[Doug64]

Missed this one, oops! Just a few more entries to close out the epilogue.

June 5, 1866

Reassured by reports of his growing popularity from the home front, so to speak, as well as by his attorneys, with whom he now is permitted to confer, Jefferson Davis suffers a legal setback today, two days after his fifty-eighth birthday, when the Richmond court declines his plea for an early trial on grounds that he has never been in its custody, despite the indictment recently handed down, but rather is being held as a State Prisoner “under order of the President, signed by the Secretary of War.” A follow-up motion for his release on bail is also disallowed, but it is more or less clear by now that Secretary of War Stanton and Judge-Advocate General of the Army Holt are fighting a holding action, with scarcely a hope of securing a conviction. They schedule a trial for early October, overriding O’Conor’s protest at the delay. All Davis can do is wait.

[Potemkin]

An entry about delay was delayed. Somehow, that seems appropriate.

[Doug64]

August 20, 1866

In a new proclamation, President Johnson declares the insurrection at an end in Texas: “I do further proclaim that the said insurrection is at an end and that peace, order, tranquility, and civil authority now exist in and throughout the whole of the United States of America.”

The Civil War might be officially declared at an end, but Jefferson Davis is still in prison. This month does bring two encouraging developments, though. One is the petition signed by Gerrit Smith and other prominent Northerners, addressed to Johnson on Davis’s behalf, and the other is a presidential order removing Nelson Miles as commander of Fort Monroe after fifteen months of personal abuse. Miles’s replacement soon gives the State Prisoner freedom of the post and better quarters, which he and Varina share. He finds waiting easier now that he has his wife to comfort him, unrestricted access to his mail, and a steady stream of visitors, including ex-President Franklin Pierce, Richard Taylor, and Wade Hampton.