Colonel Dahlgren's Plans

[BillO]

That's very kind of you, Neil. Thank you for that. It's my pleasure.

So ( and I can't believe a noted author and a lawyer to boot missed this opportunity ) what is the name of the book? Your happy consumers would like to know!

 

[Northern Light]

I don't know if it was. The man's name is Ira Gullickson, and since a transcription of his report on the papers has been posted here previously, I will include it here again:

Ira N. Gullickson
Questioned Document Analyst
1O308 Connecticut Avenue
Kensington, MD.

May 20, 1958

Mr. Virgil Carrington Jones
743 National Press Building
Washington, D. C.

Dear Sir:

At your request 1 have made an examination of four photostatic enlargements of a series of documents which are entitled "The Dahlgren Papers."

Exhibit No. 1 is a reproduction of known exemplars of the signature Ulric Dahlgren taken from documents in the official files of the United States Archives.

Exhibit No. 2 is an enlargement of the front side of the questioned document, identified as a handwritten Address of Col. Dahlgren to his troops. The stationery is imprinted "Headquarters Third Division Cavalry Corps."

Exhibit No. 3 is an enlargement of the reverse side of Exhibit No. 2. The writing on this document is at right angles to that on the face and bears the signature, U. Dahlgren, Col. Commanding.

Exhibit No. 4 is an infrared enlargement which shows both the front and back writing on the same plane.

After making an examination and comparison of the questioned writing with the standards, it is my opinion that these reproductions, which were made from reproductions of the original, show conclusively more than normally required evidence to establish the genuineness of the questioned original.

These reproductions show a document written on imprinted stationery and of the same thin-type of paper used at that time. The historical background of this event and the circumstances surrounding the death of Dahlgren, to a large extent, precludes the probability of forgery: (1) The forger would have had to obtain properly imprinted paper, (2) He would have had to have available sufficient specimens of Dahlgren's known writing in order to construct this document,, and (3) Most important, to have had someone so adept at copying as to simulate the writing of Dahlgren.

In my examination of Exhibit No. 1, the standard writing of Dahlgren shows three official signatures and writings made during the years 1362 and 1863, and these documents reflect a writer of great writing ability, a rapid writer who varied forms and shapes of many of his letters with a smooth flowing dexterity. For example, there are three forms of the lower case "r" and one of the strong points of establishing identity in the questioned document is the fact that three unrelated forms of "r" are used without apparent thought or deliberation.

The layman may point to the different type of capital "u" used in the standard writing from that used in the questioned. This is not a dissimilarity which would indicate forgery or a different writer. In the questioned signature, merely the initial is used. In the standard writing, which is taken from formally executed documents, the full name "Ulric" is used. Examining the line-quality, the variations of pen-pressure and pen-lifts found in the questioned document, they are all in consistent agreement with the known standards. There is nothing in the questioned document that can be pointed to as indicative of forgery, such as tremor or the line-quality found in copying. There is no appearance of copying, patching, or repairing, therefore, I can arrive at but one conclusion, that the questioned document was written in its entirety by Ulric Dahlgren, Col. Commanding.

Referring to Exhibit No. 4, the infrared reproduction of the document, this exhibit explains and proves itself insofar as the misspelling of the name "Dahlgren." It completely illustrates a condition which undoubtedly occurred due to the type of paper and the pen and ink used. The paper was very thin and quite absorbent and the ink very pentrating [sic]. Therefore, the tail of the "y" in the word "destroying" on the front side of the document pentrated [sic] the paper creating an allusion at the signature mis¬spelling the name "Dahlgren."

To reiterate, it is my opinion that the questioned document is genuine and not a skillfully [sic] or carefully prepared forgery.

Very truly yours,

Ira N. Gullcickson
Questioned Document Analyst
Metropolitan Police Department

As I said, I own one of the two known copies of this report, and I believe that this was my transcription of it that someone lifted from another site.

Thanks, Eric!

 

[Eric Wittenberg]

So ( and I can't believe a noted author and a lawyer to boot missed this opportunity ) what is the name of the book? Your happy consumers would like to know!

LOL. That's a fair question.

The title is Like a Meteor Blazing Brightly: The Short but Controversial Life of Colonel Ulric Dahlgren. A Kindle version is available at Amazon.com. I am the only source for actual books--the publisher tanked, and I bought the remaining inventory--for now, although I hope that Savas-Beatie will be bringing it back out in a softcover edition some time soon. If you're interested in a hardcover copy, please contact me privately.

