The Dahlgren Affair
I hadn't heard
of this before today.
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 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."
has a good article on The Dahlgren Affair also.
