Her journey had been miserable. “The baggage cars were all needing repairs and leaked badly. Our bedding was wet through by the constant rains that poured down.” Varina, her children, and her small group of traveling companions settled into a rented house in Charlotte. Jefferson Davis stayed in Danville for the next several days. He spent much of April 4, his first full day in Danville, sending and receiving messages. Bad news arrived from all over the Confederacy. “Selma [Alabama] has fallen—The Enemy threaten Montgomery [Alabama] and it is believed will march upon Columbus Georgia,” one message read. Davis received more bad news from his nephew: “My Brigade was lost except about twenty men all captured; I went to Richmond to join you—arrived too late. . . . I deeply regret having missed you as I hoped in an humble way to have served you. Remember me in love to aunt and the children.” Jefferson Davis’s behavior once he reached Danville proved to the people of the South that he had not fled Richmond in a panicked bid to save his own life.
