The Capture of Jefferson Davis

“The Capture of Jeff Davis”

as told by John William Linsley

I have read so many times in the paper, they were the last one left that helped capture Jeff Davis, President of the Southern Confederacy, so I thought I would write the part I took or performed in the capture.

We were to camp in Macon, Georgia, and this was on a Sunday. Ordered to pack up and march, the boys thought we were going home. The order did not come until about five o’clock, the bugle sounded ‘Boots and Saddles’ that meant to get out and march. We saddled up and started. Some said, ‘This is not the way home.’

We were going southwest. We marched all night, stopped in the morning and fed our horses and got breakfast then started again. Marched all day, went into camp at night in a pine woods and I was detailed horse guard. We had a thunder shower. Lightning struck a number of trees and killed two horses. The horses were very restless and I did not get no chance to sleep.

The next morning, just after daylight, we started again. Marched until about two o’clock in the afternoon. We stopped to make coffee and rest a little. We mounted our horses and started again. Went about on half mile. We came into a town called Abbeyville, it was the county seat. We turned there and went east. Went about two miles. We turned out and thought we were going into camp but we soon found out different.

An orderly came from headquarters and he wanted thirteen men from Co. L. to report to headquarters. When the orderly sergeant came to make the detail, one of our boys by the name of Wm. West. said he was sick and was not able to go and I knew he was. I told him if he had to go, I would go in his place. I fell in with the rest of the boys that was detailed to go and report to headquarters.

At this time the Regiment was all together as soon as we reported, Prichard took one hundred and twenty-eight and started on the march. He had a few officers with him. Marched until sundown and then fed our horses in a mill. Started right out again and marched until about half past two or three in the morning, then we went into a little town named Irwinville and stopped.

I dismounted and layed down side the road. There was a house about twenty feet from me. Some of the boys went into the house to get something to eat. The old woman got up. She thought our boys were Reb and they not ought to surrender that way for she had her time taking care of them, the sick and wounded. She had just got home from Richmond. She said if the boys did not behave, she would in the morning have an officer come down and arrest them. Prichard heard what she said and he went into the house. He found out by this woman and a darkey where the camp was and he thought this camp must be the one he was looking for and took this darkey for a guide with him.

Prichard came out and ordered to mount the horses. We started. How far we went, I don’t know, I fell asleep on my horse. They came to a halt, my horse keep right on. Prichard said, “Where are you going John?” And that woke me up and I was right in with a couple of boys that I knew. They belonged to Co. E.

What they stopped for was a detail on the flank. Prichard found out by this darkey how the camp was situated so he sent their men out on the flank so if any tried to get out they would get them. We stopped there a few minutes and it was coming daylight and Prichard ordered us to get our guns ready and charge. We were in a pine woods. We charged about twenty rods and came right into camp.

John Haines and Charlie Tyler and myself went into a tent and no one was up. In this tent there was one man and two women. The man was on the south side and the women on the west side so their feet came together. The old man rose up to see what was going on. ‘I surrender’ he said, reached down in the bed, got a revolver and handed it to John Haines. We did not know who they were and none of the boys knew who they were. After it proved to be Jeff Davis and the women proved to be his wife and her sister. We did not know at the time we went out of the tent.

Just as we got out into the road, “Bang, Bang.” Guns about 40 rods up the road and they kept agoing all excited. Prichard ordered us to fall in. We did and went up the road. The boys that went out on the flank met the 1st Wisconsin and asked them who they were and they said, ‘You are the sons of bitches we’re after!” and fired on our boys.

Then the firing commenced in general. I fell behind a pine tree. You could see them dodging from one tree to another. Prichard saw how it was to fall back and dismount. Then we formed in line and then we went into the fight. I had fired two shots and was putting in a load when they hollered, “Cease firing. You are firing on your own men.” We had two killed and three wounded. They proved to be the 1st Wisconsin and 1st Ohio. They had seven wounded and then we went back to the camp.

Some of the boys was getting a barrel out of a wagon. They called me to help and it proved to be a barrel of whiskey. We soon made a hole in it and I was filling my canteen when Frank Carpenter came rushing out, ‘Say Bill, we got old Jeff.”

I spoke up, “Hell we have! Where is he?’

“Right where the crowd is.”

I rushed up, there he was. The same old man that was in the tent with the women. He was giving our boys like the devil and our boys were hooting at him. Mrs. Davis and her sister rushed out into the ring and said, “Boys you must not irritate the president. He is a courageous man and may hurt some of you.”

And we cheered him again. Just then Prichard rode up to see what was going on and Jeff Davis turned to him and asked him if he was the commanding officer here. He said he was. Then he (Jeff) said “You’re too good looking a man to be captain of a band of highwaymen meddling with peaceful citizens traveling through the country.”

