Military
In the final weeks of the Civil War, Jefferson Davis fled south from Richmond with the remnants of the Confederate government, hoping to continue the struggle after the Confederacy’s collapse. After learning of the surrender at Appomattox and Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, he pressed on into Georgia, where he reunited with his family and dissolved his government at Washington. On May 10, 1865, near Irwinville in Irwin County, United States cavalry closed in on his camp; two Union regiments briefly fired on each other by mistake before Davis was captured while trying to escape. The site later became a memorial and museum preserving this contested end-of-war episode.
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Georgia · United States
