Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-06
JEFF DAVIS CAPTURE
COLORED SERVANT WHO WAS
PRESENT LIVES IN WASHINGTON.
Declares Confederate Leader Was Not
"A Valued Present.

oe1heo oOISSp COIOltu, an eInplOye OF Nne
Senate stationery room, was Jefferson
Davis man servant during the war and
was with him the night of his capture, May
10, 1865. Referring to the statement usually
accepted as true that Mr.. Davis was wear
ing woman's clothes the night he was cap
tured the old man exclaimed with some
warmth
Il a Christian man, and as 1 hope to
get to better world 1 declare most posi-
lively that Mr.. Davis was not disguised in
woman's attire. Those who assert other
wise are simply mistaken. On the night Of
May 10, 1865, we were in camp near Irwin
ton, Ga. 1 was the first man awake when
the camp was surrounded by Lieutenant
Colonel Prltchard and about 200 pick ed
men. Colonel Pritchard was a member Of
the 4th Michigan Cavalry.
GAS soon as I realized what was taking
place 1 aroused Mr.. Davis private secre-
tary, Mr.. William Burton Harrison, who
went Immediately to Mr.. Davis tent. OF
course the plan was to let Mr.. Davis escape
If possible. and with this in view his best
and ieeteSt horse was kept conveniently
near, saddled and fitted to be mounted in
stantly.
For several days Mr.. Davis had been in
disposed and in the hurry he started out of
shoulders. The night air was cold and as
he reached the door of the tent Mrs. Davis
threw a raglan around him. This garment
was hers and not Mr.. Davis, but there was
little or no difference in the cut and make
of the garment for male or female. they
being similar to the old-fashioned talmas
worn great deal before, during and imme
diately after the
Mrs. Davis simply picked up the wrong
raglan In the excitement and hurry, but, as
l say, the difference amounted to nothing.
Now that is the truth about his wearing a
woman's disguise-nothing more, nothing
less. 1t would have been perfectly natural
for persons not familiar with the raglans
to have thought that Mr.. Davis had a wo-
mans garment on.
1T is not true, either, that Mrs. Davis
went to the entrance of the tent and told
the soldiers that 1t was occupied by ladies,
who desired that they should be given time
to dress before being disturbed, and that
she then retired in the tent and dressed
Mr.. Davis in her clothes. Nothing of the
kind was done.
ITO prove to you that there was, indeed,
great confusion and excitement, didn't the
officers and soldiers get badly mixed up, so
badly, in fact. that they got to shooting
each other killing two and wounding six?
That shows sir, that somebody didn't
know what was going on
A Present From Mrs. Davis.
Mr.. Jones said that he didn't like to talk
u
make himself unpopular by doing SO: but
that, having known Mr.. Davis and his es-
Unable wife as ne did, he could not resist
giving the facts when asked about the cap
ture. He said that Mr.. Davis was kind and
good to him, and that a better woman
never lived than Mrs. Davis. That this old
servant and friend is kindly remembered
and regarded by Mrs. Davis has been at
tested in a number of ways Some time ago
Mrs. Davis sent him beautiful buckhorn
handle walking cane. On heavy band of
silver which encircles the handle is the in
scription:
ITO James Jones, in Grateful Memory,
From Mrs. Jefferson Davis"
With some reluctance the old man took
the highly priced cane from it's hiding place
in the Senate stationery room and eXhib
tied 1t to the writer.
What will you take for lit" he was
asked.
There is not enough money made to buy
that cane from me. While the cane Is a
very valuable one, I prize it not for its
worth, but because Mr.. Davis used 1t as
his favorite walking cane, and because
Mrs Davis-God bless her-thought enough
of me to send it to me after Mr.. Davis
death. Don't you think 1 ought to prize
It?
II have been offered $500 for 1t several
times, but 1t Is not for sale at any price.
I never allow 1t to get out of my sight.
During the war l used to wipe the cane OH
nearly every morning for Mr.. Davis, and
he never failed to thank me. He thought
great deal Of 1t, because he killed the buck
from whose antlers the handle was made.
1t was while he was Secretary of War that
he killed the buck. Whenever he got
chance he would go deer hunting in Mis-
sssippi, and he always had good luck. Sen
ator blackburn tells me that the wood
from which tho cane Is made is very val
liable, and that as far as he knows Mr..
Davis and himself had the only canes made
of It."