lure, for the few volunteers secured in
Virginia and a company in Tennessee are all that the writer has been
able to obtain any account of. The Confederate authorities then sought
to strengthen the army by conscripting all able-bodied negroes, free and
slave, between the age of eighteen and fifty. Monday, April 3d, was
appointed as the day to begin the draft. The Virginia State Legislature
had come to the rescue of the Davis-Lee-Benjamin scheme, and so had the
local authorities of Richmond, but all was to no purpose. It was too
late; they had delayed too long.

With a pitiable blindness to the approach of his downfall, only a few
days before he became a fugitive, Jefferson Davis wrote the following
letter:[46]

"RICHMOND, Va., March 30th, 1865.

"His Excellency William Smith, Governor of Virginia:

"Upon the receipt of your letter of the 27th inst. I had a
conference with the Secretary of War and Adjutant-General in
relation to your suggestion as to the published order for
the organization of negro troops, and I hope that the
modification which has been made will remove the objection
which you pointed out. It was never my intention to collect
negroes in depots for purposes of instruction, but only as
the best mode of forwarding them, either as individuals or
as companies, to the command with which they were to serve.
The officers in the different posts will aid in providing
for the negroes in their respective neighborhoods, and in
forwarding them to depots where transportation will be
available, and aid them in reaching the field of service for
which they were destined. The aid of gentlemen who are
willing and able to raise this character of troops will be
freely accepted. The appointment of commanders, for reasons
obvious to you, must depend on other considerations than the
mere power to recruit.

"I am happy to receive your assurance of success as well as
your promise to seek legislation to secure unmistakably
freedom to the slave who shall enter the army, with a right
to return to his old home when he shall have been honorably
discharged from the military service.

"I remain of the opinion that we should confine our first
efforts to getting volunteers, and would prefer that you
would adopt such measures as would advance that mode of
recruiting, r