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