Davis, Jefferson, Trial Papers. MS 979, 1865-1868

Subpoena for Gen. Horace Porter to testify in the Virginia Circuit Court, November 25, 1867
Subpoena for Gen. Horace Porter to testify in the Virginia Circuit Court, November 25, 1867

This collection is comprised of fourteen documents related to the imprisonment and trial of the former President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis. The documents span the years 1866 to 1868. The documents are chronologically arranged.

The three earliest letters, dating from October 1866 to May 1867, concern the transfer of Davis from military to civil imprisonment so that he might be brought ot trial in the Virginia Circuit Court. A trial was finally set for November 25, 1867, and the series of letters between Stanbery, Chandler, Evarts and Dana, discussing preparations for the trial, form the bulk of the correspondence in the collection. The November 1867 trial was delayed until March 1868, but the last letter of the collection, from Evarts to Chandler, dated February 18, 1868, states that 'we are in precisely the same position as to preparation that we were in November last,' and that the trial must be further postponed.

The documents and papers in the collection include notes about witnesses for the May 10, 1866 indictment; a copy of the indictment, signed by Chandler and filed in the Virginia Circuit Court; subpoenas for General Horace Porter and General J.G. Parks to appear at the trial set for November 25, 1867; and an agreement signed by Evarts and O'Connor by which the March, 1868 trial was postponed.

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