Prichard turned to him and asked, “Who may I have the honor of calling you?”

He (Jeff) said, “You may call me who you are a might to.”

Then Prichard said, “I will call you Jeff Davis. That is your name.”

This was the first that Prichard knew that we had got Jeff Davis. Just at this time someone touched me on the shoulder. I turned to see it was Charlie Tyler. “Bill John Kline has been killed.”

I spoke up and said, “My God, is that so? Where is he? He was over where we formed in line afighting.” He was shot in the mouth and it come out of the back of his head. Captain Hudson just rode up and he says, “Take out what things he has in his pockets. We took out Jeff Davis’ revolver, the one Jeff gave him when he surrendered and his pocket book and some other trinkets. We spread his blanket over him saying we would come back and get him and went to the camp.

As I get back there, I met Sargent Ben Colf. “I have been looking for you for a half an hour!”

“No you ain’t, for I have not been gone 10 minutes.”

“I want you to go with me, for Prichard has ordered me to report at Abbyville to Major Hathway that they had got Jeff Davis and that they would be there as quick as we could.

It was 25 miles there. We started right out. There were four of us, Ben Colf, George Nagelle, Jerry J. Davis, J.W. Linsley. Got there about one o’clock in the afternoon. I do not know what took place in camp after we went away, only what they tell. But some of them said when we was fighting with the 1st Wisconsin that Jeff tried to get away.

Prichard had put a guard around the camp. Mrs. Davis stepped out of the tent, asked if they would allow her sister to go down to the brook and get a pail of water. The brook was about 4 rods from the tent and the guard said yes. As he (Jeff) walked out he had on a riding dress and shawl over his head. He looked like an old woman. As he walked along his spurs picked up his dress behind and showed his boots and the guard stopped him and made him go back into the tent.

After Prichard got to Abbeyville, we camped there that night. Next morning we started for Macon. The second day out I was detailed as guard over Jeff. He was in an ambulance. I rode right by the hind wheel and had my gun in my lap ready to shoot. It had been heard that the citizens was going to rise and take Jeff away from us and we were ordered if anything happened like that to shoot Jeff first thing.

We talked with him and he told us all about his trying to get away. When he started after a pail of water he was going right by his horse, (planning to) cut the halter and jump on him and skip. If he had done that he would of got away. He would run the risk of being killed or captured. We marched and at night turned him over to some other guards. Next day we marched all day and then arrived at Macon and then Prichard went on to Washington with Jeff and the party we captured.

This is a true statement of the part I took in the capture of Jeff Davis.

Mr. J. W. Linsley, Co. L; 4th Michigan Calvary

John Linsley enlisted in Co.L,4th Michigan Cavalry in July,1862. He was wounded in the leg at Kingston, Georgia and was in the detachment of cavalry that captured Jefferson Davis in 1865.

After the war he was a farmer in Michigan. His life took a tragic turn in 1876. During celebrations at Ohio Corners on the Fourth of July, Linsley lost both arms when a cannon he was loading exploded. He also lost the sight in one eye and hearing in one ear. He lived another 50 years. Source: Find a Grave

Parents of John William Linsley

John Parkman Linsley – B: Feb. 1, 1891; D: June 3, 1903

Married – Dec. 17, 1840

Ann Eliza Button – B: March 11, 1819 D: April 14, 1898

Children:

Edgar S. Linsley – B: Dec. 4,

John William Linsley – B: Aug. 29, 1843; D: May 10, 1926

Elien Jane Linsley – B: Nov. 28, 1845

Emma Eliza Linsley – B: Oct. 1, 184

James Ebenezer Linsley – B: June 28, 1850

John William Linsley – B: Aug. 29, 1843; D: May 10, 1926

Married – Sept. 6, 1868

Lydia A. Chamberlin – B Jan. 18, 1849; D: Feb. 21, 1936

Children

Herman

Emma

Lucy

Alfred

Jane

Burdette Edward Linsley- B: April 11, 1879; D: Sept. 6, 1948

Burdette Edward Linsley- B: April 11, 1879 D: Sept. 6, 1948

Married – April 17, 1912

Golden Taylor – B: Nov. 16, 1886 D: Dec. 24, 1977

Children:

Virginia F. Linsley – B: Oct. 21. 1913 D: May 12, 2003

Phyllis K. Linsley – B: March 28, 1916 D: July 28, 201

John P. Linsley – B: Feb. 9, 1922 D: Dec. 4, 2005

Woodrow M. Funk – B: Sept. 26, 1912 D: April 16, 2011

Married – March 10, 193

Virginia F. Linsley B – Oct. 21. 1913 D: May 12, 2003

Sturgis Historical Museum ~ At the Depot

May 2024