Imprisonment (1865-67)

Brackets indicate dates and entries that follow logically from information in primary sources but are not explicitly stated.

1865

May 22

Imprisoned at Fortress Monroe

May 23

Manacled; irons removed less than a week later because of public outcry and Davis' ill health

[June]

[First indictment for treason handed down in U.S. Circuit Court, District of Virginia (for more information about the case, see the FAQ); another indictment brought later in the year in the District of Columbia]

August 21

Writes first letter to Varina Davis since his imprisonment

December 9

Charles F. E. Minnigerode, rector of St. Paul's in Richmond, allowed to make the first of what become twice-a-month visits to Davis

1866

March-April

Varina Davis and family in Canada, along with Varina's mother, Margaret K. Howell, who keeps the children when Varina returns to Virginia

April 26

Andrew Johnson grants Varina Davis permission to visit her husband

May 3

Varina Davis sees her husband for the first time in almost a year; Davis' former secretary Burton Harrison also allowed to visit

May 8

Indicted for treason by grand jury for the U.S. Circuit Court, District of Virginia

June 5, 6

Court convenes in Richmond; decides that trial cannot be held that summer

June 7

Salmon P. Chase declines to issue writ of habeas corpus, claiming that it would be invalid since Virginia is under martial law

June 11

U.S. Circuit Court Judge John C. Underwood refuses to set bail since Davis technically a military prisoner

August-December

Varina Davis in Montreal

1867

April 10

Varina Davis returns to Fortress Monroe after traveling to Charleston and Baltimore

May 1

Writ of habeas corpus granted

May 8

Franklin Pierce visits

May 10

Burton Harrison arrives at Fortress Monroe with the writ of habeas corpus

May 11

Taken to Richmond; housed under guard at the Spotswood Hotel in the same room he had when he reached Richmond in May 1861

May 13

Appears in court before Judge Underwood; bail set at $100,000; bond posted by Horace Greeley, abolitionist Gerrit Smith, a representative of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and ten Richmond businessmen; to "deafening applause," freed after two years of confinement; meets Greeley for the first time