On Wednesday, May 10, 1865 near Irwinville, Georgia, Union cavalry surprised the encampment of President Jefferson Davis, arresting Davis, his wife, Postmaster General John Reagan, presidential secretary Burton Harrison, and a few others. Numerous conflicting and exaggerated accounts of Davis’ capture exist. When he was detained a short distance from his tent while trying to escape during a rainstorm, it was rumored that he was dressed as a woman because he was wearing a shawl which his wife had given him. Davis was taken to Macon, Georgia and soon sent to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, where he was imprisoned until his release on May 1867. President Andrew Johnson in a proclamation declared “armed resistance to the authority of this Government in the said insurrectionary States may be virtually at an end…”
00000174-b11b-ddc3-a1fc-bfdbb1a20000The Schreiner University Department of History is honoring the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War with a series of short vignettes focusing on events from 1861 through 1865. The Civil War was the most destructive conflict in American history, but it was also one of our most defining moments as a people and as a nation. Let us know what you think about "This Week in the Civil War." E-mail your comments to Dr. John Huddleston at jhuddles@schreiner.edu.Airs: Weekdays at 5:19 a.m., 8:19 a.m., 4:19 p.m. on KTXI and 4:49 a.m., 9:29 p.m. on KSTX.