With him were Mr. John H. Reagan of Texas, his postmaster general; Captain Moody of Mississippi, an old neighbor of the Davis family; Governor Lubbock of Texas and Colonels Harrison and Johnson of his staff; Mrs. Davis and her four children - Maggie, some 10 years old; Jeff, about 8; Willie, 5; and a girl baby - a brother and sister of Mrs. Davis, a white and one colored servant woman, a small force of cavalry, a few others and a small train of horses, mules, wagons and ambulances.
On the 11th of May, the next day after the capture, and while on our way back to Macon, as officer of the guard over the distinguished prisoners, I rode by the side of Mr. Reagan, later a senator from Texas. I found him a very fine gentleman.
During that day's march a courier from Macon notified us in printed slips of the $100,000 reward offered for Mr. Davis' capture, and which notice connected Davis with the assassination of President Lincoln. When Mr. Reagan read the notice, he earnestly protested that Mr. Davis had no connection whatever with that sorrowful affair. History has shown that he had none.
Besides the suit of men's clothing worn by Mr. Davis he had on when captured Mrs. Davis' large waterproof dress or robe, thrown over his own fine gray suit, and a blanket shawl thrown over his head and shoulders. This shawl and robe were finally deposited in the archives of the war department at Washington by order of Secretary Stanton.
What a 'fitting end' to the Confederacy. Jefferson Davis wanted the Confederate Army to continue a guerrilla war at the close of the Civil War. His generals wisely surrendered rather than endanger more of their men by prolonging a lost cause.
This story is well known among Log Cabin Republicans.
See the original Chicago Times of Sunday story at http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9903E3DA1730EE3ABC4852DFBE66838A699FDE
source: http://valstar.net/~jcraig/capture.htm
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1 comment:
Sorry, Davis had no suit of clothes on. He had a dress, a FEMALE's DRESS.
Not some "rainproof Radigan" or whatever you called it. A D-R-E-S-S.
Read his wife's letter two weeks later, where she is explaining it.
She writes about three distinct garments he wore -- one of them a "dressing gown" she tries to say. Not some rain coat, a DRESSING GOWN. It was a dress, but she was trying to "square the circle".
His own aide said he wore a dress, and the soldiers said he wore a dress.
In fact, the soldiers reported Davis took OFF the dress, and Mrs Davis put it ON. That is right, she put on the dress he wore.
They said that for the rest of their lives, in public and in private. And there is plenty of reason to believe them.
The reason the soldiers are so credible -- their details line up very well with Mr. Davis letter. Odd indeed, if they were lying about all this, that their reports would be so inline with her statements.
Mrs Davis also told the soldiers "its my mother" when he was stopped, but would not speak. She told the soldiers, "ITS MY MOTHER". She wrote that in her letter. The soldiers reported that too. She said it, and the soldiers reported it. An example of how her own letter backed up the soldiers.
WHy would she put on the dress he took off? Because the Davises didnt want the soldiers to take that dress as a trophy. But they did anyway, they were ordered to. After they reached Savanah, Davis was put in a cell, and Mrs Davis was put in a hotel, but that dress was taken and sent to Washington DC, where it was on display for something like 20 years.
Many people have stupidly adopted some version of Davis defenders. Like t his blog. I guess they feel Davis surely would not wear a dress. Oh yes, yes he did. Not a raincoat that could be confused, he literally wore his wifes dress.
http://jeffdavisdresss.blogspot.com
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