Jefferson Davis Memorial Historic Site (also known as the Jefferson Davis Capture Site) is a state

historic site A historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been rec ...

located in

Irwin County, Georgia Irwin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 9,538. The county seat is Ocilla. The county was created on December 15, 1818. It was named for Governor Jared Irwin. In the last years o ...

that marks the spot where Confederate States President

Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as a ...

was captured by

United States Cavalry The United States Cavalry, or U.S. Cavalry, was the designation of the mounted force of the United States Army by an act of Congress on 3 August 1861.Price (1883) p. 103, 104 This act converted the U.S. Army's two regiments of dragoons, one ...

on Wednesday, May 10, 1865. The historic site features a

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

monument with a bronze bust of Davis that is located at the place of capture. The memorial museum, built in 1939 by the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

, features

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

era weapons, uniforms, artifacts and an exhibit about the president's 1865 flight from

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

to Irwin County, Georgia.

History

Jefferson Davis Memorial left marker, Irwin County, GA, US

Jefferson Davis Memorial right marker, Irwin County, GA, US

Site of Jefferson Davis Capture FSA 1936

Confederate States President Jefferson Davis fled the Confederate capital of

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

, on April 2. From April 3 through 10,

Danville, Virginia Danville is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States, located in the Southside Virginia region and on the fall line of the Dan River. It was a center of tobacco production and was an area of Confederate activity ...

served as the capital of the rapidly collapsing Confederacy. Accompanied by several members of his

Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

( John H. Reagan,

Judah P. Benjamin Judah Philip Benjamin, QC (August 6, 1811 – May 6, 1884) was a United States senator from Louisiana, a Cabinet officer of the Confederate States and, after his escape to the United Kingdom at the end of the American Civil War, an English ba ...

, and

John C. Breckinridge John Cabell Breckinridge (January 16, 1821 – May 17, 1875) was an American lawyer, politician, and soldier. He represented Kentucky in both houses of Congress and became the 14th and youngest-ever vice president of the United States. Serving ...

), and his aide

Burton Harrison Burton Norvell Harrison (July 14, 1838 – March 29, 1904), was a lawyer, American Democratic politician, and private secretary to Confederate States of America president Jefferson Davis. Harrison's support for the pro-slavery South countered a ...

, along with a military escort,Capture of Jefferson Davis
''Georgia Encyclopedia'' (last updated June 6, 2017). the remnants of the Confederate government fled further south, passing through

Greensboro Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte and Raleigh, the 69th-most populous city in the Un ...

and

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...

in North Carolina and

Fort Mill Fort Mill, also known as Fort Mill Township, is a town in York County, South Carolina, United States. It is a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina. As of 2020 census, 24,521 people live inside the town's corporate limits. Some businesses and resid ...

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

Abbeville Abbeville (, vls, Abbekerke, pcd, Advile) is a commune in the Somme department and in Hauts-de-France region in northern France. It is the chef-lieu of one of the arrondissements of Somme. Located on the river Somme, it was the capital of ...

, and Washington in South Carolina. Davis was informed of the surrender at Appomattox on April 13 and of the

assassination of Abraham Lincoln On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was assassinated by well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth, while attending the play ''Our American Cousin'' at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Shot in the hea ...

on April 18. Davis and his remaining members of his party crossed the

Savannah River The Savannah River is a major river in the southeastern United States, forming most of the border between the states of South Carolina and Georgia. Two tributaries of the Savannah, the Tugaloo River and the Chattooga River, form the norther ...

into

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

on May 3, 1865, headed for the

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

and

Trans-Mississippi Trans-Mississippi was a common name of the geographic area west of the Mississippi River during the 19th century. The area included Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Texas, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), and many other territories. The term "Tr ...

