America's Hidden Stories (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - Targeting Jefferson Davis - full transcript

Man: A rebel ambush.
(Gun firing)

And the discovery
of a union plan

to murder the president
of the confederacy,

and burn its capital
city to the ground.

(Fire roaring)

Man: It is the most unusual raid

in the history of the civil war.

Man: An order to assassinate.

Narrator: It fuels outrage,

and a deadly new era
in modern warfare.

Man: This was a new
level of violence



that we had never seen before.

Narrator: Who
had given the order

to kill Jefferson Davis?

Man: He absolutely could
have acted on his own.

He was a colonel. Man: No.

He shouldn't even have been
on the raid to begin with.

Man: That's just the sort
of thing he would do.

He thought Lincoln was a softie.

Narrator: And
could the murder plot

have lead to lincoln's own
assassination a year later?

Man: It led to what happened
at ford's theater.

I don't have a doubt
in my mind about it.

♪

Narrator: History
may be more shocking



than we ever imagined.

Today, technology
forces the past

to give up its secrets.

Newly discovered documents
turn history on its head,

and discoveries in
ancient archives

reveal startling
stories we never knew.

♪

A group of union cavalry
are fleeing a failed raid

on the confederate
capital of Richmond,

when they come upon what appears

to be an abandoned barricade.

♪

Man: Surrender or I'll shoot!
Man: You surrender!

Narrator: It's an ambush.

Some 50 rebel soldiers lie
hidden in the treeline.

(Guns firing)
Man: Give 'em hell, boys!

Narrator: In the firefight,

colonel Ulric
dahlgren is cut down.

(Horse whinnies)

The 13 year old rebel
who loots his corpse

has no idea that this
is no ordinary officer,

or that the contents
of his pockets

may be about to change the
course of the civil war.

Inside dahlgren's jacket
are official orders

to burn the rebel capital

and murder confederate
president Jefferson Davis.

Man: The orders provided
not for the capture,

but rather for the
killing, for the murder,

the assassination of
Davis and his cabinet.

Narrator: The civil
war had started in 1861

when the south attempted to
leave the union over slavery.

But now, three
years into the war,

the union appears to have
taken the fight to a new level,

state sponsored assassination,

and the burning of a city
filled with civilians.

Man: This was a new
level of violence,

where you actually targeted
the political leadership

and you ordered your
agents to murder them.

We had never seen
anything like that before.

Narrator: Kevin pawlak
is a civil war historian

and author with an
interest in the life,

and death of Abraham Lincoln.

He's on a journey started
by the ill fated raid,

and its shocking,
murderous intent.

Man: Political assassination
wasn't thought of

at that time in the war,

and people were
shocked when of course

an assassination did happen
at the end of the civil war

when Lincoln was
ultimately killed.

Narrator: Here at
the library of congress

is an 1864 copy of
dahlgren's secret orders.

They detail a raid into
the Southern capital city

to free thousands
of prisoners of war.

The assassination
orders are at the end,

in one incendiary sentence.

Once in the city, it
must be destroyed,

and Jeff Davis and
cabinet killed.

Kevin is skeptical

that President Lincoln
had given the order.

Man: Lincoln's character

I don't think would have allowed

for this planned
assassination attempt

to have gotten Davis.

Narrator: So who
had issued the orders?

They appear to be in
dahlgren's handwriting.

Had the young colonel planned
to kill Jefferson Davis

to win glory for himself?

Man: Was this a man going rogue?

Was this a man inserting
a little bit extra,

so he could be the hero?

He'd never live to tell us,

but those letters are there,
and they're a problem.

Narrator: Twin brothers
John and Ulric dahlgren

are descendants of the
slain colonel's family.

Man: Really sort of the tip
of the iceberg that...

This is actually
the cavalry glove

that maybe he may have
been wearing actually

when he was killed.

It says... man: Ulric dahlgren,

march 2nd 1860...

Man: Four. Man: Four.

That would have been
the day he died.

Narrator: Ulric dahlgren
is a hardened soldier

who had already given a
lot for the union cause.

The 21 year old had
seen bloody fighting

at fredericksburg, Brandy
station, and chancellorsville.

His leg had been
amputated below the knee

following the battle of
hagerstown just months earlier.

These family letters
suggest a young man

with high principles.

Man: This was written by Ulric.

Command your temper.

Never keep company with
gamblers and bad people,

always speak the
truth, never drink,

never quarrel with your
brothers and sisters,

but be kind to them.

Narrator: The
accusation that dahlgren

was some kind of rogue killer

has cast a shadow over
the family for 150 years.

Man: Now, these historians
that have studied Ulric,

and they think they
know his personality.

Man: Yeah, but, they don't know.
Man: They don't know.

They don't have these letters.

They've never looked,
as far as I know,

they've never
looked at this box.

Man: You know, is there
anything in here

that tells you that Ulric
would've written his own orders

to assassinate Jefferson Davis?

Man: No, there is no way
he would have gone

and exceeded his
orders like that.

That just wasn't the
type of soldier he was.

