in disguise, having donned female dress in a last desperate attempt to escape, has only this foundation, that Mrs. Davis threw a cloak over her husband’s shoulders, and a shawl over his head, on the approach of the Federal soldiers.  He was taken to Fortress Monroe, and there kept in confinement for about two years; was arraigned before the United States Circuit Court for the District of Virginia for the crime of treason, and released on bail; and was finally restored to all the duties and privileges of citizenship, except the right to hold office, by President Johnson’s proclamation of amnesty of December 25, 1868.

General E. Kirby Smith, on whom Davis’s last hopes of success had centered, kept up so threatening an attitude that Sherman was sent from Washington to bring him to reason.  But he did not long hold his position of solitary defiance.  One more needless skirmish took place near Brazos, Texas, and then Smith followed the example of Taylor and surrendered his entire force, some eighteen thousand, to General Canby, on May 26.  One hundred and seventy-five thousand men in all were surrendered by the different Confederate commanders, and there were, in addition to these, about ninety-nine thousand prisoners in national custody during the year.  One third of these were exchanged, and two thirds released.  This was done as rapidly as possible by successive orders of the War Department, beginning on May 9 and continuing through the summer.

The first object of the government was to stop the waste of war.  Recruiting ceased immediately after Lee’s surrender, and measures were taken to reduce as promptly as possible the vast military establishment.  Every chief of bureau was ordered, on April 28, to proceed at once to the reduction of expenses in his department to a peace footing; and this before Taylor or Smith had surrendered, and while Jefferson Davis was still at large.  The army of a million men was brought down, with incredible ease and celerity, to one of twenty-five thousand.

Before the great army melted away into the greater body of citizens, the soldiers enjoyed one final triumph, a march through the capital, undisturbed by death or danger, under the eyes of their highest commanders, military and civilian, and the representatives of the people whose nationality they had saved.  Those who witnessed this solemn yet joyous pageant will never forget it, and will pray that their children may never witness anything like it.  For two days this formidable host marched the long stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue, starting from the shadow of the dome of the Capitol, and filling that wide thoroughfare to Georgetown with a serried mass, moving with the easy yet rapid pace of veterans in cadence step.  As a mere spectacle this march of the mightiest host the continent has ever seen gathered together was grand and imposing; but it was not as a spectacle alone that it affected the beholder most deeply.  It was not a mere holiday