TAR HEEL HISTORY
By Billy Arthur
Escape To Raleigh
Confederate First Lady Varina Davis never forgot the frantic
days she spent in our capital in 1862.
Some of the most burdensome hours
in the life of the wife of Jefferson
Davis, president of the Confederacy,
were spent in Raleigh in 1862. She*
never forgot them.
It was a hot summer day and night
as 36-year-old Vatina I lowell Davis anx¬
iously paced the floor of the Yarbor¬
ough Hotel speculating. What next?
Would her infant son. gravely ill with
pneumonia and clasped in her arms,
survive? Would Richmond, capital of
the Confederacy, fall to advancing
Union forces? Would her husband
have to flee the city as a fugitive, like
she had several weeks earlier?
It was during the Seven Days' Battles
around Richmond, June
2(>|Ыу
2.
In early May. General Joseph John¬
ston’s Southern troops continued to
give ground, and jokesters said he
would end up retreating through the
capital itself. On May
У
President
Davis suggested to his wife that she
take the children and go to Raleigh.
Varina objected, but he insisted. If she
and the children left, he would have
one less fear. Then word came that the
enemy’s gunboats were already ascending
the James River. She relented and with the
four children left the next morning for
Raleigh.
Not wishing to inconvenience friends in
the North Carolina city. Varina checked
into the Yarlxirough Hotel. I here, though
feeling temporarily secure, she witnessed
signs of panic. People were selling their
furniture and packing things to lx* moved
out quickly at the fiist warning. She wrote
in her memoirs: “It was pitiable to see our
friends coming in without anything except
the clothes they had on... in a piteous jum¬
ble of pain and worrimeni.”
Raleigh iles visited her daily, asking what
she knew and thought almut the recent
developments. It was all unfavorable. In his
letters. Davis revealed his increasing fear
and lack of enthusiasm for Johnston’s
strategy. "We are fearful of everything.” he
wrote, "except that a battle must l>e near."
A later letter also was disturbing: “I
packed some valuable books and the
sword I wore for many years, together with
the pistols used at Monterey and Buena
Vista, and my old dressing case. iliese arti¬
cles will have a value to the boys in after¬
time and to you now.”
I le was sending her his prized Mexican
war weapons. Things must Ik* pretty bad.
In late May Johnston was wounded, and
Davis chose Robert K. lee to take com¬
mand. The armchair experts sniffed be¬
cause lee had not been an impressive field
officer. Varina Davis heard the grumblings
in Raleigh, and when lee fortified Rich¬
mond and struck back. Southerners held
their breaths. Was it the beginning of the
end? In her small, crowded Raleigh hotel
room, the first lady of the Confederacy
gripped her hands and prayed.
She was now faced with another, closer
crisis. William, their infant son. was run¬
ning a high fever. She called in a doctor,
but by the time he arrived William was
gasping for breath. “I have to tell you," the
doctor said. "I’m afraid it's pneumonia"
For the rest of the week, night and day.
Varina stayed at William's side, forcing
medicines into his mouth and praying.
As the fighting around Richmond
grew intense. Davis wrote her an ago¬
nizing letter: ".,.Mv heart sank within
me at the news of the suffering of my
angel baby.... My ease, my health, my
property, my life I can give to the cause
of my country. The heroism which
could lay my wife and children on any
sacrificial altar is not mine. Spare us,
g<xxl Lord."
Davis made a quick trip to Raleigh
with the family physician, who had
what he thought was a remedy for the
child's illness. The baby seemed to
improve but later had a relapse.
Varina tried not to think about Rich¬
mond and her husband's safely because
her heart was in Raleigh with her sick
baby. But she knew the future of the
family and the Confederacy depended
upon what was hap|x*ning in Virginia.
She was constantly’ reminded of that by
questions on the street and frequent
telegraph messages from her husband.
Vatina's memoirs reveal how Raleighites
shared with her the good news of die Con¬
federate success at the Seven Days' Battles,
before her husband's telegram even
arrived. She wrote:
"When the news of our great victory
over such long odds came to Raleigh,
everyone was breathless with excitement.
The telegraph office was separated by a
narrow alley from my room in the hotel.
As I walked my ill baby to and fro by the
window, a voice came from the street. Tell
us what you know, please.'
"Just then a crowd filled the alley and
another voice cried. ’Bov's. I can take it off
Jefferson and l arina Davis
I Hfl.,
ГЬс
State July IWl
12
ftoMiiutn.uf NC Din
