U.S. President Abraham Lincoln did not want to imprison Confederate President Jefferson Davis. In fact, Lincoln wanted Davis to escape. Lincoln , his successor, Andrew Johnson, and their cabinets feared that putting Davis on trial for treason would give him the chance to prove before the U.S. Supreme Court that secession was - and is - constitutional.
Pursuit: covers Davis's escape from Richmond in April 1865, his capture in May 1865, his two years imprisonment from 1865-1867, and the legal maneuverings in 1868 that resulted in Davis finally being freed without any trial ever being held. Pursuit also reveals:
..The U.S. government lied about Davis's capture. He was not dressed in women's clothes as the government claimed and newspapers like the New York Times reported.
..The U.S. government tortured Davis while he was held in a U.S. military prison.
..The U.S. government manufactured false evidence against Davis in an attempt to frame him for the assassination of President Lincoln.
..Chief Justice Salmon Chase secretly met with Davis's attorneys to keep his case from going before the entire U.S. Supreme Court. Chase feared that Davis could prove that the 620,000 deaths suffered by both sides in The Civil War were the Union's fault, not the Confederacy's.
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Clint Johnson (born in Fish Branch, Florida) is an American historian and author of nonfiction, primarily about the American Civil War. He is a graduate of the University of Florida.
Fascinated with the American Civil War since childhood, Johnson has written eight books on the subject. He was also coauthor of They Call Me Big House, the autobiography of the late Clarence Gaines, one of America's best collegiate basketball coaches. Johnson is also the author of two corporate biographies, and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles on business, history and travel. Johnson lives in the mountains of North Carolina with his wife Barbara.
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"A master storyteller exposes one of the most fascinating and overlooked dramas in Civil War history.
-- Rod Gragg Author of Covered With Glory and Confederate Goliath
" Using solid research, an engaging style and a novelist’s eye for details, Clint Johnson has produced a vivid, fresh and entertaining look at Jefferson Davis’s flight and capture. This book is a welcome addition to the literature on the final days of the Confederacy and the fate of its one and only chief executive."
-- Chris Hartley Author of Stuart’s Tarheels: James B. Gordon and His North Carolina Cavalry
"If there was one Civil War historian I would choose to tell the story of Jefferson Davis, it would be Clint Johnson. In these pages, Johnson brings the mercurial Confederate President alive with a riveting and revealing narrative that sheds important new light on one of the pivotal figures in American history. Highly recommended."
-- Marc Leepson Author of Desperate Engagement, Flag: An American Biography, and Saving Monticello
“Clint Johnson’s Pursuit is a spellbinding tale of the last days of the Confederacy. The author’s crisp prose and solid research give readers a riveting view of Jefferson Davis’s last days in power.”
— David J. Eicher, author of The Longest Night and Dixie Betrayed
“In this meticulously researched and well-written narrative we follow the trail, the capture and finally the trial of this amazingly self-assured figure that held this most critical role in the hierarchy of the Confederacy. In describing this nearly five-week sojourn and the following two-year imprisonment, we learn a great deal about this complex, contradictory and little-known figure Jefferson Davis.”
-- Reviewed by Paul Markowitz at Armchair Interviews.com
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