The Dahlgren Affair was an incident in the American Civil War involving a failed Union raid on the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia on March 2, 1864. Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South The Confederate States of America (also called the Confederacy, the Confederate States, and CSA) formed as the government set up from 1861 This article is about the city of Richmond the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Events 986 - Louis V becomes King of the Franks. 1127 - Assassination of Charles the Good Year 1864 ( MDCCCLXIV) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year According to mysterious papers found on the body of the raid's commanding officer, colonel Ulric Dahlgren, one of their mission objectives was to assassinate Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet. Ulric Dahlgren ( April 3, 1842 &ndash March 2, 1864) was the son of United States Admiral John A Jefferson Finis Davis ( June 3, 1808 &ndash December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as President of the
History
Ulric Dahlgren was killed outside of Richmond, near the King & Queen County Court House, on March 2 during a bungled raid on the Confederate capital, ostensibly to free Union prisoners. Events 986 - Louis V becomes King of the Franks. 1127 - Assassination of Charles the Good (See Battle of Walkerton). The Battle of Walkerton was an engagement of the American Civil War. Late that evening thirteen-year-old William Littlepage discovered Dahlgren's body and searched its pockets for a pocketwatch. Instead he found a pocketbook and two folded papers, which he promptly turned over to his teacher Edward W. Halbach, a captain in the Confederate Virginia Home Guard. Halbach examined the papers the next morning, discovering that they contained signed orders on Union army stationery for a plot to assassinate Davis. According to one of the papers:
- "The men must keep together and well in hand, and once in the city it must be destroyed and Jeff. Davis and Cabinet killed. " [1]
Halbach immediately contacted his commander, Captain Richard H. Bagby, and informed him of the discovery. At 2 p. m. on March 3rd Bagby transferred the papers to Lieutenant James Pollard with instructions to deliver them to his commander Col. Richard L. T. Beale. Richard Lee Turberville Beale ( May 22, 1819 &ndash April 21, 1893) was a lawyer three-term United States Congressman from the Beale instructed that they be delivered to the Confederate command in Richmond immediately. Pollard arrived in Richmond at noon on March 4th and delivered the papers to General Fitzhugh Lee. Lee, astonished at their contents, immediately took the papers to President Davis and Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin. Judah Philip Benjamin ( August 6, 1811 &ndash May 6, 1884) was an American politician and lawyer Davis quietly read through the documents in Lee's presence and paused when he reached the assassination order, remarking "That means you, Mr. Benjamin. " Lee was then instructed to take the papers to the War Department where they were received by Secretary of War James A. Seddon. The Confederate States Secretary of War was a member of the Confederate States President's Cabinet during the Civil War. James Alexander Seddon ( July 13, 1815 &ndash August 19, 1880) was an American lawyer and politician who served two terms in the Seddon decided to release the documents publicly and sought Davis' approval to do so. The Richmond newspapers were contacted for a conference at the War Department and given copies of the orders, which were published the next morning on March 5. Events 363 - Roman Emperor Julian moves from Antioch with an army of 90000 to attack the Sassanid Empire, in a
In coming months the papers were widely circulated in the Confederacy and in Europe as evidence of Union barbarism. Dahlgren was likened to Attila the Hun and several Union leaders were accused of participation in the plot up to and including President Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln (February 12 1809 &ndash April 15 1865 the sixteenth President of the United States, successfully led his country through its greatest internal In the North, the papers were denounced as a forgery designed to weaken the Union's war effort. Forgery is the process of making adapting or imitating objects statistics or documents (see False document) with the intent to deceive.
Dahlgren Paper authenticity
For many years a debate has waged over the authenticity of the Dahlgren Papers. Part of the mystery stems from the fact that the papers have not survived and appear to have been intentionally destroyed by Union Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in 1865. The Secretary of War was a member of the United States President's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington 's administration Edwin McMasters Stanton ( December 19, 1814 &ndash December 24, 1869) was an American lawyer politician United States Year 1865 ( MDCCCLXV) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year The papers were among a collection of important Confederate documents transferred to Washington after the surrender of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Robert Edward Lee (January 19 1807 &ndash October 12 1870 was a career United States Army officer, an Engineer, and among the most celebrated The Army of Northern Virginia was the primary military force of the Confederate States of America in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. Stanton ordered Francis Lieber to remove the Dahlgren Papers from the Confederate files and deliver them to him personally. Dr Francis Lieber ( March 18, 1800 &ndash October 2, 1872) originally known as Franz Lieber was a German-American He then presumably destroyed them as they have not been seen since.
