On May 4, 1865, Jefferson Davis arrived in Washington, Georgia, where he performed what proved to be his last duties as President of the Confederate States of America. Shortly thereafter, with a small staff and escort, he departed en route to the trans-Mississippi Department, from which vantage point he hoped to negotiate a just peace. Traveling by way of Warthen and Sandersville, he reached the home of Mr. E. J. Blackshear early on May 7, after finding his family camped nearby. Stopping only for breakfast, he pushed on, and Mrs. Davis’ party joined his, reaching Dublin about 11 o’clock. After securing supplies, he again pushed on. He camped near Alligator Creek and again four miles southeast of Eastman, unaware that the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry had learned of his passage through Dublin and had begun a pursuit. After crossing the Ocmulgee River near Abbeville, he camped a mile north of Irwinville in the present Jefferson Davis Memorial State Park. At dawn on May 10, his camp was surrounded by men of the 1st Wisconsin and 4th Michigan cavalry regiments, and he became a state prisoner, his hopes for a new nation, in which each state would exercise without interference its cherished Constitutional Rights, forever dead.