Thread by @TheCivilWarDoc1

#OTD in 1865 President Andrew Johnson put out a reward of $100,000 dollars (Approximately $2 million in today's money) for the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Davis and a small group of close advisors had fled Richmond in early April.

They initially fled to Danville, Virginia but had to quickly leave because the Union Army was hot on their tail. They arrived in the town of Washington, Georgia in Wilkes County of May 3rd. He held his last meeting the next day.

Davis reunited with his family on May 7th and they arrived in Abbeville on May 8th. During this time, it was believed by the United States Government that Davis played a role in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Jefferson, his family, and remaining aides set up camp for the night outside of Irwinville on May 9th. Davis was planning to set up a government in exile in Britain or France but the First Wisconsin and Fourth Michigan Calvary caught up with him in the early morning on May 10th.

Desperate to escape, Davis fled the camp in his wife's overcoat and was soon captured. Rumors quickly circulated in the press that Davis had been captured in women's clothes in his attempt to evade capture.

Davis was imprisoned at Fortress Monroe in Virginia, which earlier in the war had become a beacon of freedom for fugitive enslaved people who sought refuge from slavery with the Union Army there. He was indicted charges of treason but was never brought to trial.

Two years later Davis was released on $100,000 dollars bail. Ironically, the men who posted Davis' bail included prominent former abolitionists such as Horace Greeley and Gerrit Smith.

Davis and his family lived in Canada until 1868 when Andrew Johnson granted amnesty to all former high ranking Confederate officials, including Davis. All charges of treason against Davis were dropped by the federal government in February of 1869.

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