Narrator: The first part of
the orders found on dahlgren

describe the raid as an effort

to free union prisoners of war.

That winter, thousands
of emaciated men

are in a living hell
in two Richmond camps.

13,000 starving soldiers
are crowded in canvas tents

on belle isle in
the James river.

Still more fester in a former
warehouse called Libby prison.

Man: The Libby prison conditions

and the belle isle
conditions are bad.

It was a particularly
harsh and cold winter.

It went on for a long time.

Stories of real privation and
sickness, death, it's awful.

That word is getting
out in the north,

and it's sickening people.

Narrator: Hundreds
are dying each month

of hunger and
untreated war wounds.

The president is horrified.

Man: Lincoln had a
very sincere desire

to free those union prisoners.

He would be getting reports

about the miserable conditions.

Narrator: So in February,

when the president
hears of a young officer

with a plan to storm the
prisons, he wants to know more.

The officer's name
is judson kilpatrick.

Man: Judson kilpatrick,
at the time of the raid

is 26 years old.

He is a showman, he wants
to be the big cheese.

Narrator: Kilpatrick has
outsized political ambitions,

and has won the
nickname kil-cavalry

for his recklessness in battle.

Man: Kilpatrick was a rascal.

He was very impetuous,
very aggressive.

It was his brainchild.

Man: In mid-February 1864,

kilpatrick is summoned
to the white house

to meet with Lincoln,

and then meet with Edwin
Stanton, the secretary of war.

Kilpatrick will get permission
to take 4,000 cavalrymen,

on good horses, and
a six gun battery,

and attempt to free
these federal prisoners.

Narrator: Although
his superior officers

believe the raid has
no strategic value,

kilpatrick jumps
the chain of command

by meeting directly
with Lincoln.

Man: Now, general Meade
was against the plan.

General pleasonton
was against the plan,

and yet they are told
by the president,

make this thing happen.

Narrator: Kilpatrick's
second in command

is an even more unlikely choice,

Ulric dahlgren.

Man: So, you're asking
a lot of somebody

who had just been
wounded in battle,

and he's in a
dilapidated condition.

Mentally, who knows what

dahlgren's state
of mind really was.

Narrator: Why
is dahlgren chosen?

One word, connections.

His father is admiral
John dahlgren,

the inventor of the
powerful dahlgren gun,

which has revolutionized
naval warfare.

Man: Admiral dahlgren
was a very good friend

of Abraham lincoln's.

I'll always say they were bff,

you know, best friends forever.

And so, it's not surprising
that Ulric dahlgren

would have a relationship
with President Lincoln.

Narrator: To plan the raid,

kilpatrick and dahlgren
use intelligence

fed to them by a secret weapon,

a socialite spying
inside Richmond.

Her name is Elizabeth Van lew.

She smuggles leading union
general Benjamin Butler

notes using a secret code

written in an invisible
ink made of milk.

With a little heat, the
fats in the milk burn away

to reveal crucial information.

Man: She is feeding
troop numbers around Richmond.

Letting him know,

how many people are there
in the Richmond defenses?

What strength could
you expect to encounter

if you attacked.

Narrator: Van
lew's coded message

includes key secret information,

the whereabouts of the
confederate cabinet,

and the rebel president himself.

Man: Some say she even
had a slave

placed inside the Jefferson
Davis white house,

perhaps even feeding information
straight from the top.

Narrator: Richmond
is only 100 miles

from the union lines.

Using Van lew's intelligence,
kilpatrick persuades Lincoln

that a nighttime strike
with a powerful cavalry

can catch the
rebels by surprise,

and overwhelm what she reports
is a lightly defended city.

Kilpatrick plans to
split his forces,

attacking Richmond
from the north,

while dahlgren approaches
from the south.

Man: Kilpatrick
coming in from the north

will capture the city and then
we're gonna free prisoners,

the officers that
are at Libby prison.

Dahlgren's mission
is to get around

the confederate army secretly

and come into Richmond
on the south bank,

because there are about
12,000 union prisoners

on belle isle.

A secondary objective is
disrupt railroads, gristmills,

anything that would
support the war effort.

Narrator: One week before
the raid is to depart,

uric dahlgren writes
to his father,

a letter Kevin has uncovered
in the library of congress.

Man: Dear father,

there is a grand
raid to be made,

and I am to have a
very important command.

If successful, it will be
the grandest thing on record,

and if it fails, many
of us will go up.

It is an undertaking
that if I was not in it,

I should be ashamed
to show my face again.

I think we will be successful,

although a desperate
undertaking.

Narrator: The
letter makes no mention

of freeing prisoners,

nor any plan to murder
Jefferson Davis,

only a sense of duty,
and even fatalism.

Man: I found a sense of his
devotion to his cause.

He might never come
back from this raid.

Man: I think he sees the idea

of the importance of this,

the mission of this.

I found one reference that
described him as a holy warrior.

Narrator: Does
dahlgren's holy war

include murdering the
confederate leadership,

and who has issued this order?

♪

GPS: Turn left onto us 250...

