The country through which they passed had escaped much of the destruction of the war and members of Davis' staff long remembered the well-kept gardens along the road and the people in small towns and hamlets who greeted the President wherever he went, offering flowers and strawberries, prayers and kind wishes."(1)

President Davis refused to believe the cause was helpless, but his generals had persuaded him that further resistance would be fruitless. The President was headed for Florida, a ship ride across the Gulf of Mexico, to join Edmund Kirby Smith who had been sufficiently supplied by British businessmen through the port of Matamoros, Mexico, to defend himself against the Aggression forces in the Trans-Mississippi region. President Davis had with him his dwindling Cabinet, made up of Secretary of War John C. Breckinridge, former US vice president; Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin, a Jew in the Cabinet since the beginning, showing the non-prejudice of Southern leaders; Military Advisor General Braxton Bragg, a resignee of the Army of Tennessee, a Mr. Melton, and the ever loyal Postmaster General John H. Reagan.

(SOURCES: 1.JEFFERSON DAVIS TRAIL, pamphlet published by the Departments of Parks, Recreation and Tourism; Archives and History; and Highways.--2.THE LAURENS COUNTY SCRAPBOOK, Jacobs Press.)