Jefferson Davis and the Conspiracy

[wpbinzel]

There is no doubt in my mind that both Lincoln and Davis viewed the capture of the other as a legitimate military objective. (And because history is written by the wining side, I have also noticed that it is generally cited as efforts to "capture" Davis and to "kidnap" Lincoln. I am not sure that a difference with a distinction....)

The earliest reference I found with regard to the capture of either is in a May 8, 1863 telegram from Lincoln to General Hooker bemoaning the failure of a Union cavalry raid to press the attack and move into Richmond, saying, "there was not a sound pair of legs in Richmond, and that our men, had they known it, could have safely gone in and burnt every thing & brought us Jeff. Davis." [Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), vol VI, p. 203.]