Narrator: To
figure out what role

their relative
played in this raid,

twins John and Ulric dahlgren,

are heading south into Virginia,

where Ulric dahlgren had
led those 400 cavalrymen

that frozen winter night.

Man: Our dad really,

he never really like
sat us down and said,

hey, here's the story.

We're gonna go through it
from point a to point b.

Man: You have to almost
be a historian

to really capture
all the points of it.

Man: I've never seen
the location.

So for me, I really
wanted to see the things

that dahlgren saw
when he was here,

and maybe even see
some of the challenges

he may have had on this raid.

Narrator: The first
challenge for the young colonel

who'd lost his lower leg,
and now wore a prosthesis,

a 100 mile assault on horseback.

(Horse hooves pounding)

Man: How are we doing?
Man: How are you doing?

Man: Dan, John dahlgren,
good to meet you

man: Good to meet you.
Man: Ulric dahlgren.

Man: Dan chmelar, good
to meet you guys.

Narrator: Dan
chmelar is a reenactor,

and an expert in
civil war cavalry.

Man: How hard do you
think it would be

to get in a saddle like this,
unassisted with one leg?

Man: Probably pretty difficult.
Man: Really?

Man: The saddle, it's just wood
covered with a rawhide tree.

Man: Wow. Man: It's meant more

for the safety and the
comfort of the horse,

rather than the rider.

Narrator: For the Richmond raid,

the cavalry carried everything
they needed on their backs,

food, shelter and munitions.

Man: This is a 1860
Colt army revolver

man: You would not wanna get
surprised by the enemy

wearing all this stuff.
Man: Yeah, it's a lot of weight.

Spring!

Man: There you go.

Man: And then this, here we go

man: Alright, it's a bit
awkward, I must admit.

Man: You didn't see
that a whole lot,

guys riding around with
crutches and one leg?

Man: That wasn't standard.

Narrator: Standard or not,
the raid is now underway.

While dahlgren's commanding
officer judson kilpatrick

takes some 3,000 cavalrymen

to richmond's
northern outskirts,

dahlgren leads his 400
men into goochland county.

He plans to cross
the James river,

and approach the prison camp
on belle isle from the south.

As John and Ulric now head
into goochland themselves,

they are entering what
was once enemy territory.

Man: There's still
people that probably

have strong feelings
about Ulric in particular.

I mean they called him Attila
the hun, or Ulric the hun.

Narrator: Their family has
long lived under a shadow,

that their relative had perhaps

issued the assassination
orders himself,

making him not a soldier
following a chain of command,

but a rogue and a terrorist.

Man: Colonel dahlgren, when
he gets to goochland,

he will burn barns, he
will burn outbuilding.

He will try to
blow up the canal.

And when they find a
barn full of grain,

that goes up in smoke. ♪

Narrator: Dahlgren
and his night riders

cut a swath of
destruction through

local industry that night.

Man: Is this the mill?
Man: Looks like the mill.

♪

Man: Dover steam mill.

Man: Can't believe it's
still here after all this.

Man: Dover steam mill,
James morson's mill.

During the civil war,

morson's grain helped
feed confederate soldiers

until the mill was burned
down during dahlgren's raid.

Man: Well, that makes sense
as a military target,

'cause you look at the
place and you go okay,

this was what the
confederates were using

to feed their troops.

I don't know, I would have
burned the place too, I think.

Man: I would say,
from the looks of the ruin,

he did a pretty good job.

Man: Yeah, mission
accomplished, for sure.

Narrator: Another
target of the raid

is the wealthy
plantations and mansions

that were the beating
heart of the south.

Man: Tad, I'm John dahlgren.
Man: Hi, John.

Man: Ulric dahlgren.
Man: Hey, Ulric.

Man: Nice to meet you.
Man: That's a familiar name.

Narrator: But at tuckahoe,

once home to 60 slaves,

and homeowners Richard
and Virginia Allen,

dahlgren may have run into
more than he expected.

Man: My grandmother
knew the story,

and that's where
I first heard it.

Narrator: A tale has passed
through tad thompson's family

to his grandmother.

It relates how a previous
resident of the house,

Virginia Allen, had many
northern friends before the war.

She had once met dahlgren
at a party at west point.

As dahlgren and his
raiders approached,

Virginia put on
her best ball gown

to jog his memory
of happier times.

She also carried a pistol
to be on the safe side.

The local tale is that
dahlgren recognized her,

joined her for tea, and
left tuckahoe unharmed.

Man: Sounds like they had
a pretty nice meeting.

It doesn't sound like
they were at war at all.

Man: Yeah, I think
that's the way it was.

Narrator: Another
detail from the orders

that surprises the twins,

the call to burn an
entire city to the ground

with only 400 men.

Man: How do you burn
down a city?

What does it take?

If your intent is really

to burn down every
structure in Richmond,

I'd have a hard
time buying that.

Narrator: Hollywood props master

and civil war
expert, Mark Hughes,

thinks he know how dahlgren
could have done it.

Man: It's documented that
dahlgren and kilpatrick

carried torpedoes with them.

Read torpedoes, modern
day language as mines.

