May 10, 1865 Wednesday
Early in the morning Federal troops surprised the encampment of President Davis near Irwinville, Georgia. President Davis, Mrs Davis, Postmaster General Reagan, presidential secretary Burton Harrison, and a few others were taken into custody. There are numerous accounts of the capture and details are contradictory. There were reports of Davis being taken in woman’s dress, in various forms of disguise, and of his trying to escape. Many of these stories appear to be exaggerated. Apparently he did wear a waterproof raincoat and had a shawl on due to the rain, and was first found a short distance from his tent in a futile effort to escape the Fourth Michigan Cavalry. Other officials of the Confederacy were taken into custody elsewhere, while a few, Judah Benjamin among them, escaped. With the capture of Davis the Confederate government ceased to exist. Davis was taken to Macon, Georgia and thence to Fort Monroe, Virginia where he was imprisoned. At first he was kept in chains in a cell, but eventually conditions improved and his family was allowed to be with him. He was released May 13, 1867, without trial. But in mid-1865 feeling ran high in some quarters. There was talk of trial and execution. There was quarreling over the reward for the capture and considerable criticism of the Union cavalry operations. Rumors had it that Sherman and others actually desired the escape of Davis to avoid future political trouble. Mr Davis himself maintained a quiet and dignified bearing throughout his capture and incarceration. There is no substantial evidence that any large sum of Confederate treasure was permanently lost. Funds had been dissipated for various purposes, and part of the gold being carried belonged to Richmond banks, to which it was returned.
President Johnson said in a proclamation that “armed resistance to the authority of this Government in the said insurrectionary States may be regarded as virtually at an end….” Therefore the Navy should arrest the crews of commerce raiders still on the high seas and bring them in. He also warned against continued hospitality by foreign powers to Confederate cruisers. The blockade of states east of the Mississippi River was partially lifted.
Confederate Maj Gen Samuel Jones (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Jones_ ... my_officer) ) surrendered forces under his command at Tallahassee, Florida. William Clarke Quantrill (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Quantrill ), twenty-seven-year-old Confederate guerrilla leader who depredations had added so much horror to the war in Missouri, was fatally wounded by an irregular force of Federals near Taylorsville in Spencer County, Kentucky. He and a small group of followers had been looting in Kentucky. Quantrill died on June 6 in Louisville.