A paper read by Charles M. Blackford, of the Lynchburg Bar, before the Tenth annual meeting of the Virginia State Bar Association, held at old Point Comfort, Va., July 17-19, 1900.
Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Virginia State Bar Association,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
In the spring of 1865, the States and armies of the Southern Confederacy yielded to the overwhelming numbers of their adversaries and the failure of their own resources.
The result was the surrender of a people whose constancy and whose heroic struggle had won the applause and admiration of the world, and will, in the far future, be the common boast of every American citizen.
Of the States which thus yielded to fate,
President Jefferson Davis had been the representative and executive head.
When the armies which had maintained his government were successively dissolved he was left defenceless.
He was nearly sixty years of age, in feeble
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health, and much worn with the mighty cares and anxieties which had rested upon him for four years.
On the 16th of April, 1865, as soon as he found that
Johnston must surrender, he started with resolute will from Greensboroa, N. C., with his family, staff, and some of his cabinet; his avowed object being to join the Confederate forces west of the
Mississippi river.
His party was too large for the success of such an undertaking.
He was tracked easily by Federal troopers, who, scattered over the States through which his line of march lay, were on the lookout for him; with what intent may be inferred from an order issued by command of
General R. H. G. Minty, by
F. W. Scott,
Captain and
Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.
It was dated near
Macon, Ga., on the 8th of May, 1865, and was addressed to
Lieut.-Colonel H. N. Howland, commanding a brigade.
The order says:
“You will have every port and ferry on the Ochmulgee and
Altamaha rivers, from
Hawkinsville to the
Ohoopee river, well guarded, and make every effort to
capture or kill Jefferson Davis, the rebel ex-President, who is supposed to be endeavoring to cross the
Ochmulgee, south of
Macon.”
(104 War of Rebellion, 665.)
On the 8th of May,
Brevet Major-General J. H. Wilson wrote
General Upton:
“The President of the
United States has issued his proclamation announcing that the
Bureau of
Military Justice has reported, upon indisputable evidence, that
Jefferson Davis,
Clement C. Clay,
Jacob Thompson,
George N. Sanders,
Beverley Tucker, and
W. C. Cleary, incited and concerted the assassination of
Mr. Lincoln, and the attempted assassination of
Mr. Seward.
He, therefore, offers for the arrest of
Davis,
Clay, and
Thompson $100,000 each; for
Sanders and
Tucker, $25,000 each; and for
Cleary, $10,000. Publish this in hand-bills, circulate everywhere, and urge the greatest possible activity in the pursuit.”
(104 War of Rebellion, 665.)
On the next day the same headquarters informs
General McCook of these rewards—adding that a reward of $10,000 was also offered for ‘Extra
Billy Smith, Rebel Governor of
Virginia.’
(104 War of the
Rebellion, 683 ) This reward was subsequently increased to $25,000. A very moderate sum for so gallant a gentleman.
General Wilson also wrote
General Steedman:
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Everything is on the lookout for J. D. His cavalry is dissolved, and he is a fugitive, but in what direction is not known.
(104 War of the
Rebellion, p. 666.)
On the 11th of May, 1865,
Lieut.-Colonel B. D. Pritchard, commanding the Fourth Michigan Cavalry, reported that at daylight on the 10th, at
Irwinville, Ga., about seventy-five miles from
Macon, he had captured
Mr. Davis with his family, his wife's sister and brother,
Mr. Reagan, his
Postmaster-General,
Mr. Burton N. Harrison, his private secretary,
Colonel William Preston Johnston, and
Colonel Lubbock, of his staff, and
Lieutenant Hathaway; together with five wagons and three ambulances.
Colonel Pritchard merely announced the fact, and though he had a whole day to hear the gossip of the memorable occasion, he made no reference to the false report that
Mr. Davis was caught in the endeavor to escape in his wife's clothes.
That story was made up by a newspaper correspondent, but circulation was given to it by
Major-General J. H. Wilson, who, in his official report to
Mr. Stanton, the
Secretary of War, on the 14th of May, makes the statement, saying he derived it from ‘the captors.’
Colonel Pritchard, however, makes no such statement in his published official report and correspondence.
Mr James H. Parker, of Elburnville, Pa., who was one of the squad who arrested
Mr. Davis, and the first to recognize him, published in the
Portland (Maine) Argus, while
Davis was still in confinement, a full denial of the whole story.
He says that some newspaper correspondent fabricated it, and that it was regarded merely as a joke in the command.
He writes:
She (Mrs. Davis) behaved like a lady, and he as a gentleman, though manifestly he was chagrined at being taken into custody.
Our soldiers behaved like gentlemen, as they were, and our officers like honorable, brave men, and the foolish stories that went the newspaper rounds were all false. * * * I defy anybody to find a single officer or soldier who was present at the capture of Jefferson Davis, who will say, upon honor, that he was disguised in woman's clothes, or that his wife acted in any way unladylike and undignified on the occasion.
Mr. T. H. Peabody, a lawyer of
St. Louis, and one of the captors, in a speech made before a Grand Army Post, a few days after
Mr. Davis' death, also denied the whole story.
The
Secretary of War, however, rolled the statement under his
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tongue as a sweet morsel, and, on the 14th of May, wrote gleefully to
the Rev. R. J. Breckinridge, of
Kentucky, that ‘
Jefferson Davis was caught three days ago in
Georgia trying to escape in his wife's clothes.’(121 War of Rebellion, p. 555.) On the 23d of May,
Mr. C. A. Dana,
Assistant Secretary of War, ordered
General Miles to direct
Colonel Pritchard to bring with him ‘the woman's dress in which
Jefferson Davis was captured.’
(
Id., p. 569.)
After his capture,
Mr. Davis was sent to
Savannah.
Thence he was carried to
Fortress Monroe in the steamer
Clyde, under a heavy guard, commanded by
Colonel Pritchard.
The steamer was convoyed by the
United States steam sloop of war
Tuscarora.
The