this
evening," Lee had fought and lost the battle of Petersburg, and was in
full retreat. Davis left the church quietly, called his cabinet
together, packed up the government archives, and boarded a train for the
South. For over a month, he moved from place to place endeavoring to
escape capture, his party melting away until it comprised only his
family and a few servants; and finally, on May 9th, he was surprised and
taken by a company of Union cavalry near Irwinsville, in southern
Georgia. Davis was imprisoned at Fortress Monroe for two years--a
thoroughly senseless procedure which only served to keep open a painful
wound--and on Christmas Day, 1868, was pardoned by President Johnson.

Davis's imprisonment had added immensely to his prestige. The South
forgot his blunders and short-comings, seeing in him only the martyr who
had suffered for his people, and welcomed him with a kind of hysterical
adoration, which lasted until his death. The last years of his life were
passed quietly on his estate in Mississippi.

When Davis was chosen President of the Confederacy, Alexander H.
Stephens was chosen Vice-President. Stephens had also had a picturesque
career. Left an orphan, without means, at the age of fifteen he had
nevertheless secured an education, and, in 1834, after two months'
study, was admitted to the Georgia bar. He at once began to win a more
than local reputation, for he was a man of unusual ability, and in 1836,
he was elected to the Legislature, though an avowed opponent of
nullification.

Seven years later, he was sent to Congress, and continued to oppose the
secession movement; but he saw whither things were trending, and in 1859
he resigned from Congress, remarking that he knew there was going to be
a smash-up and thought he would better get off while there was time. In
1860 he made a great Union speech; and it is a remarkable proof of the
hold he had upon the people of the South, that, in spite of this, and of
his well-known convictions, he was chosen Vice-President of the
Confederacy a year later. He accepted, but within a year he had
quarrelled with Jefferson Davis on the question of state rights, and in
1864, organized the Georgia Peace party. From that time on to the close
of the war, he labored to bring about a treaty of peace, but in vain.

He was imprisoned for a few months after the downfall of the
Confederacy, but was soon released and was prominent in the political
life of Georgia for fiftee