 

[Jamieva]

So ( and I can't believe a noted author and a lawyer to boot missed this opportunity ) what is the name of the book? Your happy consumers would like to know!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1889020338/?tag=civilwartalkc-20

 

[zatelier]

I've read the book and I have corresponded with Tidwell. I think that it badly overstates the case. There simply is no evidence other than to suggest that the black flag had been raised.

About 1992 I read the book titled "The Unlocked Book", author Asia Booth Clarke, published 1938 (for reason too sensitive to publish earlier), as I recall, "... three times Wilkes tried to show Asia the cipher." The cipher being Wilkes orders to kill Lincoln. Begs (?) of who issued the order to Wilkes ?

 

[connecticut yankee]

In reading about Judson Kilpatrick's raid on Richmond early in 1864 I read again of the account where one his Colonels, Dahlgren, was killed and on his body it was discovered that he had a set of plans to kill Jefferson Davis and his cabinet and burn and pillage the city if the opportunity arose. According to Bruce Catton when this note was shown to Lee he had some doubts of its validity. My question is does anybody know if thee plans were preserved and where they might be so that they might be examined to determine just who wrote the plans that Confederate officials were so very upset about.

The Dahlgren Order to kill Jeff Davis and his Cabinet apparently no longer exist. I found this info on another Civil War forum:

"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 was killed outside of Richmond on March 2 during a bungled raid on the confederate capital, ostensibly to free union prisoners. 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 Home Guard. Halbach examined the papers the next morning, discovering that they contained signed orders on Union army stationary 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." Halbach immediately contacted his commander, Captain Richard H. Bagby, and informed him of the discovery. At 2 p.m. on March 3 Bagby transferred the papers to Lieutenant James Pollard with instructions to deliver them to his commander Colonel James Beale. Beale instructed that they be delivered to the Confederate command in Richmond immediately. Pollard arrived in Richmond at noon on March 4 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. 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. 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. In coming months the papers were widely circulated in the Confederacy and in Europe as evidence of Union barbarism. Dahlgren was likened to Atilla the Hun and several union leaders were accused of participation in the plot up to and including President Abraham Lincoln. In the North, the papers were denounced as a forgery designed to weaken the Union's war effort. 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 papers were among a collection of important Confederate documents transferred to Washington after the surrender of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Stanton ordered Francis Lieber to remove the Dahlgren Papers from the Confederate files and deliver them to him personally. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

 

[E_just_E]

My fascination on this whole story has to do with: a. how can a man with one arm and one leg ride a horse, b. get through the Richmond defenses and c. try to kill someone (supposedly) on (one) foot?

 

[mofederal]

This is a story I have read many time in articles in Civil War magazine. Not so many of those anymore. I always assumed it was true, but I just never knew for sure. The evidence was always there to read. I would like to thank Eric and the others for help in making it clearer, and leaving no doubt in my mind. I think they pinned high hopes on this raid. I believe the Richmond defenses would have been a tougher nut to crack. This raid reminds me of a Bridge to Far, or the book Raid! It was just something that was a bit more than could done by humans. It wasn't impossible, just improbable. Dahlgren gave his life in the attempt. It is too bad Kilpatrick didn't give his life. He had a bad habit of getting good men killed for nothing.

 

[7thWisconsin]

The novelist John Brick told this story very well in his "The Richmond Raid." A bit hard to find because of its age, but a good read.

 

[Eric Wittenberg]

This is a story I have read many time in articles in Civil War magazine. Not so many of those anymore. I always assumed it was true, but I just never knew for sure. The evidence was always there to read. I would like to thank Eric and the others for help in making it clearer, and leaving no doubt in my mind. I think they pinned high hopes on this raid. I believe the Richmond defenses would have been a tougher nut to crack. This raid reminds me of a Bridge to Far, or the book Raid! It was just something that was a bit more than could done by humans. It wasn't impossible, just improbable. Dahlgren gave his life in the attempt. It is too bad Kilpatrick didn't give his life. He had a bad habit of getting good men killed for nothing.

Thanks--I appreciate that. I spent several years going down this rabbit hole, and there is no doubt that it's a fascinating story and a fascinating episode.