Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 13.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

* * * * In compliance with your request, and solely because it seems to be an unprejudiced one, I transmit my recollections of Colonel Dahlgren's raid, that they may be placed within the reach of those ‘who respect the truth for its own sake.’

February, 1864, found General Lee's army wintering along the line of the Rapidan, in Orange county, Virginia. General Meade's opposing army was in winter quarters, in Culpeper county, on the line of the Rappahannock.

During the latter part of that month, General Kilpatrick, a cavalry division commander of the latter, essayed a coup de main upon Richmond, the ‘objective point’ of his commander-in-chief. Colonel Dahlgren was a subordinate officer on that expedition. Kilpatrick's idea was, secretly leaving his army, to clear General Lee's right flank well, and, by a forced march, with picked men and horses, appear before the western defences of Richmond, and enter its back door without even knocking. Combined with his movement was a diversion made by General Custer around General Lee's left flank, which drew after it, as was intended, what cavalry General Lee had at that time with his army. [553]

Kilpatrick's route and the progress made on it were known in Richmond, so that when he arrived at the outer line of defences, quite a number of people were there to welcome him. I was in the city at the time, in person only (a portion of my cavalry being with the army, and a portion off, wintering in the interior of the State, where forage was more abundant), and rode out to the line of fortifications, witnessing Kilpatrick's departure after a brief stay, and a few shots fired from his artillery. There was no cavalry to pursue him with; and his return march, as far as I know, was unmolested.

Colonel Ulric Dahlgren's command was detached from the main body under Kilpatrick, with the intention, it was presumed, of crossing James river some distance above Richmond, releasing the Federal prisoners at Belle Isle, and, by entering Richmond from the south or Petersburg side, form again a junction with Kilpatrick. James river was high; and without attempting its passage, Colonel Dahlgren moved down its north bank, doubtless with the expectation of finding and uniting with Kilpatrick in Richmond. The latter, however, had left him and his small force to take care of themselves. It resolved itself then into a case of suave qui peut. Dividing into smaller parties, to facilitate their escape, Dahlgren, at the head of one of them, attempted to return through King & Queen county, but was killed, as far as I know and believe, at the point and in the manner described in the minute statement of Edward W. Halbach, of Stevensville, in that county. His statement can be found upon page 504 in the Lost Cause.

I was still in Richmond, when, on the second morning after Colonel Dahlgren's death, Lieutenant James Pollard, of the Ninth Virginia cavalry, brought me some papers and an artificial leg, which he said had been taken from the body of one of the officers of the enemy named Dahlgren, and who had been killed in King & Queen county. Pollard was one of my officers, accidentally in that vicinity at the time, and hence brought the papers first to me. Upon ascertaining their contents, I immediately took them to Mr. Davis. Admitted to his private office, I found no one but Mr. Benjamin, a member of his Cabinet, with him. The papers were handed him, and he read them aloud in our presence, making no comment save a laughing remark, when he came to the sentence, ‘Jeff. Davis and Cabinet must be killed on the spot,’ ‘That means you, Mr. Benjamin.’ By Mr. Davis's directions, I then carried them to General Cooper, the Adjutant-General of the army, to be filed in his office. I never saw them but once afterwards, when I took them out of the [554] Adjutant-General's office to see if copies of them, which had appeared in the Richmond papers, were correct, and immediately returned them again. The artificial leg was given to some army surgeons, to be used as a model. Colonel Dahlgren's body was brought to Richmond and buried, I heard, somewhere near the York River railroad depot; but by whom, or by whose order, I don't know, nor have I ever heard anything more about it.

And now to sum up: It is the universal belief of the Southern people that when General Kilpatrick and Colonel Dahlgren attempted their coup de main upon Richmond, in 1864, it was done with a view, whilst holding the city temporarily, to release the Federal prisoners; to ‘destroy and burn the hateful city.’ and to “kill Jeff. Davis and Cabinet on the spot.” Richmond at that time was filled with refugee ladies and children, whose husbands and parents were away in the armies, and the South was naturally filled with indignation at the expose of the object of the expedition. To use a trite expression—‘put the shoe on the other foot’—let the North imagine General Early's body to be found in the vicinity of Washington, when his forces retired from there in July of the same year, with orders upon it, to his troops, to ‘destroy and burn the hateful city,’ ‘kill Abe Lincoln and Cabinet on the spot’—‘exhorting’ long pent — up prisoners, with long pent — up revengeful feelings, to do it. I ask, would his remains be taken up tenderly and interred in the Congressional burying-ground, and his memory be cherished as a ‘murdered martyred hero?’ The best men of the North now, in their cooler moments, may try to disabuse their minds of such an idea; but it is a fact that any officer who could, at that time, have informed the Northern public that he had captured and destroyed Richmond and killed ‘Jeff. Davis and Cabinet on the spot,’ the Presidency of the United States would have been but meagre compensation for him in the hearts of the masses of the people.

Personally, as a man educated to be a soldier, I deplore Colonel Ulric Dahlgren's sad fate. He was a young man, full of hope, of undoubted pluck, and inspired with hatred of ‘rebels.’ Fired by ambition, and longing to be at the head of ‘the braves who swept through the city of Richmond,’ his courage and enthusiasm overflowed, and his naturally generous feelings were drowned. His memoranda and address to his troops were probably based upon the general instructions to the whole command.

The conception of the expedition, I have heard since the war, originated [555] in General Kilpatrick's brain. It furnishes the best specimen of cavalry marching, upon the Federal side, I know of during the war, for great celerity with proper relief to men and horses; but it showed upon the part of somebody a most culpable want of knowledge of data upon which to base such a movement. I know no time during the war, when Richmond, with its admirable circumvallating defences, forewarned or not, could have been taken by a division of cavalry.

Accompanying this you will find a correct copy of the memoranda found upon Colonel Dahlgren's body, and a copy of my letter to General Cooper, transmitting his note-book. A true copy of the original of his address to his troop can be found upon page 502 of the Lost Cause.

I have only to add, in conclusion, that what appeared in the Richmond papers of that period, as the ‘Dahlgren Papers,’ was correctly taken from the papers I carried in person to Mr. Davis; and that those papers were not added to or changed in the minutest particular, before they came into my possession, as far as I know and believe, and that, from all the facts in my possession, I have every reason to believe they were taken from the body of Colonel Ulric Dahlgren, and came to me without any alteration of any kind.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,