The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South
Alexander Kelly McClure, Ed.

Was this miserable falsehood about Colonel Pritchard saying to Mr. Davis, “I don't think your garb is very well adapted to rapid locomotion,” intended to form another link in the chain of evidence to show that, when captured, Mr. Davis was disguised as a woman Is it to be quoted by the next person who may write an article revamping this despicable slander, as additional and conclusive evidence that he was so disguised, and made conclusive by the fact that Colonel Pritchard so called attention to this disguise in the midst of the assemblage then around Mr. Davis? Outside of those who robbed the ladies and children, and those who rummaged among their wrappings, as this writer describes, I cannot believe there was one man in those two commands base enough to allow himself to be made the author of this false statement. I will not go through the disgusting details of falsehoods by which, in cold blood, twelve years after the war, when sensational statements and the bitterness of passion, and even the wish by falsehood to wrong an enemy, should have died away, General Wilson revamps and remodels the story of Mr. Davis' disguise. I will only make this statement as to what then occurred to show that if Mr. Davis had sought to disguise himself he could not have done so for want of time, and the facts show that it was impossible for him to have conceived and executed a plan of disguise. I was not immediately with him when we were attacked. Governor Lubbock, Colonel Johnston, Colonel Wood, and myself had slept under a tree, something like a hundred yards from where Mr. Davis and his family camped. We went into camp before nightfall the evening before, and had no fears of the presence of an enemy. We were misled as to our security for the time being by the following facts: We were getting well south in Georgia, with a view to turn Macon and Montgomery and pass through the piney wood country to the south of these cities, where the population was more sparse, and where the roads were not so much frequented. We were to cross the Ocmulgee river below, where it could be forded, and where there were not many ferries. On approaching that river we expected to encounter trouble, if the Federal authorities knew the course we were traveling. In this event we supposed the ferries would be guarded. When we crossed the river, about dusk, we found no opposition, and, at the same time, learned that there was a considerable cavalry force at Hawkinsville, twenty-three miles up the river from where we crossed it.

Learning that this force was so near, and seeing that the ferries