theaters, where Davis hoped to regroup the Confederate military and continue the war.Dunkerly, p. 68. Davis arrived in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

in Wilkes County on the same day, and dissolved the Confederate government there. By May 6, Davis reached Sandersville, and on May 7 he met his wife, Varina, and their children. With Union troops in close pursuit, Davis and his family fled through Wilcox County. On the evening of May 9, Davis and his party reached Irwinville, in Irwin County, and camped in a pine forest (present-day Jefferson Davis Memorial Historic Site), unaware that Union soldiers were nearby. At dawn the next day, they were surrounded by the

1st Wisconsin Cavalry The 1st Wisconsin Cavalry Regiment was a volunteer cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The regiment is most notable as one of two cavalry regiments credited with the final capture of Confederate preside ...

and the

4th Michigan Cavalry 4th Michigan Cavalry Regiment was a regiment of cavalry in the Union Army during the American Civil War fighting in the western front as part of the Army of the Cumberland. It was noted as being the regiment that captured the fleeing President of ...

. The two Union regiments were unaware of each other's presence and engaged in a brief firefight (in which two cavalrymen died) before the forces realized that they had been shooting at one another. Davis attempted to flee to a nearby creek before being arrested by a Michigan cavalryman. Captured along with Davis and his wife were his private secretary Harrison, Postmaster General

John Henninger Reagan John Henninger Reagan (October 8, 1818March 6, 1905) was an American politician from Texas. A Democrat, Reagan resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives when Texas seceded from the Union and joined the Confederate States of America. He s ...

, several other aides, and supply weapons and ambulances.National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form
Jefferson Davis Capture Site. Davis was charged with treason and held in

Fort Monroe, Virginia Fort Monroe, managed by partnership between the Fort Monroe Authority for the Commonwealth of Virginia, the National Park Service as the Fort Monroe National Monument, and the City of Hampton, is a former military installation in Hampton, Virg ...

for two years, before being released.

Jefferson Davis Capture Site

The site was owned by Judge James Bagley Clements (1869-1936), who deeded four acres to the State of Georgia in 1920, "for the purposes of creating a state park." His father had bought the land after the war to ensure that "no Yankee would ever own it." Clements wrote a history of Irwin County, which included a chapter on the Davis capture and site. The

United Daughters of the Confederacy The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is an American neo-Confederate hereditary association for female descendants of Confederate Civil War soldiers engaging in the commemoration of these ancestors, the funding of monuments to them, ...

erected a monument on the exact spot where Davis was captured.Dunkerly, p. 70. It consists of a granite

stele A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...

set upon a stepped granite base, the stele features relief panels and inscriptions, and atop it is a bronze bust of Davis modeled by

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

sculptor Laurence Tompkins.Jefferson Davis Memorial (sculpture)
from SIRIS. The relief on the front depicts a captured Davis flanked by two Union soldiers; the relief on the back depicts a battle scene; the reliefs on the sides depict the Confederate flag. The monument was dedicated on June 3, 1936. The

built the memorial's Civil War Museum, completed in 1939. Additional parcels of land were added, bringing the size of the park to nearly 13 acres by 1952. The site ceased to be a Georgia state park in the mid-1970s, and was deeded to Irwin County in 1976. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1980. The monument is now surrounded by a square bed of gravel and enclosed by a low iron fence.

Facilities

* Civil War Museum - film and artifacts * Thirteen picnic sites * Group shelter (seats 100) * Nature trail, 1/3 mile long * Monument * Gift shop * Playground

Gallery

References

External links

; Government *
Jefferson Davis Memorial Historic Site
at

Georgia Department of Natural Resources The Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is an administrative agency of the U.S. state of Georgia. The agency has statewide responsibilities for managing and conserving Georgia’s natural, cultural, and historical resources, and has five ...

National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form
Jefferson Davis Capture Site ; General information
Jefferson Davis Memorial State Park
at GeorgiaInfo (georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu)
Jefferson Davis Memorial Historic Site
at ''

New Georgia Encyclopedia The ''New Georgia Encyclopedia'' (NGE) is a web-based encyclopedia containing over 2,000 articles about the state of Georgia. It is a program of Georgia Humanities (GH), in partnership with the University of Georgia Press, the University System o ...