PRESIDENT JEFFERSON DAVIS (CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA) - AUTOGRAPH NOTE SIGNED 04/14/1865 CO-SIGNED BY: BRIGADIER GENERAL SAMUEL W. FERGUSON - HFSID 33036

JEFFERSON DAVIS
Five days after General Lee's surrender, the Confederate President, determined to fight on, signs instructions to General Beauregard, framed in the Gallery of History style to 37x21.
ALS: "J.D." as President of the Confederacy, on verso in lower ¼ page of 8½x5 telegraph form, South of Yadkin River, 1865 April 14. On telegram form headed "The Southern Express Company/Forward Packages by Passenger trains and Steamers, and Dispatches by Telegraph,/to all parts of the Confederate States". Telegram from Brigadier General S.H. Ferguson to General Beauregard completely in the hand of a telegraph clerk, including signature. In full: "Have Crossed Almost all my horses on RR bridge with a little work wagons Can be brought over by hands will push on after enemy & have advised Genl Johnston to put his Command at work to repair Rail Road if this is approved orders had better be given = neither find passable today. S.H. Ferguson Brig Genl". Initialed "DH" by the telegraph clerk. At the conclusion of his message to Beauregard, Brigadier General Ferguson has penned: "By J." beneath which Jefferson Davis has penned, in full: "Genl Beauregard/Would it not be well for Genl. Gilmer to send/a competent officer or agent to attend to repair of R.R. and instructions/to be given to Genl. B.T. Johnson as suggested by Genl Ferguson-/14 April 65 J.D." On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. President DAVIS and his cabinet had fled Richmond on April 2nd upon Lee's warning and had met with Generals P.G.T. BEAUREGARD and JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON at the temporary Confederate capital of Greensboro, North Carolina, on April 12th. On Friday, April 14th, the day Ferguson and Davis sent these messages to General Beauregard, the American flag was raised over Fort Sumter, South Carolina, four years and two days after General Beauregard gave the order to fire on the fort, starting the Civil War. On the night of April 14, 1865, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, President Lincoln was shot; he died early on the 15th. Also on April 15th, President Davis, having authorized negotiations by General Johnston, left Greensboro, North Carolina with a cavalry escort. Some officials were on horseback and some in carriages or wagons. Considered second only to Lee in engineering skills, General Jeremy Gilmer, mentioned by Davis, had fortified Charleston and Atlanta earlier in the Civil War. He was a likely choice for repairing the railroad as they rapidly relocated the government entourage. General Grant had ordered General William T. Sherman, Commanding Army of the United States in North Carolina: "Break up the railroads in South and North Carolina" and he did. General BRADLEY T. JOHNSON, also mentioned by Davis, was in charge of the prison stockade at Salisbury, N.C., just south of the Yadkin River, from where this telegram was written. The instructions Davis mentions to be given to General Johnson as suggested by General Ferguson may have been to use prisoners to speed up railroad repairs. On April 26th, General Johnston, Commanding Confederate Forces in North Carolina, surrendered to General Sherman. On May 10th, Jefferson Davis, his wife, secretary and Postmaster-General were captured by Union forces near Irwinville, Georgia. A truly historic letter from the Confederate President Davis to General Beauregard, five days after Lee's surrender, the day Lincoln was shot. Worn. Lightly soiled and stained. Lightly creased, folds. Nicked edges. Framed in Gallery of History style: 37½x21.