Narrator: Mark has built a model

of one of dahlgren's torpedos.

Man: Put the gun powder in,

light it, and walk away.

Man: So it's almost just
like a, a mini bomb then,

basically, at that point.
Man: That's exactly what it is.

It's an incendiary bomb.

The other soldiers probably
carried a pound of oakum

and a canteen full
of turpentine.

Man: What did they use this
for in the civil war era?

Man: It was used as a caulking,

to caulk windows or ships.
Man: Oh, okay.

Man: Okay, so how exactly would
you light this on fire?

Man: I would love to show you.

Let me go get the turpentine.
Man: Alright.

Narrator: Powhatan's deep
creek firefighter department

has prepped an abandoned home

to resemble the barns
and timber homes

dahlgren wanted to burn.

Man: So, just so you
know, burning down buildings

is a bit of a touchy subject
for dahlgrens in Richmond.

Man: Heh, heh heh.
Man: I just bet.

So we have the oakum,

we have turpentine,

and we have flame, go to it.

Man: Let's burn her.

Whoa, uh...

Man: Everybody out.

Light it up.
Man: Alright guys, here we go.

Alright, let's go.

Narrator: Two coils of
oakum doused in turpentine

make quick work of the house.

It's ablaze in seconds.

Man: Geez, it's going up quick.

Man: So, I gotta say that
oakum and turpentine

seem to work pretty
effectively on...

Man: It did the trick.
Man: On the hay.

You can imagine if
you're burning a barn,

how quick that would go up.

Man: It would go quick.
Man: I mean...

Man: A grist mill. Man: Yeah.

Man: Something like that
would go up fast.

A boat, they would
all burn fast.

Man: Wow, look at that.

I mean it's fully engulfed now.

♪

Man: This is what Richmond
would have looked like,

if Ulric had been successful.

Narrator: So if that objective

of the orders was possible,

could his small force also
have freed the prisoners,

and then assassinated the
confederate leadership?

Man: If you look at
the limited force

that dahlgren and
kilpatrick had with them,

to think that they
could carry out all that

in just a couple of days
is, is daring, bold,

and very, very ambitious.

Man: Right. Man: Oh, found it.

Narrator: Kevin
pawlak is meeting

with Richmond
historian Mike gorman

and graphics artist Edmund Earl.

Man: What is the
state of richmond's

defenses at that time?

Man: Well, as dahlgren and
kilpatrick found out,

it's not as bad as they'd
been lead to believe.

Narrator: Edmund has
built a three dimensional map

of historic Richmond

to help the historians visualize

exactly how the plan
might have worked.

Man: But here, I'll
pull in kilpatrick,

and I can pull over dahlgren.
Man: Oh, that's cool.

Man: So, they'll go through.
Man: Exactly.

What you're seeing now is, if
all went according to plan,

you'd have dahlgren's
men sweeping in this way,

and kilpatrick's men
sweeping in from the north.

Narrator: The first
part of dahlgren's orders,

free several thousand
sick union soldiers

in belle isle prison.

Man: Now, there's only one
way in to belle island,

and it's this rail
spur bridge right here.

The plan was for them to
come right up into here,

liberate the prisoners here
at belle isle, and then...

Man: How do you get them out?

Man: Well, that's a
great question.

Man: How quickly would
they have been able

to have been moved
with their health

and things like that.
Man: Precisely.

Most people on belle isle
are suffering with dysentery.

These are sick men.

It's not going to be as easy
as just popping the door

and let's walk out.

Man: It makes no sense at all.

There are 13,000 men
who are in malnutrition,

who are ill-clothed,
it's February.

What are you gonna
do with these men?

It would have been worse
if it had been successful.

They would have
been sitting ducks

for any southerner with a rifle.

Narrator: And to kill Davis,

dahlgren's tiny force would
then have to penetrate

the very heart of
the enemy's lair.

Man: The major target
in downtown Richmond

would have been
the capital itself.

You might find
Jefferson Davis there.

Or you might find him at
the confederate white house,

up at 12th and Clay streets.

The element that's
crucial here is surprise.

If you can get this done

before the confederates
can call out their men,

I think you might be looking
at a different story.

But, dahlgren's men are
out in goochland county

tearing up things, and
burning down barns and such,

and losing a lot of time.

Man: They're not going
for stealth,

they're not going for
surprise in their approach.

Man: Well, they definitely
wanted the stealth,

we know that.

Man: But they're
burning farms down,

and creating smoke everywhere.

Man: That doesn't make
much sense does it?

Man: Yeah.

Does the fact that the plan
itself seem so impractical

and half-baked even
from the start,

lend credence to the idea
that these are not real plans?

Man: Wow, you hit the nail
on the head with that one.

Narrator: Is it
possible that dahlgren

was not following the plan,

because murdering Jeff Davis

was never the plan
to begin with?

♪

Man: I wonder if, are we on
the road that he was on?

What road is this?

Man: I'm not sure.

Narrator: 150 years
after Ulric dahlgren's

planned raid on Richmond,

his family descendents,
John and Ulric dahlgren,

are retracing his steps,

trying to figure out
exactly what happened.

