Site Visit Saturday: Jefferson Davis’s Flight South, Fort Mill, SC

 

   For a week, Jefferson Davis and the Confederate cabinet had called Charlotte, North Carolina, home. Numerous meetings had taken place, including discussions about the ongoing negotiations between Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston and Union general William T. Sherman. If the negotiations did not favor the Confederates, then Davis directed Johnston to move his army towards Charlotte. The plan was to move toward the Trans-Mississippi department, to Texas, and continue the war.  Yet Johnston favored surrender. Davis, with no army left to command in North Carolina, prepared to move south.

   The last full meeting of the Confederate cabinet was held in Charlotte on April 26, 1865. About noon, Davis and some of the cabinet rode out of Charlotte. Left behind was Attorney General George Davis. He had already resigned. Davis and his cavalry escort crossed over the Catawba River at Nation’s Ford and moved into York County, South Carolina. That evening, Davis stayed at the Springfield Plantation near Fort Mill, while others stayed at the home of Col. William E. White. That evening, Secretary of Treasury George Trenholm, already ill, grew worse. Not able to continue with the group, Trenholm submitted his resignation, which Davis accepted. Davis held an impromptu “cabinet” meeting, probably with Stephen Mallory and John C. Breckinridge. At the end of the meeting, Post Master General John H. Reagan rode up, and Davis informed him that he was now acting Secretary of Treasury.

   Davis and his party continued to move south, spending the night of April 27 in York. He would eventually work his way into Georgia, where he was captured on May 10.

   The route of Davis is marked with various highway trail markers through South Carolina and Georgia. The marker pictured is located at the intersection of N. White Street and Horse Road. I last visited this site in 2014.