In reading through Jefferson Davis’s papers, there is an interesting discussion regarding a train. It is April 1865. Davis and most of the Confederate cabinet have moved from Greensboro to Charlotte. John C. Breckinridge, Secretary of War, had caught up with Davis in Greensboro. As the group makes its way across the piedmont of North Carolina, Breckinridge is called away to meet with Joseph E. Johnston as Johnston is meeting with William T. Sherman at the Bennett farm outside Durham.
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| John C. Breckinridge (LOC) |
Davis, who had
reached Charlotte on April 18, was anxious for Breckinridge to rejoin him. While
Federal cavalry had wrecked most of the railroad around Greensboro and Salisbury,
it was still possible to get trains almost to Salisbury. Breckinridge
telegraphs Davis from Salisbury on April 20: “We have had great difficulty in
reaching this place. The train from Charlotte which was to have met us here had
not arrived. No doubt seized by stragglers to convey them to that point. I have
telegraphed the commanding officer at Charlotte to send a locomotive and one
car without delay. The impressed train should be met before reaching the depot
and the ringleaders severely dealt with.” Davis responds: “Train will start for
you at midnight with guard.”[1]
Now, the rest of
the story…
In 1916, W. Frank
Marsh was in Charlotte, reading a historical marker that described the last
meeting of the Confederate cabinet in the city. Marsh, a member of the 3rd
Georgia infantry, had made it all the way through the war, surrendering at Appomattox
Court House. “We were not able to secure transportation back home, so many of
us started to walk through Virginia and North Carolina, half starved and some
of us almost barefooted. We reached a point past China Grove [Rowan County]
coming into Charlotte, some two hundred of us, hungry and sad and a motley lot
all bent upon getting back into the country where we had our homes. We came
upon a train destined for China Grove to bring back General Breckinridge from
there to the conference of the Confederate Congress in Charlotte [the
Confederate Congress never met in Charlotte, only the Cabinet], but we took possession
of that train and demanded that the conductor take us to Charlotte. He refused
and said he was under orders to get General Breckinridge and take him to
Charlotte as fast as possible. We insisted and took charge of the train with
the result that we told the conductor he could detach the engine and tender and
go to China Grove to get the general, who would have to ride upon the woodpile
in the tender.”
“We remained in
charge of the cars until the engine came back from China Grove with the General
riding in the tender and I guess he was mad, but we hooked onto the cars and
were brought in toward Charlotte. Finally, the conductor announced we were in
Charlotte, and we all got out of the train only to find that we were not in
Charlotte but in a bull pen some half a mile or more from the town and all held
prisoners. The home guards had been ordered out in Charlotte and they had us in
charge, while they took away our three officers and locked them up in Charlotte
for failing to keep the soldiers in subjection instead of letting them
confiscate the train.”
“The next morning
we were all released and going into Charlotte found that they had released our
officers. Something to eat in those times looked bigger to our eyes than a gold
brick. Well, we went down to the railroad station and there we found a train of
cars with an engine attached and steam up, ready to go somewhere.”
“We all rushed on,
but the doors were locked and we couldn’t get in, so a lot of us climbed onto
the roofs and this broke in the old timber. We found that it was Jeff Davis’
special loaded with Confederate gold and silver, with many kegs of coins aboard
and when Jeff Davis found us so determined to get to Georgia he ordered a train
made up and we were carried to Chester, S.C., which was as far as the train
could go as the bridge had been burned. Those were stirring times and no
mistake.”[2]
There is much to
process between these two accounts – trains still running in North Carolina in
April 1865, telegraphs still operating, the passage of Lee’s paroled men through
North Carolina after Appomattox, a glimpse of the remnants of the Confederate
treasury, along with the charming magnanimity of Davis, it is just nice to
flesh out the fragments of two communications between Davis and Breckinridge.