♪

By the third day, dahlgren is
searching for a river crossing

to approach the prison camps
in Richmond from the south,

but the weather
is now closing in.

Man: It starts to rain.

It starts to sleet.

They've been in the saddle

for more than 48
hours at this point.

He's got to be hurting
with that stump of his leg.

They haven't had a decent meal.

Narrator: A local
guide has promised

to find a crossing point,

but the normally placid
James river is badly flooded.

The young colonel
loses his temper.

He accuses the guide of
betraying the mission.

The success of the entire raid

depends on getting
across the river.

♪

Southall Wallace is
goochland born and raised,

and knows the story
of what happened here

as well as anyone.

Man: Ulric dahlgren.

Man: Ulric dahlgren, a
privilege and an honor, sir.

Man: John dahlgren.

Man: John dahlgren, my god,
one of two great warriors.

I've been studying the raid
of your ancestor for 35 years.

Man: Really? Man: Oh wow.

Man: What
happened right here was,

they took all the best horses

and then burned all the barns.

They burned everything.

Man: They burned everything?
Man: Except,

they didn't burn
the slave quarters.

Narrator: Wallace explains
that dahlgren believed

the guide Martin roberson had
led the raiders into a trap.

Dahlgren has him executed.

Man: Matter of fact,

the poor black guy
that your ancestor hung

was married to the lady
who lived in this house.

Man: Really?
Man: She was a head cook.

Man: It seemed that
Ulric seemed to think that

that guide had mislead him.

Man: Intentionally.
Man: Intentionally.

Do you think it's possible

that he was a Southern
sympathizer even though

he was a former slave?
Man: Oh absolutely.

Yeah, I don't know
whether he was or wasn't,

but there was a lot of loyalty
from a lot of the slaves.

Some of them were spies,
but not all of them.

Man: If you were to talk to just

any neighbor around
here about Ulric,

do people still
hold grudges now?

Man: Let's say this.

The old Southern guys,

some of them, thought
he was a villain

because of the
fact that he hung,

they thought, an innocent man.

Narrator: Most historians
believe the flooded river,

not treachery, prevented
dahlgren's crossing,

but the violence of that hanging

is still jarring for the twins.

Man: That is the hardest
part for me to accept.

And, I would hope that
anybody who saw that

would find it in their
heart to forgive Ulric.

Narrator: Dahlgren
now abandons the river,

and any hope of
reaching the prisoners

on belle isle from the south.

♪
He splits his force,

to allow them to meet up
with kilpatrick's cavalry.

But the men are
disoriented in the dark.

Man: More than half of his
force has been lost,

because they were lost in
the middle of the night

on march the 1st.

That force of about 250 men,

will actually get
back to kilpatrick.

Narrator: And
kilpatrick turns back too,

after coming up against

much stronger resistance
than expected.

Man: Everything that could
go wrong, went wrong.

Kilpatrick managed
to extricate himself

and get back to the
safety of union lines,

dahlgren was cut off completely.

Man: He is trying to
reunite with kilpatrick

and get back to safety,
but by this time,

the confederates
are hot to find him.

So, now they're
gonna give chase.

Narrator: A noose is
tightening around dahlgren

and his shrinking
band of cavalrymen.

The hunters have
become the hunted.

Man: Ulric dahlgren with 90 men,

will end up in king
and queen county

on the evening of march the 2nd.

A union scout up in front,
comes back to dahlgren

and says there's a
barricade in the road.

Narrator: Dahlgren needs
to get his remaining men

past the barricade
in order to escape.

Man: Dahlgren will call
his three officers together,

and they will march
up to this barricade.

The confederates, about 150,

are on either side of the road.

A man will come out
from the barricade.

Dahlgren will say, surrender,

pull his pistol out,
it will misfire.

Pandemonium will break out.

The confederates are firing
every kind of gun they have,

and he will be killed with
five bullets in his body.

Narrator: The remainder of
his men vanish into the night.

As the morning comes, a
13-year old militia member

loots the union colonel's body.

He doesn't find money,

but what he does find may
be much more valuable.

He turns the papers over
to another militia member.

Man: I think that when
the little boy found

those papers on dahlgren's body,

I think it was his
school teacher,

when he first read them,

it was like a bomb
going off in his mind.

And he knew that had to go
up the chain of command.

Narrator: By nightfall the
next day, the shocking papers

reach president Jefferson
Davis and his cabinet.

They are enraged.

The north has sent a death squad

to assassinate them
and burn Richmond.

The confederate leadership
demands answers.

Who has ordered this raid?

Man: They are published in the
local Richmond newspapers.

And it becomes a huge
public relations problem

for the Lincoln administration.

Narrator: General George
Meade is the commander

of all the union forces
on the east coast.

Man: And Meade, he
knew about the raid.

There's no way he didn't
know about the raid.

He gave tacit approval for it.

Narrator: General
Meade wants answers from

dahlgren's commanding
officer, judson kilpatrick.

Had he issued the
assassination orders?

