"The Yankees will shoot us first and ask questions later."

Lincoln, lying in state.

Tuesday, April 25, 1865, Concord, North Carolina.

It could be that the greatest calamity has befallen us. That man that during the war ewe called the, "Original Gorilla", has been murdered by an insane actor. While we disliked President Lincoln all during the war, when the surrender took place, we felt that we were being treated fairly. We are all aware that there are many in the North who wish all us Rebels shot, hung or worse. We could have been sent to a prisoner of war camp but instead, we were told to go home. Now that Lincoln is dead, the radicals in his government will come after us. I wish we had more men and some artillery.

President Abraham Lincoln.

We came to this place Sunday by foot the tracks south of Greensboro being destroyed by the Yankees. We will be here only as long as it takes to rest up for a short while, and get some supplies. Perhaps somewhere further south we will come across some tracks that have not been visited by Sherman's boys.

There are fewer sick among us these days. Surgeon Bailey has done yeoman service in attending to us. The closer we get to home, the more healthy we become. Soon, he will have nothing to do.

The further south we go, the more anxious, nay, fearful we become. There are so many of us now bearing arms that we no longer look like a paroled party returning home. We look every bit the part of a force still in the field. For all anyone knows, we are part of Joe Johnston's army. Should we run across any Yankees, they probably will not call upon us to halt and produce our paroles. The Yankees will shoot first and ask questions later.

Our decreasing numbers also give us cause for fretting. When we were the entire division, we were more secure. The Yankees would have to muster all their forces against us. Now, it is just us in the brigade that are left. I would guess, based on what I can see with my own eyes that we number less than a thousand, perhaps not even eight hundred. A small party of well-armed Yankees could do us great harm.

We who are left in the company have spent many an hour around the campfires talking about what we will do once we get back home. The farmers among us will return to that art called agriculture. They hope that their fields and animals are intact. It is a bit late to do Spring planting but for some crops, there is still time.

The farmers have gone around and around about what type of crops to plant. They are divided into two camps. One camp says that only foodstuffs should be planted lest starvation befall the families. The other side says that cash crops should be planted so as to be able to sell something to get back upon their feet as quick as possible. They will hunt deer to survive, they say. Not being a farmer, I cannot pass judgement upon the validity of either side. I can only say, having experienced great hunger during this war, that food, food, and more food should be the order of the day.

This is all fine for them but what about me? the rest of the company is from the up-country. I came from the coast to Columbia to join up. My home is several hundred miles beyond the up-country. My home has been occupied by the Yankees for almost the entire war. Once I get there, there may be absolutely nothing of mine left. I may be returning to take up the life of a beggar. I am not a young man anymore. The young bucks have years ahead to put their affairs in order. My days are numbered.

There was only one other soldier from my area who joined the company and he was given a discharge for medical reasons at Lynchburg two years ago.

Good old Hancock. He has offered me a job should I decide to stay in the up-country. I must return home to Beaufort. Once I have seen the old place, I can make up my mind as to what courts of action to take.

I think that we will reach Lancaster County in about five or six days. It will be another two weeks longer for me.


I Send You These Few Lines.



The soldier mentioned by Tooms as having come from his home area and later discharged at Lynchburg, Virginia was Josiah A. Luckey. He joined the 12th South Carolina in Beaufort County in October of 1861.

President Abraham Lincoln was shot on the 14th and passed on the 15th of April. Thanks to the collapse of Confederate communications and everything else in the doomed Confederacy, Tooms and his party are just now getting word. Tooms' statements about the death of Lincoln being very bad news for the South were not isolated. Several notable and influential Southerners felt the same way including:

Upon hearing of Lincoln's death, Jefferson Davis remarked, "I am sorry. We have lost our best friend in the court of the enemy"

The Presidential box in Ford's Theatre where Lincoln was shot.

Lincoln's chair inside the Presidential box.

Washington, D.C. actor John Wilkes Booth, the man who shot Lincoln.

David Herold, co-conspirator.

George Atzerodt, co-conspirator.

Lewis Payne, co-conspirator.

Mary Surratt, co-conspirator?

Their fate.

Richard Mitchell Smoot, of Port Tobacco, Maryland. Un-indited co-conspirator?

Richard Mitchell Smoot is a distant relative of mine. At the beginning of the 20th Century, he wrote this book as a tell-all about his role in the assassination of President Lincoln. In his book, Smoot states that he sold a boat to John Surratt, son of Mary Surratt for $250 to be paid in full at some future time.The boat was to be used for a mysterious, unspecified purpose. Smoot turned over the boat to George Atzerodt, mistakenly called Armold in the book.

Surratt did not pay Smoot in what the latter thought was a timely manner, so he made several visits to the home of Mary Surratt in the hopes of getting what was due him. The book suggests but does not definitively claim that Mary had advance knowledge of the assassination. The book also suggests that there was a lot more to the conspiracy than what was publicly revealed and that he was one of only two people alive who knew the full truth.

I have read the book. It is available to read online if anyone has insomnia.

Jefferson Davis and his refugee party are in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The observant reader will have noticed that for the past several diary entries, I've been keeping tabs on where Jefferson Davis and his party are. Is there a reason for this?