Capture of Jefferson Davis Collection.

[DAVIS, Jefferson].

$2,000.00

Item Number: 132583

Fine collection of pieces related to the capture of Jefferson Davis near Irwinville, Georgia on May 10, 1865. The collection includes an original carte-de-visite of Davis’s captor, Colonel B.J. Pritchard; a calling card signed by Pritchard; a cabinet card of “The Only Photo in the Word of the Exact Spot where Hon. Jefferson Davis, President of Confederacy, was captured May 10th, 1865, by Fourth Michigan Cavalry, near Irwinville, Irwin county, Ga. Taken and copyrighted December 31st 1894, by J.H. Harris, Tifton, Berrien county, Ga.”; a first edition of Edwin M. Stanton’s Letter of the Secretary of War, Communicating, In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 26th instant, the report of Major General J.H. Wilson on the capture of Jefferson Davis. [Washington, DC] Jan. 31, 1867; and a printing of John Fox’s The Capture of Jefferson Davis [Publ. by author, 1964]. Benjamin Dudley Pritchard (1835-1907) was a lawyer before the Civil War. He enlisted in the 4th Michigan Cavalry in July 1862 as a 27-year-old Captain at Allegan, MI. He was promoted to Lieut. Colonel in late 1864 after the Battle of Chickamauga, and awarded a Brigadier Generalcy by brevet in March 1865. He became a national hero when he captured Jefferson Davis on May 10, but he declined to run for state or federal office in spite of appeals for him to do so. In near fine to fine condition. A unique collection.

On April 3, with Union troops under Ulysses S. Grant poised to capture Richmond, Davis escaped to Danville, Virginia, together with the Confederate Cabinet, leaving on the Richmond and Danville Railroad. On April 14, Lincoln was shot, dying the next day. Davis expressed regret at his death. He later said he believed Lincoln would have been less harsh with the South than his successor, Andrew Johnson. In the aftermath, Johnson issued a $100,000 reward for the capture of Davis and accused him of helping to plan the assassination. Along with their hand-picked escort led by Given Campbell, Davis and his wife Varina Davis were captured by Union forces on May 10 at Irwinville in Irwin County, Georgia. After Davis was captured in 1865, he was accused of treason and imprisoned at Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia. He was never tried and was released after two years. While not disgraced, Davis had been displaced in ex-Confederate affection after the war by his leading general, Robert E. Lee.