Jefferson Davis and the Conspiracy

[Susan Higginbotham]

(08-01-2014 06:41 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Do you think Van Lew held him in esteem because of who his father was? Or was Crazy Bets in cahoots with the plan to raid Richmond? There's a full story of the guide and his execution that I found online and forgot to make note of. The site concerns historical executions. I found it while trying to find the exact wording of the Dahlgren Papers. The one that I printed out of the Southern Historical Papers does not mention "killing," but a variety of other sources do. I want to see the exact wording of those papers that have been perused, tested, and supposedly declared legitimate. There's a big difference to me between papers reading to burn the city and "kill" the Confederate leaders and burning the city and not allowing them to "escape."

In his biography of Dahlgren (which I highly recommend), Eric Wittenberg quotes the papers at length. The instructions to kill come from orders directed to Captain John F.B. Mitchell: "The bridges once secured, and the prisoners loose and over the river, the bridges will be burned and the city destroyed. The men must keep together and well in hand, and once in the city it must be destroyed and Jeff. Davis and Cabinet killed."

Wittenberg believes that the papers are authentic. He thinks it most likely that Lincoln was unaware of the plan to kill, but Stanton knew of it.