Kilpatrick insists he was on
a mission to free prisoners.

He suggests the
assassination orders

were forged by the rebels.

The cover up has begun.

Man: Kilpatrick, of
course, doesn't want

any responsibility
for the assassination.

Kilpatrick will say,

well, I approved orders,
but not these orders.

Man: General Meade
officially said

that they were not authentic,
but privately to his wife,

he wrote to her saying
that he wasn't so sure.

Man: As he puts, I don't want my
skirts dirtied in this thing.

Narrator: The president's
men point fingers.

The fallen colonel
is an easy target.

Man: Meade will write
back to Jefferson Davis

and said, we don't know.

This must have been maybe
Ulric dahlgren's idea.

Man: Ulric was sort of
disavowed if you will,

by the union leadership.

But I don't really have any
hard feelings about that.

I mean in a time of
war what else is,

what else are the
leaders expected to say?

You know, yes, we did try
and kill your president?

Narrator: Were the
assassination orders forged

by the rebels, as
kilpatrick claimed?

Or were they written
by Ulric dahlgren?

It's a question that has haunted

the dahlgren family
for 150 years.

♪

Orders to assassinate
confederate president

Jefferson Davis,

are found on the body of
union colonel Ulric dahlgren.

The rebels copy the
orders and send them north

to the union generals,
demanding an explanation.

But the dead man's
father, admiral dahlgren,

spots a problem
with the document.

Two key letters are
in the wrong place.

Man: There's a misspelling
of dahlgren's name,

which of course his
father John used to say

that these orders were fake.

Man: I personally have
experienced so many times

where people have
tried to spell my name

and they put the I
in front of the h.

If the signature is in question,

the entire document
is in question.

Man: Are they real
or are they forged

by the confederate government

and used as a propaganda tool?

Narrator: Kevin is
meeting beverley east,

a leading handwriting expert,

who has testified on document
authenticity in court.

For comparison, he's given
her a copy of the orders,

and also dahlgren's last
letter to his father.

Woman: The biggest misconception
about what we do

is that we only look at letters.

But there is so much more
in examining comparisons.

So in this letter f,

it's formed fully
with a loop at the top

and loop at the bottom,

but the ink deposit
is on the left side.

So if I look for
an f on this side,

the ink is on the left side.

That would be almost impossible
for somebody to replicate

because it's how the
ink sits when you write.

If we look at the t's, to
have one, two, three, four,

five different forms of t's,

and then to create four, those
four exactly the same here,

that would be
painstakingly hard.

Man: What about the signature?

In the aftermath,
his father John

claimed that a piece of
these orders were forged

because of the misspelling...

Woman: The misspelling.
Man: Of the last name dahlgren.

Woman: Not having a name spelled
correctly is a big red flag.

Narrator: But Beverly
has an explanation.

There had been writing on
both sides of the thin paper.

Dahlgren had signed his name,

but the letter y had bled
through from the other side,

making the I in
dahlgren look like an h.

The copies had been made

with an early technology
called a lithograph.

The technician, in
cleaning up the copy,

had likely mistaken
the I for an h

transposing the originals,

and giving birth to a mystery.

Woman: The misspelling was
created

when the document
was reproduced.

Narrator: The other letters
in the signature are perfect.

Woman: But I'm looking
also at formation and movement

and it would be difficult
for someone to get

the same movement and
the same formation,

the same pattern construction.

Man: So what is your
expert opinion

as to the nature
of these documents?

Is it real?

Woman: Absolutely, 100% real.
Man: Written by Ulric dahlgren?

Woman: Written by Ulric.
Man: Same person?

Woman: Same person.

Same authorship
of both documents,

without a doubt.
Man: Without a doubt, wow.

I was incredibly
surprised at the evidence

that the handwriting
found on the orders

and the handwriting in
one of Ulric dahlgren's

last letters that we
know that he wrote

was the same.

(Insects chirping)

Narrator: Now Kevin is
giving the family the verdict.

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

Narrator: It's the
birthday of ulric's son,

Ulric dahlgren the 6th.

Man: In a way it's almost
like you're the one

that has to tell the family
bad news or good news,

depending on their
point of view.

Narrator: They are
joined by ulric's father,

Ulric dahlgren the 4th.

Three generations of ulric's.

Man: So, in my findings, and
one of the things that I did

was meet with a
handwriting expert.

Based off of her findings,

she believes that the
orders were in fact genuine.

That they were written
by Ulric dahlgren.

Man: Did she have any insight
as to the signature,

when the letters were reversed?

Narrator: Kevin explains how

the double sided note
and copying process

had likely been responsible
for the reversed letters.

But the signature
is in ulric's hand.

Man: So now knowing that
the the orders are genuine,

does that change your
mind at all about Ulric?

Man: For me it doesn't
really change a whole lot.

I think it was a desperate time.

I think the, I don't
know if I necessarily

would have given that
order, but I understand it.

Man: Uh, it doesn't mean
he didn't get the orders

to do it from
somewhere else, though.

Man: Right, well and
that's the big question Mark

that looms over all of this

is who in fact ordered the raid?