Surviving records include transcripts of the documents, which were published in several newspapers, photographs of them that were provided by Lee to Union general George Meade for investigation, and a lithograph based on the photographs that was made in Europe where Confederate agents circulated the document to stir up sympathy for their cause. George Gordon Meade ( December 31, 1815 &ndash November 6, 1872) was a career United States Army officer and civil engineer involved Lithography is a method for Printing using a plate or stone with a completely smooth surface Unfortunately the destruction of the records by Stanton has prevented their examination in modern times and restricted historical knowledge of them to the surviving copies and examinations conducted between March 5, 1864 and November 1865 when Stanton seized the papers. Events 363 - Roman Emperor Julian moves from Antioch with an army of 90000 to attack the Sassanid Empire, in a Year 1864 ( MDCCCLXIV) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year
A leading proponent of the forgery allegation was Admiral John A. Dahlgren, Ulric's father, who spent the rest of his life trying to clear his son's name. Rear Admiral John Adolphus Bernard Dahlgren, USN ( November 13, 1809 &ndash July 12, 1870) son of Bernhard Ulrik Dahlgren merchant and The senior Dahlgren based his argument against their authenticity on a European lithograph of the orders in which his son's name was misspelled "Dalhgren. " The source of this error was discovered after the admiral's death by former Confederate general Jubal A. Early, who discovered the source of the error while studying the photographs. Jubal Anderson Early ( November 3 1816 &ndash March 2 1894) was a Lawyer and Confederate general in the American Civil The lithographer, working from the photographs, mistook the "l" for an "h" and transposed the two due to ink marks that bled through from the other side of the paper.
After the controversy surrounding the documents developed, Union Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick, who authorized the Dahlgren raid, was questioned by General Meade about the photographs sent by Lee. Hugh Judson Kilpatrick ( January 14, 1836 &ndash December 4, 1881) was an officer in the Union Army during the American Kilpatrick indicated to Meade that the papers were indeed authentic as he had seen them when conferring with Dahlgren, but claimed that the Confederates had altered them to include the assassination order. Meade officially replied to Lee that "neither the United States Government, myself, nor General Kilpatrick authorized, sanctioned, or approved the burning of the city of Richmond and the killing of Mr. Davis and cabinet," placing the blame solely on Dahlgren. Privately however, Meade confided to his wife that "Kilpatrick's reputation, and collateral evidence in my possession, rather go against this theory" that Dahlgren alone devised the conspiracy.
In addition to Meade's private beliefs, the papers' authenticity is corroborated by statements from Bureau of Military Information officers John McEntee, who accompanied Dahlgren on the raid and thus saw the papers, and John Babcock. It is further noted that the custody of the papers from their discovery by Littlepage on March 2nd to their delivery to Davis on March 4th is well documented. The short period of time between their transfer from Littlepage to Davis reduces the time in which a skilled forger could be found.
Though the papers have long been disputed, recent scholarship by historians including Stephen W. Sears and Edward Steers, Jr. has tended to favor their authenticity, though few who believe in their authenticity contend they were written by anyone other than Dahlgren himself. Stephen Ward Sears (b July 27, 1932) is an American historian specializing in the American Civil War. Edward Steers Jr is an American Historian specializing in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.
One theory about the Lincoln Assassination holds that the Dahlgren Papers' discovery instigated the chain of events ending in John Wilkes Booth's murder of Abraham Lincoln the next year. Abraham Lincoln assassination John Wilkes Booth (May 10 1838 – April 26 1865 was an American stage actor who assassinated Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the Steers, in his history of the assassination Blood on the Moon, traces the assassination conspiracy's origins to this event. Though they offer a different theory of the assassination that is bitterly at odds with Steers' interpretation, Ray Neff and Leonard Guttridge also agree on the Dahlgren affair's role. Mr Ray Neff - Royal High School Instructor of Advanced Sciences Sears summarizes the relationship between Dahlgren and Booth as follows:
- "Judson Kilpatrick, Ulric Dahlgren, and their probable patron Edwin Stanton set out to engineer the death of the Confederacy's president; the legacy spawned out of the utter failure of their effort may have included the death of their own president"
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