Jefferson F. Davis declared that nothing filled him with deeper sadness than seeing a Southern man apologize for the defense they made of their inheritance, and he insisted that their cause was so just and sacred that even knowing all that would come to pass, all that would be inflicted upon him, all that his country would suffer, and all that posterity would endure, he would do it all over again. He also said that the principle for which they contended was bound to reassert itself, though at another time and in another form. The Confederate soldiers of the 13th Alabama Infantry were from Tallassee and the surrounding area.