brush with the
Union forces and succeeded in holding the railroad. The Georgians were
plucky whether at home or abroad, but General Taylor declared that
Toombs enjoyed his part in making them "unconscious patriots."

Sherman's march to the sea was the concluding tragedy of the Civil War.
The State which had been at the forefront of the revolution had become
the bloody theater of battle. From the Tennessee River to Atlanta,
Sherman and Johnston had grappled with deadly fury down the mountain
defiles; then Cheatham and Wheeler harassed him at Macon and united for
a final siege of Savannah. The granaries and workshops of the
Confederacy were gone when Georgia was devastated--as General Lord
Wolseley said, Sherman's invasion was a swordthrust through the vitals
of the young nation. Robert Toombs had followed his own idea of meeting
the invader as soon as he struck an inch of State soil and fighting him
as long as a man remained. From the fruitless defense of Savannah,
Toombs hastened to discuss the situation with Governor Brown. He
happened to be dining with him that April day when the news came of the
surrender at Appomattox. The two men looked at each other intently, when
they realized that all was over.

Toombs and Brown had been closely allied since the day that the latter
was nominated for Governor in 1857. They had fought campaigns together.
Toombs had sustained Governor Brown's war policy almost to the letter.
Now they shook hands and parted. Henceforth their paths diverged. Days
of bitterness put that friendship to an end. Both men worked his course
during reconstruction as he saw fit. But political differences deepened
almost into personal feud.

General Toombs repaired to his home in Washington and, on the 4th of
May, 1865, Jefferson Davis, his Cabinet and staff, having retreated from
Richmond to Danville, thence to Greensboro, N. C., and Abbeville, S. C.,
rode across the country with an armed escort to Washington, Ga. Here,
in the old Heard House, the last meeting of the Confederate Cabinet was
held. The members separated, and the civil government of the Southern
Confederacy passed into history. There were present John C.
Breckenridge, Secretary of War; John H. Reagan, Postmaster-General,
besides the members of Mr. Davis' staff. The Confederate President was
worn and jaded. He looked pale and thin, but was plucky to the last.
After the surrender of Lee and Johnston, he wanted to keep up the
warfare in the moun