379 Series I Volume XLIX-I Serial 103 - Mobile Bay Campaign Part I
Page 379 | WILSON'S RAID - ALABAMA AND GEORGIA. |
and the men. From these circumstances there seems to be no doubt whatever that Davis sought to avoid capture by assuming the dress of a woman or that the ladies of the party endeavored to pass him off upon his captors as one of themselves.
In addition to Davis and his family, Colonel Pritchard captured, at the same time, John H. Reagan, the rebel Postmaster-General; Colonel B. N. Harrison, private secretary; Colonels Lubbock and Johnston, aides-de-camp to Davis; four inferior officers, and thirteen private soldiers, besides Miss Howell, two waiting maids, and several colored servants. As soon as breakfast could be prepared Colonel Pritchard, preceded by Colonel Harnden, began his march, with prisoners and wagons, for Macon, about 120 miles to the northwest of Irwinville. The next day he met a courier with copies of the President's proclamation offering a reward of $100,000 for the capture of Davis. This proclamation had been received and promulgated by me on the 9th, and hence the officers and men in pursuit of Davis were in no way inspired by the promise it contained. They performed their part from a higher sense of duty, and too much praise cannot be awarded to Colonels Pritchard and Harnden and the officers and men of their regiments who participated in the pursuit. Colonel Pritchard arrived at Macon on the 13th and reported at once with his prisoners at corps headquarters. Arrangements had already been made, under instructions from the Secretary of War, for forwarding Davis to the North, via Atlanta, Augusta, and Savannah. Colonel Pritchard, with a detachment of his regiment, was directed to deliver his prisoners safely into the custody of the Secretary of War. I also placed in his charge the person of James B. Clay, jr.,* for whose arrest a reward had also been offered by the President. Mr. Clay surrendered himself to me at Macon about the 11th of May, having informed me by telegraph from Western Georgia the day before that he would start for my headquarters without delay. A. H. Stephens was arrested by General Upton at Crawfordsville about the same time and also placed in charge of Colonel Pritchard. Brevet Major-General Upton was charged with making the necessary arrangements for forwarding the prisoners and escort safely to Savannah, in the department of General Gillmore. These arrangements were successfully carried out and the prisoners delivered at Fortress Monroe for safe-keeping on the 22nd of May. My command had also arrested Mr. Mallory, the rebel Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Hill, senator, and Joseph E. Brown, Governor of Georgia. Breckinridge and Toombs managed to escape by traveling alone and as rapidly as possible, the former having passed through Tallahassee, Fla., only a few hours before the arrival of General McCook at that place.
Immediately after the capture of Davis the detachments and scouting parties of my command were assembled by their respective brigade and division commanders, and, after paroling the bulk of the rebel forces, amounting to about 59,000 men, that had been serving in Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, the various regiments were ordered North to be mustered out. From the foregoing narrative it will be seen that the first perfectly reliable information in regard to the movements of Davis was that sent in by Lieutenant Joseph A. O. Yeoman, of General Alexander's staff; that the route actually pursued by Davis' and his party after leaving Washington was first discovered by Lieutenant-Colonel Harnden at Dublin, and that the capture was actually made one mile and a half north of Irwinville, Ga., at dawn of May 10, by Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin D. Pritchard, with a detachment of 7 officers and 128 men
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*Reference is probably to Clement C. Clay.
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