Narrator: Had dahlgren
issued the orders,

perhaps seeking to
win personal glory

for himself and his men?

Had his commanding
officer judson kilpatrick

told dahlgren what to do?

Or could someone higher up,

possibly even president
Lincoln himself,

have given the greenlight?

The historians and the
twins have gathered

to see if they
can figure it out.

Man: Why don't we rearrange
it so that we've got it

in the order of command, right?

So we've got the top.

There's Lincoln.
Man: Yeah, that's more like it.

Man: Stanton,
kilpatrick, dahlgren.

Narrator: The army's top brass,

generals Meade,
halleck, and pleasonton,

had all been leapfrogged
when the raid was planned.

Lincoln and his secretary
of war Edwin Stanton

had met directly with
kilpatrick and then dahlgren.

Man: Let us begin by
excluding dahlgren.

He was 21 years old.

It's inconceivable that dahlgren

would have taken
it upon himself.

Man: Yes he was 21,

but he was colonel,
a cavalry colonel,

who's expected to
do dashing things,

and make a splash
and make a name.

He absolutely could
have acted on his own.

Man: I don't think he would
have initiated that order.

I think he's a soldier
following orders.

Man: In all due respect,

I understand you have
a vested interest

because of your link
with the colonel.

Man: I'm hardly an
objective observer,

I will say that. Man: Exactly.

Narrator: The twins are
certain their long ago relative,

who was steeped in
military tradition,

was no rogue assassin.

Man: Knowing that Ulric
met with Lincoln

and knowing that
they were friends,

I feel like there's a
distinct possibility that

that was discussed.

Narrator: Had the president
discussed the murder plot

with the young colonel?

That winter, Lincoln was
desperate to win a war

that was bloodier than
anyone had imagined.

Man: People thought
that they were just

gonna go off to war in 1861.

It was gonna be a 90 day war.

You were gonna put humpty
dumpty back together

and the United States would
be together once again.

Narrator: But instead,
that February of 1864,

Lincoln is facing angry
voters, in an election year.

Man: With the election...
Man: His back is certainly

up against a wall
coming into 1864.

Man: Election is
right around the corner.

Man: Everybody knows it.

Man: If he loses that election
too, the war could be over.

Man: Abraham Lincoln is worried

that if the war
does not take more

of a turn in favor
of the United States,

that he could be ousted.

Lincoln was desperate
by that point in the war

to end it however you could.

Narrator: Lincoln wanted to free

the union prisoners
trapped in Richmond,

but the historians doubt
he ordered a hit on Davis.

Man: I don't believe Lincoln
ordered an assassination,

and I don't think any
Lincoln scholar would agree

that he ordered
an assassination.

Man: It would have
been completely

out of character for Lincoln.

Lincoln was famous
for his kindness

and generosity and
thoughtfulness.

Narrator: Lincoln was
famously compassionate,

but his secretary of war
was notoriously ruthless.

Man: My gut tells me that
Stanton would have been the one

to have at least pushed
forward this idea

of killing Jefferson Davis.

Man: I do see a more sinister
personality in Edwin Stanton.

He is a radical.

He hates the south.

Man: He chafed under
the leadership

of his superior, Lincoln.

He thought Lincoln was a softie.

You know, he didn't
carry out the war

with as much force and
cruelty as it needed.

Narrator: Stanton
had also met dahlgren

and his commander
judson kilpatrick

in the days before the raid.

Man: I see Ulric dahlgren

as finalizing Edwin
stanton's idea

to get rid of Jefferson Davis,

so I put these two
men side by side.

Narrator: In the weeks
and months after the raid,

as the spring fighting
begins and casualties mount,

the story slips
from public view.

Man: Everything will be sort
of brushed under the rug.

You're gonna have the battles

of the wilderness,
spotsylvania, cold harbor.

Everything is gonna overshadow

the kilpatrick-dahlgren raid.

Narrator: But
behind closed doors,

the confederates are plotting

a terror campaign of their own.

Man: But you know at this
stage the gloves were off.

Not only off, but they were
fitted with brass knuckles,

so it was a case
of anything goes.

Narrator: Did the
rebel's thirst for revenge

include the assassination
of President Lincoln,

barely a year later?

♪

The discovery of orders to
assassinate Jefferson Davis

and burn Richmond,
outrages the south,

and energizes the
confederate secret service.

Man: The response to the
dahlgren raid is so,

how dare you, how could you?

A leader like Jefferson Davis
sees an order that says,

yeah, we're gonna go kill you.

This is seen as a
different kind of war.

Man: After dahlgren-kilpatrick,

Davis sent three men, top
level men to Montreal.

They initiated a solid year
of terror against the north.

They wanted very
much to win the war,

and they weren't winning it.

It was a case of anything goes.

There are no limits.

Narrator: Murder, arson,

and even biological warfare

become the dark arts
of a dying regime.

Man: There were at least
12 or 13 acts of terror

against the north.

Perhaps the worst was
Dr. Luke blackburn's plot

to spread pestilence
in the north,

yellow fever and smallpox.

