The Washington herald., 1914-03-05

| on the night OF March near Manatsks
on the Mattapony River. In his com
| pany WAS boy Of thirteen named WIN
lam IAttiepage.
After the vorley that killed Dahlsrer
had been fred the boy went into the road
and found the body Of . man. II was
very dark night The boy felt OF she
body, looking for watch. He found
none. but IN an inner pocket he came
upon q cigar case. a package OF papers
and a notebook. These he handed over
to Mr.. Haibach.
As Il was not practicable to strike q
light the papers were not examined un-
til the following morning. They were
then read by Halbach and two or three
other men, including clergyman, Rev
Richard II. Bagby. and ware afterward
turned over to Lieut.. James Pollard. OF
the Ninth Virginia Cavalry, who had ar
ranged the ambuscade.
The papers were taken by Lieut.. Pol
lard to Richmond. where they were
handed to Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, to whose
command Pollard belonged. Gen. Lee
at once recognized their importance and
Immediately took them to Jefferson
Davis, by whose direction he afterward
took them to the adjutant generals Of
nee to be filed. From there they were
sent to the engineers ONCE. where Maj
All who saw the papers firmly believed
that they represented the letter and spirit
Of Col. Dahlgren's instructions. In view
of the character of the men who handled
the papers, It would be difficult to sup
pose that any attempt was made to TAM
per with them. and owing to the condi-
ton Of the paper on which the address
was written .hc Interpolation Of a line
would have seen almost impossible.
- Nha hs,s
Halbach and Bagby declared that the
text was Identical with the papers they
had read that had been taken from Dahl
gren's body by the boy Littlepage.
"An Ugly Piece of Business."
It being learned by the Confederate
authorities subsequently, that Lieut.. Pol
lard had Dahlsren's notebook, that Of
ficer was called upon to produce II, and
did so. through the colonel OF his regi-
ment. The draft Of the address in the
notebook was compared with that in the
original paper and was found to be iden-
teal. as to the disputed passage.
Although they proved that the papers
had not been tampered with, the Con-
federates were not ready to accept the
view that the address was a first draft.
made by an impetuous youth Of less
than twenty-five. which was not ap-
proved by his superiors and not issued
by him to his men. Historical records
must be carefully sifted to CLEAN even as
much reliable Information regarding the
Dahlgren papers as is presented here.
The letters Of Gen. George G. Meade,
published nearly fifty years after the
events here described, seem to throw
doubt on the statement by Gen. Kilpat-
rick regarding the papers.
The day after receiving Gen. Lees IN
duiry regarding the papers, Gen. Meade
ugly piece of business: for in denying
having authorized or approved the
burning of Richmond or killing Mr..
Davis and cabinet I necessarily threw
odium on Dahlgren. ], however. en-
closed a letter from Fitzpatrick in which
the authenticity of the papers was i'm
pugned; but regret to say Kilpatrick's s
reputation and collateral evidence in my
possession, rather go against this theory.
However, I was determined my skirts
should be clear"
Years brought a kindlier feeling on
both sides as to the Dahlgren papers
The belated evidence of Gen. Meade
seems to show that the Confederates
were not so far wrong as was at first
assumed. Time was to show that the
personal papers of a rash and adven-
turous boy had little to do with the ex-
pedftion in which he lost his life The
best evidence of this was the fact that
the supposed address and instructions
were never issued by Dahlgren to his
men.
resumed.
U,nrnrirht lqlil