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 afterward, 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, Sandersville, and Ball’s Ferry, 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, with Mrs. Davis’ party joining his, and reached Dublin about 11 o’clock. After securing supplies from Judge F. H. Rowe, he continued on and camped near Alligator Creek, unaware that the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry had learned of his passage through Dublin. On May 8, he camped in Abbeville after crossing the Ocmulgee River. On May 9, 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.