The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1907-06-06
CAPTURE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS.
True Story Told Regarding Frequently
MiSStdted Facts.

The story of the capture of Jeffer
son Davis has been told many times
But not always correctly. Formerly
in fact, the chief feature of the tall
, was deliberate fabrication, the re
suit of a malicious desire to hear
obloquy upon great but fallen man
But in later years the true story ha.
now and then been told in the North
A truthful aceouf1t Appeared in the
Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, Of
May 10, which printed ali interview
with local resident, Casper Knobel
a former member of the Fourth
Michigan Cavalry. Knobel, ther
only lad of 18, was with the party
that captured the President of the
Confederacy. He is thus quoted:
Il left Macon, Ca, at s o'clock on
the morning Of may 7, 1865, together
with 419 men and twenty officers of
the Fourth Michigan Cavalry, who
were sent out to effect the capture
of Davis. After lot of hard riding
and no rest we reached Abbeyville
on the night of May 9. The next
morning at o'clock we learned from
Confederate to whom VIE represent
| ed ourselves as a part Of the Confed-
crate Army, that a party had camp
ed the previous evening about mile
and half from Abbeyville. We knew
at once that it was jefferson Davis.
We then separated in detachments
of fourteen each. the one | was in
continuing on the road we had been
travelling.
eve soon found the embers of a
dying camp fire. This made us feel
sure that we were near the party.
1t was then about 4 o'clock in the
morning and still dark. A thrill
went through the company now as
some one had to be selected to go in
advance. We knew the camp was
guarded. 1t seemed almost certain
death to go ahead. At last some
one said, let the Dutchman 60 l
could not understand what was said,
but anyhow, Rinke, the horseshoer
of the company, told me.
''Rinke went with me. We rode
along quietly in the darkness until
we saw the tents. A colored man
left in front of the tent to guard it
was sound asleep. Rinke and | dis
charged our guns and our waiting
comrades made dash for the place.
Rinke held my horse while l went
up to the tents. l lifted up the flap
of the first tent as something told
me jefferson Davis was in there.
Sure enough he was.
"While the men were making their
search Mrs. Davis threw a shawl
over the shoulders of her husband to
protect him from the raw morning
air. From this incident arose the
oft-told tale of Davis attempt to flee
from the tent in wornan's Clothes"
Knobel might we'll have added
that the seldom-told truth will not
likely overtake and displace the
"oft-told" lie, where Northern men
and women of the older generation
are concerned. They recall too
vividly the pictures of Jefferson
Davis in hoop skirts and the alleged
assertions of high army officers that
he was thus clothed when captured.
Even so fair-minded man as Horace
Greeley gave space to the story in
his American Conflict, and though
he did not affirm it positively, ad-
mitting that it was denied, was evil
IDENTIFY disposed to believe it, for he
remarked that if Davis had succeed
ed in escaping and the Confederacy
had rallied and finally secured inde-
pendence, the Southern people would
have honored their chief for his
daring and resource in employing
such disguise. Neither Mr.. Davis
nor the proud and humiliated people
whom he represented would have
been disposed to assent to this.
It is we'll that sufficient Northern
testimony has been brought forward
in recent years to give the lie to a
calumny which no one now has a
right to believe and which will still
be believed only by narrow partisans.
The medicine that sets the whole world