(Davis, Jefferson)

Autograph letter signed by Benjamin D. Pritchard ("B. D. Pritchard | Lieut Col 4th Mich Cav"), 2 pages on a half-sheet of paper (6 3/8 x 8 in.; 163 x 203 mm), Abbeville, Georgia, 11 May 1865, to "Capt Scott A.A.A.G."; silked on verso closing several fold separations, a few small chips at central fold, some light stains. Half russet morocco folding-case.

Sold, Charles Hamilton Galleries, 30 April 1981, lot 78

See Clint Johnson, Pursuit: The Chase, Capture, Persecution, and Surprsing Release of President Jefferson Davis (2008)

"I have the honor to report that at daylight yesterday, at Irwinville, I Surprised and captured Jeff. Davis. ..." In the aftermath of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton mounted a massive manhunt for Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America. Davis fled Virginia, through the Carolinas, and into Georgia with an ever-decreasing military escort. In early May, Davis's Union pursuers were beginning to close his route of escape. General James H. Wilson deployed the First Wisconsin and Fourth Michigan cavalry regiments to accomplish the final capture, but he neglected to coordinate the operations of the two units, which had tragic results.

Benjamin Pritchard commanded the 439 men of the Fourth Michigan as they chased Davis and his entourage acorss the Ocmulgee River. His account of the apprehension of Davis is somewhat somber, reflecting the unfortunate incident of "friendly fire" that he includes in his report.

"I have the honor to report that at daylight yesterday, at Irwinville, I Surprised and captured Jeff. Davis and family, together with his wife's sister and Brother his Postmaster General (Reagan) his Private Secretary (Col Harrison) Col Johnson, A.D.C. on Jeff's staff, Col Morris, Col. Lubbock and Lieut Hathaway; also several important papers and a train of five wagons and three ambulances, making a most perfect success, had not a most painful mistake occurred, by which the 4th Michigan and 1st Wisconsin collided, which cost us two men killed and Lieut Boutelle wounded through the arm in the 4th Michigan, and three men wounded in the 1st Wisconsin. This occurred just at daylight after we had captured the camp, by the action of the 1st Wisconsin not properly answering our challenge, by which they were mistaken for the enemy." 

It should be noted that this next-day account makes no allusion to any attempt of Davis to escape the Union cavalrymen. Very quickly a popular rumor would spead that Davis had attempted to avoid capture by donning women's clothing, and in a 1902 interview with the Kalamazoo Saturday Gazette, even Pritchard retailed the story that a shawl-clad Davis tried to sneak away while posing as Varina Davis's aged mother.