Jefferson Davis at the Lanier House

JEFFERSON DAVIS AT THE LANIER HOUSE. On May 4, 1865, Jefferson Davis arrived in Washington, Georgia (100 miles N.E.), where he performed what proved to be his last duties as President of the Confederate States of America. Shortly thereafter, with a small staff and escort, he departed enroute to the trans-Mississippi Department where, supported by those Confederate forces not yet surrendered, he hoped to negotiate a just peace.

After a difficult journey via Sandersville, Dublin and Abbeville, he camped a mile north or Irwinville (106 miles S.) in the present Jefferson Davis Memorial State Park, unaware that, in Dublin, the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry (USA) had found his trail and begun a pursuit. At dawn on May 10th, his camp was surrounded by men of the 1st Wisconsin and 4th Michigan cavalry regiments (USA).

Mr. Davis and his party were seized and brought to the Lanier House, hedquarters of Brevet Major General James H. Wilson, USA, commanding the Cavalry Corps, Military Division of the Mississippi (USA), which had occupied Macon on April 20th after a destructive raid through central Alabama and western Georgia.

On May 13, the revered leader of the Lost Cause was removed to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, via Atlanta, Augusta and Savannah, where, until May 13, 1867, he was held as a "state prisoner," his hopes for a new nation, in which each stae would exercise without interference its cherished "Constitutional Rights," forever dead.

011-16 GEORGIA HISTORICAL COMMISSION 1957