the money was there was a disgraceful scramble for it. Some got too much and some got nothing, and part of the specie was trampled into the dirt, where persons searched and found many pieces the next day.

At that time it was well known that a reward of one hundred thousand dollars had been offered by the Government for the arrest of Mr. Davis, and many parties of United States. cavalry were on the lookout for him. But though fallen from power and a fugitive, he felt confident that none of the white people in the country through which he was travelling would betray him. There were some fears, however, that wandering parties of Confederate soldiers, attracted by the stories of the large amount of treasure he was said to have with him, might attack his party. For the sake of greater safety, Mr. Davis travelled by one road on horseback, while Mrs. Davis and the other members of his family went by another in wagons. When near Irwinsville, Georgia, Mr. Davis heard that some soldiers, thinking that the treasure was in the wagons with Mrs. Davis, had made a plot to seize them. Fearful that they might be in danger, he rode eighteen miles across the country to protect them. He found them in tents pitched by the roadside, and wearied with his journey concluded to spend the night with them, intending to leave before daylight and continue his journey separately, as before.

In the mean time parties of cavalry, sent out from Macon by General Wilson, had been looking for the fugitives in every direction. One night a negro went into the camp of one of these parties and told the commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Hardin, of the First Wisconsin Cavalry, that Mr. Davis and his family had passed along the road that day. He knew them because he had heard one of the gentlemen, who was mounted on a fine bay horse, called President Davis. Colonel Hardin pursued and soon found the trail of the fugitives. The way led through barren pine forests and cypress swamps. Rain soon fell and washed out the tracks of the wagons, so that the trail was lost; but after some delay it was found again and the party rode on. More than forty miles were passed over that day, and at night the weary soldiers camped in the rain on the

edge of a swamp. All were in the saddle by daylight and again in pursuit. In the afternoon the troopers fell in with another party, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Pritchard, of the Fourth Michigan Cavalry. Colonel Hardin gave him what information he had, and the two companies pushed on, by different roads, after the fugitives. Both approached the camp toward dawn of the next morning (May 11). In their haste they took each other for enemies, and several shots were fired by which two men were killed and several wounded.

On hearing the firing Mr. Davis, supposing the attack to be made by the Confederate plunderers whom he had feared, put on his boots and prepared to go out of the tent, saying to his wife:

"They will, at least as yet, respect me.'

As he got to the tent door thus hastily equipped, he saw some Union cavalry ride up the road and stop in front.

"Ha! Federals!" he exclaimed.

He

"Then you are captured !" cried Mrs. Davis, with emotion. In a moment she caught an idea-a woman's idea. slept in a wrapper, a loose one. It was yet around him. This she fastened, ere he was aware of it, and then, bidding him adieu, urged him to go to the spring, a short distance off, where his horses and arms were. Strange as it may seem, there was not even a pistol in the tent. Davis felt that his only course was to reach his horse and arms, and complied. As he was leaving the door, followed by a servant with a water-bucket, Miss Howell flung a shawl over his head. But this thin disguise did not deceive the cavalry-men, who took him and all his party prisoners.

This is the story as told by Lieutenant Stuart, of Mr. Davis's staff. Mr. Davis himself says that his family, whom he had not seen since leaving Richmond, were travelling by a road east of the one he was pursuing; that he joined them on the second or third day after leaving Washington, Georgia, and after travelling with them two or three days for their protection against stragglers, was about to leave them early one morning. He had slept with his clothes on, and was therefore dressed when the soldiers surrounded the camp. On going out he put on his raglan, and his wife threw a shawl over his shoulders. He hoped thus to be able to reach his horse, which was saddled

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and bridled near the spring. Various additions were made to the story at the time, and an effort was made in many newspapers to cast ridicule on the ex-President of the Confederacy by the assertion that he was dressed in his wife's clothes when taken. The vast amount of treasure which he was reported to be carrying with him turned out to be only about ten thousand dollars in gold and silver coin. It is still kept in the vaults of the Treasury Department at Washington, where it may be seen by the curious.

Mr. Davis was taken to General Wilson at Macon, and was sent from there to Fortress Monroe, where he was confined for two years. The charge that he was engaged in the plot to murder Mr. Lincoln was given up, because there was no evidence against him. In May, 1867, he was brought before the United States Court in Richmond on a charge of treason, but he was never tried, and in December of the next year (1868) he was pardoned with many others.

CHAPTER XLVI.

PEACE.

GRAVE FEARS.-THE SOLDIERS WELCOME PEACE.-DRAFTING STOPPED.-DISBANDING THE ARMIES.-STANTON.-WELLES.-THE LAST REVIEW.-GRAND RECEPTION IN WASHINGTON. -THE SOLDIERS AT HOME.-HONORS TO THE DEAD.-CONFEDERATE ARMIES.-SUMMARY OF LOSSES. THE COST OF THE WAR.-POLITICAL QUESTIONS.-CAUSES AND RESULTS OF THE WAR.-THE UNION PERPETUAL.

THE

HE surrender of the Confederate armies ended the great civil war and brought peace once more, but there were still many things to be done and many questions to be settled before the country could become quiet and prosperous again. Grave fears were felt by many that the soldiers, so long accustomed to an adventurous life, would not willingly return. to the every-day work of the farm and the shop. Foreign writers, not understanding our people, predicted that the great armies which the Union had called to its defence would prove its ruin and, like the Prætorian Guards of ancient Rome, take the government into their own hands and build up a military despotism. But these fears were not justified: the men who had fought were as glad to welcome peace as those who had taken no active part in the war, and rejoiced when the time came to lay aside their weapons for the peaceful implements of industry.

A few days after Lee's surrender, orders were given to stop all drafting and recruiting, and in the next month was begun the work of mustering out and sending to their homes the soldiers and sailors of the Union armies and fleets. Nearly three million men were called, at different times, into the service during the war; but as many of these were enlisted for only three, six, or nine months, and afterward joined the army again, it is thought that only about one million five hundred thousand different men took part on the Union side. Of these nearly three hundred thousand lost their lives from wounds or sickness. More than a million men were on the rolls at the close of the war, and before the end of the following autumn nearly nine hundred thousand of these had been paid and sent home.