Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 May 1881 — How Jefferson Davis Left Richmond. [ARTICLE]

How Jefferson Davis Left Richmond.

Vr*« JoSm Brao-’i BmUmmw Mora Um 800 thorn Historical A—oolstloQ. Jeflerson Davis and his family were in their pew that :• orning. I saw the sexton go to that pew in the midst of the services and speak to the president and the president retire from the congregation. I was not feeling very well that morning. I felt that something was going wrong with our cause when I saw the president withdraw; and this, in connection with the indisposition referred to, caused me also to retire from the church. I repaired at once to my lodgings on Second street, not lar from the residence of Dr. Morris in Linden row, .on Franklin street. Dr. Morris, a brother of our friend Col. John D. well known to most of us presentohis evening, was president or general superintendent of the telegraph lines in the confederate states. Immediately on reaching my lodgings I met a friend who asked me if I had beard the news. I responded: ‘•No; what is it?” He replied: ”Dr. Morris’ little daughter was just over here and said her father had just come heme and sta.ed that Gen. Lee had telegraphed President Davis that the enemy had broken the confederate lines; that the army would have to retire further south, and Richmond would have to be evacuated.” The hours I remained in Richmond on that melancholy Sunday, after leaving St. Paul’s, were among the saddest of my life. I felt that our cause was the lo3i cause. Many 01 the scenes witnessed by me as I went to and fro through the streets of that good old city were heart rending. The bad news had spread with lightning speed all over town. Having spent much of the time during the war in Richmond, I had formed many acquaintances among its noble and hospitable citizens: and, I am proud to say some of them became mv dearest friends. The men generally were on the streets, and large numbers of ladies stood in the doors and on the steps of their houses, many bathed in tears, making inquiries and giving utterance to woeful disappointment and anguish. About nightfall I took my seat in a car of the train at the Danville depot, preparing to start southward with its sad and disappointed human freight. The president and his cabinet were on the train. By this time I had become much exhausted by the fatigues of preparation and visits to attached friends for the purpose of leave-tak-ing, and had almost succumbed to the indifference resulting from the irre-

deemable loss and disappointed hopes. "My fellow-passengers, both inale and female, in the crowded car, were very much in the same plight. I never knew so little conversation indulged by so large a number of acquaintances together, for we were nearly all acquainted with each other, and I may say, fellow fugitives driven by the same great calamity and wrong. Very few words were interchanged, 81eep soon overcame most of us. This, I well remember, was my case, for I dropped to sleep before the train started from Richmond, and wasnotawar of its departure when it left. I slept ?uite soundly nearly all the night. believe we did not leave Richmond until pretty late in the night, and when day broke in on us on the morning of April 3, we were somewhere in the neighborhood of fiusheville Junction, probably between that place and Roanoke. We stopped at every station on the way, crowds thronging to the train at each station to make inquiries, for the bad news in this case preserved its proverbial reputation for fast traveling. Everybody sought to see, shake hands with and speak to the president, who maintained all the way a bold front, gave no evidence by word or appearance of d spair, but spoke all along encouragingly to the people.