Newspaper
Article submission by Camp Crapo, Michigan SUVCW
Flint Man Is Sole Survivor of
Detachment Which Captured Jeff Davis at Close of Civil
War; Will be
89 in March.
By Mildred Elwood
The only survivor of the detail which captured Jefferson
Davis, president of the southern Confederacy, at the
close of the Civil war, George Raab, recalls his war
adventures of 70 years ago as though they were yesterday.
Sitting in his home at 315 Sylvan court, he recounts with
unflagging zest the story of how the Fourth Michigan
Cavalry and the First Wisconsin were sent to capture
Jefferson Davis, who was suppose to be going to the
Florida coast and thence to England. It is a colorful
story as he relates it. From the two regiments, 1(8?)0
men, of whom he was one, were sent ahead to surround
Davis’ camp early in the morning. The Davis
expedition was a small one - including only Mr. and Mrs.
Davis, their two children, two of the Confederate cabinet
members and some Negro servants, all traveling in an
ambulance in which they slept at night.
Tells of Capture
“When we came up, Jeff Davis (?) me out dressed in a
long waterproof coat, with a woman’s shawl over his
head and a water pail over his arm,” Mr. Raab
recounts. “Mrs. Davis called to ask if her (?)
others’ could go to the spring to get some water,
but as the confederate president started, someone in the
Union forces called out to Mrs. Davis, “What the
hell is your mother wearing spurs for?” Davis had
his horse tied in the woods and was going to make a dash
for it
The capture was made near Irwinville, Ga., on May 10,
1865, and concluded with a brief flurry of fighting
between the detail and more of their own forces who were
mistaken for Confederate soldiers in the early morning.
When the Union colonel arrived, Davis’ young son
marched up to his capturer and cried, “When I’m
a man, I’ll avenge my father.”
The colonel sent a dispatch to a Union general at Macon,
who sent a brigade to bring back the captives lest an
attempt be made to deliver the southern leader. Mr. Raab
was one of the 10 men assigned to guard the ambulance
until the brigade arrived.
Has Davis’ Mirror
He still owns a hand mirror from Davis’ effects, and
for a while had a gray felt hat of Davis, which he is
sorry now that he threw it away a little later when he
bought a new hat. He also remembers a story to the effect
that in Jefferson Davis’ trunk when he was captured
was $30,000, which a Union soldier buried until he could
come back and get it later. He is a little doubtful about
the truth of that tale, however.
The veteran remembers that the expedition to capture
Davis was generally popular, since the Confederate troops
had been allowed to go safely home, and the opinion even
of the soldiers who made the capture was that Davis
should have received the same treatment.
The Confederate leader, whom Mr. Raab describes as
“a fine man and no more a traitor than any of the
others,” was imprisoned in Fort Monroe for two
years. The veteran recalls that one of Davis’ horses
- a dapple gray- was brought back to this vicinity by a
Lapeer man, who once rode the steed into Flint.
”War is an awful thing,” Mr. Raab said the
other day. “People used to stand up and shoot at
each other and then chat back and forth when the shooting
stopped. I hope the United States will never get into
another war.”
89 Years Old
The veteran, who will be 89 on St. Patrick’s day,
enlisted in Flint on January 5, 1864, at the age of 17
and was discharged Aug., 15, 1865, in Nashville. Dr.
George W. Fish, prominent Flint physician and later
United States consul at Tunis, Africa, was his regiment
surgeon, and Dr. Fish’s oldest son was the company
commander.
Mr. Raab came through the war without being wounded,
although he declares that a bullet once came so close
that it blistered his nose. He was thrown from his horse,
however, and suffered a spine injury which has troubled
his ever since.
He is the only surviving charter member of the Gov. Crapo
Post of the G.A.R., of which he was president three
times. The post now has only seven members, as compared
with 400 soon after the war. Mr. Raab, who came to Flint
when he was 10 years old, lived in the Fourth ward when
it was a pine forest. He was a supervisor and assessor in
the ward for 24 years. A cabinet maker by trade, he made
many of the pieces of furniture which are now in his
home.
The Flint Daily Journal, February 10, 1935 .
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