PRESIDENT JEFFERSON DAVIS (CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA) - AUTOGRAPH NOTE SIGNED 04/14/1865 CO-SIGNED BY: BRIGADIER GENERAL SAMUEL W. FERGUSON - HFSID 33036
Price: $12,000.00
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.
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