Flight Into Oblivion

Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1959. Reprint edition. Hardcover. Good. John Rae. xvii, [4], 306, [2] pages. Endpaper maps. Illustrations. References. Bibliography. Index. Part of bookplate remains on the inside of the front cover. Slightly cocked. Cover has some wear and soiling. This is one of the Civil War Centennial Series. A. J. Hanna was the author or editor of seven books. A. J. Hanna's Flight Into Oblivion is an older, but pioneering and quite readable account of the flight of the Confederate cabinet at the end of the Civil War. Hanna was the first to write a history that examined the fate of Jefferson Davis' cabinet members, rather than just Davis himself. Hanna begins with General Lee's fatal telegram and the hasty exodus of Jefferson Davis and high officials to Danville, then Greensboro and Charlotte. From there the Confederate Cabinet dispersed, and the author follows each man's adventurous course in detail. Most of the fugitives headed for the pine barrens and scrub lands of Florida but were soon apprehended. Only John C. Breckinridge and Judah P. Benjamin successfully escaped, outwitting Federal officials and pirates along their way to Cuba. A classic work that makes for fabulous, spirited reading, Flight Into Oblivion, first published in 1938, soars once again.