Benjamin D. Pritchard

Benjamin Dudley Pritchard (January 29, 1835 – November 26, 1907) was a United States Army officer, most known for leading the Union cavalry regiment which captured the fugitive Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, in the weeks surrounding the close of the American Civil War.

Benjamin Pritchard was born to Lambert and Zulpha (Adams) Pritchard in rural Nelson, Ohio. Pritchard worked in the carpentry and cabinet-making trade until he had earned and saved enough money to enroll at Hiram College, where his instructor was James A. Garfield (who would later serve as United States President). He studied penmanship under the Spencer Brothers, whose father had invented the Spencerian Script.

Following his work at Hiram College, in 1856, Pritchard went to Allegan, Michigan, where he studied law under the tutelage of Judge W. B. Williams and taught for Allegan Public Schools at a salary of $240 per year. In 1858, he continued his studies at the University of Michigan, graduating and achieving admittance to the bar in 1860. Upon his return to Allegan, he partnered with Judge Williams to established a law practice.

In 1862, Pritchard and Judge Williams both enlisted in the Union Army. Pritchard entered the 4th Michigan Cavalry, Company L, as a captain. Following the Battle of Chickamauga (September 30 – October 3, 1863), he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

On September 1, 1864, while on a short leave, Pritchard traveled to Chagrin Falls, Ohio, where he was married to Mary Bently Kent. They honeymooned in Allegan at Judge Williams's home before Pritchard returned to his regiment. Meanwhile, his new bride was in a train wreck and subsequently had to use a wheelchair, after which she took up the art of painting. Upon Pritchard's discharge, they set up residence at 330 Davis Street in what is now part of Allegan's historic district.

At Abbeyville, Georgia, 70 miles south of Macon, it was learned that Davis's fleeing party had crossed the ferry over the Ocmulgee River and was moving southward toward Irwinville, 30 miles below Abbeyville and 100 miles south of Macon. Lieutenant Colonel Pritchard, in command of the 4th Michigan Cavalry, marched the regiment rapidly down the river road, and, after a 30-mile ride, reached Irwinville late in the night. There, he learned that he was now in advance of the Davis party.

One of Pritchard's officers, Corp. George Munger (of Allegan, Michigan), soon discovered the Confederate president's encampment. He noticed two women moving rapidly away from the camp as the 4th Michigan approached and thought they looked suspicious, so he stopped them and asked that they remove their cloaks. Upon so doing, it was revealed that the two "women" were Jefferson Davis and his wife, both wearing women's cloaks and shawls trying to escape capture. (The cloak and shawl worn by the Confederate president are now the property of the National Archives.)

Davis later wrote of the event: "I had gone perhaps fifteen yards when a trooper galloped up and ordered me to halt and surrender to which I gave a defiant answer. He leveled his carbine at me but I expected if he fired he would miss. My intention was to put my hand under his foot, tumble him off on the other side, spring into his saddle and escape.". A number of cartoons and mockery songs appeared in the public during the weeks and months that followed, chiding Davis for the attire he was captured in. P. T. Barnum even made a giant-sized replica of "Davis in drag."