Please excuse me if this has already been posted or mentioned as it's new to me but probably not to some of you. While searching for a Confederate in Bainbridge, Georgia I happened to run across a story about a man named Mr. Charles James Munnerlyn.

He had moved from South Carolina to extreme southern Georgia during the late 1830's and became a wealthy plantation owner. When the war started he voted for secession and volunteered as a private but soon was discharged for health issues. He served in Georgia politics until 1864 when he was defeated because he favored the conscription law.

Entering the military again he was made a lieutenant colonel by President Davis. By the end of the war Mr. Munnerlyn had one goal in mind and that was smuggling Confederate generals and high officials out of the country by way of Florida. From local history in Decatur County, Georgia he was rather successful in doing so. His plantation for a lack of a better phrase was used as sort of an underground railroad. I've heard about Confederates escaping from Florida but have not heard of his name mentioned in doing so.

The first thing that crossed my mind was perhaps Jefferson Davis was trying to make it to the Munnerlyn plantation himself when he was captured in southern Georgia in May of 1865. If so he was perhaps only a 100 miles away. This of course is pure speculation on my part.