The Portland daily press., 1865-08-29

THE TRUE HISTORY OF TILE CAPTURE
OF JEFF. DAVIS.

Awriter in the atlantic Mossthty for Septem-
Der gives an accountof the capture of the reb-
Ell chief, which he asserts to be sIiterally true
to the minutest detail" We extract the fol-
lowing particulars from this account:
THE TRAIL.
Pritchard, after parting with Harnden, sent
astrong picket to the ferry, and then resumed
his march ON the river road. About three
miles from Abbeville he found a negro watch
ing his masters broken-down wagon. From
him he learned some interesting particulars
concerning the train which Hainden was pllr-
suing and which had crossed the ferry the
night before, among them this: that when the
party with the train came to pay the ferruman
the latter went to strike a light which the
former forbade, saying that they could pay
wei enough without a light, and in fact did
pay him ten-dollar gold piece anda ten-dol-
lar Confederate nOte--a circumstance which,
with other things, made Pritchard believe that
Davis crossed the river with the train. Heal
so learned that the river road was intersected
at Wilcoxs Mills by a cross road leading to Ir-
winYille; and as Davis appeared to be in the
habit OF travelling away from the train, it
seemed not improbable that he might be found
on road parallel to the one the train was fol-
lowing. Accordingly, that nothing on his
part should be left undone to effect the cap
ture Of the fugitive, he selected thirteen of the
pest mounted men from each company of his
omn2hj, and determined with them to follow
the rOau 10 nwnyille, at which point, ii Da-
Wis snolu0 not be Ialien in with on the way, he
couAd communicate again with Harnden--
Captain Hathaway, in command Of the re-
maInder OF Tie iorce, was lett at Abbevie,
WITH orders to patroI and picket the river. j
All things being arranged, we pushed ra pid-
ly ior IrWinviiie. TINS was also a beautiful
moonlight night. the dust having been laid
by tue ian, and the air bracing, the horses
stepped cut at Tree and STEADY pace, that
brou.nt US to our destination about two
o'clock, A. NJ, of the 1Uth but neither finding
Davis on the road, nor, to our surprise, the
Misconsin regiment IL the town. Without
any unnecessary disturbance, we halted to
gamer iniormation--tne men, meanwhile, sill
dlng lrom their horses, to catch, Ioi the mo-
meat, bit OF steep. In all this quiet We
man Desan to scream, and an officer near went
to learn the cauze. she complained that some OF
the men, ..Dummers,@ had got into her smoke
house aud were appropr1atlng her hams. This
was speedily rectined, out not her disposition
to talk anu scream. she said, "Theres camp
of our men out there, Two hundred of them,
and Ihey viii pay youns for pestering me -
And sne screamed as If She would alarm the
About this time negro boy belonging to the
woman was Luned Out OF bed, and having f'ai
been to it, lie was promptly taken to the head
OF tie column to serve as guide. Pritchard,
convinced that he had found Davis's camp,
anu de.ermiaed to make sure of his capture,
sent Lieutenant Purinton with twenty-five
dismounteo men to gain the other side of it,
in o4aer to prevent escape in that direction
when he should charge in from. this side; he
also moved mis- command forward, about a
mi.e and then quietly waited Tor day to break.
lie Ieanzation that we were near to, and
probably would seize, the head Of the Conied-
eracy, and thus destroy at once the political OF.
ganAdulon and rahying point of the thing,
made us all tremble witn anxiety. To pu5
the finishing stroke to the rebellion was our
high duty, and would be crowning proofand
acI OF patliotism. At this time we knew no-
thing oi the reward for the apprehension Of
DAVIS; we knew only that he was the CHEZ
man ol our country's enemies, and we were re,
solved that none should blame us if we failed
to capture or xiii him. Poe .rtkia tE -hi