The Dahlgren Raid

[L Verge]

President Lincoln was distressed by the failure of the raid and particularly by the death of Ulric Dahlgren. According to writer Duane Schultz, "a reporter asked President Lincoln about the expedition and his part in the planning of it. Lincoln, after expressing his pleasure in Kilpatrick's safe return and sorrow for the loss of Dahlgren, replied that he had given his consent to the raid. He added that, even though some of his generals had pronounced the scheme impracticable, he had been willing to attempt it. Releasing the prisoners had seemed worth the risk."

Prisoner release was definitely a big issue in the last year of the war on both sides. Jubal Early's raid on D.C. included a plan for Gen. Bradley Johnson's men to attack Point Lookout in Southern Maryland; Booth's original plot was to kidnap for prisoner exchange; Kilpatrick and Dahlgren are aiming to free Union captives.

Gene - as far as Dahlgren's leg, I think I read somewhere that it was amputated a little above the foot after behing injured at Gettysburg. I also think he was brought to his father's home, Admiral Dahlgren, to recuperate but nearly died.

There is an interesting side story that I don't have time to look up; but after he was killed, he was buried in a Richmond graveyard. The famous Union spy, but Richmond native, Elizabeth Van Lew supposedly had the body secretly dug up and reburied outside of the city on the farm of a Union supporter. When the Admiral wanted his son's body, he had to do a bit of searching until the chaos of the immediate collapse of the Confederacy allowed him to find it.