Confederate Government Seat

For an hour on the evening of Easter Sunday, April 16, 1865, a pine grove outside Lexington became the de facto seat of government for the Confederate States of America and the state of North Carolina. President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet, together with a cavalry escort from Gen. George G. Dibrell division, entered Davidson County by carriage and on horseback after disembarking from a train at Greensboro. The party traveled on the Greensboro Road on the afternoon of Easter Sunday and camped near here in a grove of pine trees on Abbott Creek. Some of the cavalrymen bivouacked along the creek and set up guard posts.



Unknown to Davis, Abraham Lincoln lay dead in Washington, assassinated the previous Friday. Davis met with his cabinet, including the postmaster general and attorney general as well as the secretaries of state, treasury, and war. At 10 p.m., North Carolina Governor Zebulon B. Vance joined the group for an hour-long discussion of the war and whether to continue the fight, which Davis hoped to do. Afterward, Secretary of War John C. Breckinridge and Postmaster General John H. Reagan left Lexington for Durham to supervise the surrender discussions between Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and Union Gen. William T. Sherman. Davis had approved these negotiations while in Greensboro.



The next morning, April 17, Davis, the remaining cabinet members and the cavalry escort broke camp. They crossed the Yadkin River about noon, left Davidson County, and headed for Salisbury and then Charlotte, where Davis would learn of Lincoln death.



(sidebar)

The exact location of Davis camp is unknown but is most likely near the house of Lindsay L. Conrad, a Confederate soldier whose leg had been amputated. An earlier marker southeast of here notes the spot.



(captions)

(upper right) Zebulon B. Vance Courtesy Library of Congress

(lower right) President Jefferson Davis Courtesy Library of Congress

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Show me all markers in:  Lexington, NC  |  Davidson County  |  27295  |  North Carolina  |  United States of America

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NC Vietnam Veterans Memorial
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