1p., 8vo (165 x 203 mm), old folds, pinhole at central fold.

ON THE DAY OF LEE’S SURRENDER AT APPOMATTOX, JEFFERSON DAVIS URGENTLY SUMMONS P.G.T. BEAUREGARD TO DANVILLE TO ORGANIZE ITS DEFENSE.

In full: “Genl. Walker commanding here desires your presence in view of the probable concentration of forces from Thomas's army against this place at a very early period, and I think your services here will be more useful than at any other point on the R.R. line. Please make the greatest possible dispatch in coming, as a revision of the defensive lines is desirable.” With the contemporary notation “Cipher” in the upper margin, presumably indicating that the message was to be transmitted in cipher.

On 2 April 1865, following the Union breakthrough of General Robert E. Lee’s lines at Petersburg, Jefferson Davis and members of his cabinet abandoned Richmond, establishing the Confederate government temporarily at Danville, Virginia. Still determined to continue the war, Davis issued a proclamation from Danville on 4 April calling upon the Confederate people to maintain their resistance.

On 9 April, Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. That same day, as the Confederacy suffered the loss of its principal field army, Davis remained at Danville attempting to organize its continued defense. Acting upon General Henry Harrison Walker’s request, Davis summoned Beauregard amid fears that forces from General George H. Thomas’s army might soon move against the city. Davis believed Beauregard’s presence more valuable there than elsewhere along the railroad and urged him to come with “the greatest possible dispatch,” so that Danville’s defensive lines could be revised.
P.G.T. Beauregard, whose command had been placed under General Joseph E. Johnston, remained one of the Confederacy’s most experienced senior officers. Beauregard and Johnston arrived at Danville on 13 April and presented Davis with a bleak assessment of the Confederacy’s military position. Johnston soon entered negotiations with General William T. Sherman, culminating in the surrender of his army on 26 April 1865. Davis, meanwhile, continued southward following the evacuation of Danville, before his capture by Union forces near Irwinville, Georgia, on 10 May.

AN IMPORTANT LETTER WRITTEN ON THE VERY DAY OF LEE’S SURRENDER AT APPOMATTOX, DOCUMENTING DAVIS’S DETERMINATION TO CONTINUE CONFEDERATE RESISTANCE EVEN AS ITS PRINCIPAL ARMY LAID DOWN ITS ARMS.