A really hideous
idea, germ warfare.

Narrator: Luke Blackburn

was a Kentucky doctor
turned secret agent.

Medical historian shauna devine

has studied blackburn's
trip to Bermuda

following the dahlgren raid.

Woman: And, he went to Bermuda
to treat yellow fever patients,

and as he was treating them,

he was collecting their blankets

which were covered in
vomit and black bile

and blood, and sweat, and feces,

and he was quietly packing
them away into trunks.

And he contracted an agent
in Canada, Godfrey hyams.

He said, could you help
me transport these trunks

to Boston, to Philadelphia,
on route to DC?

Narrator: A
yellow fever epidemic

would have killed thousands,

as the medical doctor knew,

but he had another
target as well.

Woman: And in addition to the
trunks, there was a valise,

and it was meant to be a
gift for President Lincoln.

Man: And so, this was an
assassination attempt

on lincoln's life, really?

Woman: That was meant
to kill Lincoln.

Narrator: John fazio
believes that Jefferson Davis

personally targeted Lincoln
after the dahlgren plot.

Man: Whose name was kensey.

Narrator: He shows Kevin
a letter

from another confederate
agent, kensey Johns Stewart.

Man: The letter is addressed
to Jefferson Davis.

Stewart says, $100
of public money

has been paid here to
one hyams, a shoemaker,

for services rendered

by conveying and
causing to be sold

in the city of
Washington at auction,

boxes of small-pox clothing.

Man: And what was davis'
connection

with Stewart, exactly?

Man: Stewart was one of his
principal agents in Canada.

This letter proves,
beyond any doubt,

that Davis knew about
the yellow fever plot

to infect Abraham Lincoln.

Man: So this is pretty clear
that Davis was implicated

in at least in some degree.

Man: He had to approve them.

And we may be absolutely
certain, certain,

that if Davis knew about
the yellow fever plot,

he certainly knew about
all the other terror plots.

Narrator: John
fazio also believes

that John wilkes booth

was acting on orders
from the confederates,

and that president
lincoln's murder

was payback for
the dahlgren plot.

♪
Man: The confederate leadership

decided to retaliate in kind.

After all, hadn't Lincoln
ordered our assassination?

Narrator: Fazio says
that John wilkes booth

was a secret agent for the
confederate secret service.

Man: Booth made at least
three trips to Canada,

that year, 1864.

He's in Montreal,

meeting with all these high
level confederate operatives.

He was always being handled.

He was being counseled.

Above all, he was
being financed,

either by the confederate
government directly,

and or its supporters. ♪

Narrator: It's not a view
shared by many historians.

Man: The evidence is not there.
Man: Okay.

Man: You can't put your
finger on a document

that says that Jefferson
Davis, or anyone in his cabinet

wanted to be complicit in
the assassination of Lincoln.

Man: Well, if you...
Man: I just don't buy it.

Man: If you look at the
evidence closely,

and interpret it properly,
the gun is there.

The documents are there Bruce.

Man: Did Davis write a document?

Did Davis write a document
that puts in place

the order to kill...
Man: You're never gonna find...

Man: Abraham Lincoln?
Man: You're never gonna find...

Man: Exactly.
Man: A document like that Bruce.

That kind of
information was always...

Man: That's the problem
with history.

I mean we, you used an
interesting phrase earlier,

properly interpreted.

There is no one right
way, even yours.

And that's sort of the humility

that a historian has to achieve

is that you can't just
say, this is the way.

This must have happened,

because it must have happened

because it's
properly interpreted.

Narrator: Whatever it was
that drove John wilkes booth,

the twins believe Ulric
dahlgren may have been motivated

by his own experience of
being wounded in battle.

Man: How many more
people have to die?

How many more people
have to lose legs?

I think anybody who was
really fighting that battle

knew that another year of
hundreds of thousands of people

dying or being maimed was not
worth the life of one person.

♪

Narrator: There is still
one last place to visit.

Man: Wow, this is really
in the middle of nowhere.

Narrator: A remote
corner of Virginia

where 150 years ago,

their relative lost his life.

Man: Hey there fellas,
how you doing?

Man: Doing well,
thanks for meeting us.

Man: Good seeing you, okay.

Alright, let's go
over to this way.

Narrator: Bruce venter can
pinpoint almost within feet,

where Ulric met his end.

Man: Now the barricade
would have been

right about where that,

where the road
kinda makes a turn,

and somewhere right in this area

a confederate will come out
from behind the barricade

and challenge colonel dahlgren.

The colonel will
pull his pistol.

It will misfire.

♪

Somewhere in this
area right here,

he's gonna go down with
five shots in his body.

Ulric dahlgren is laying
in the road here somewhere

on the night of march the 2nd.

Man: It's kind of
got a spooky feel to me.

Man: Yeah, for me I'm
like definitely

like a little freaked out.

Honestly.

Man: Yeah. Man: It's just...

To me, I just feel it's like
a very powerful place for me,

like I've...

Obviously I've
followed our story.

We've gone now on the whole
journey that he's had.

Man: Yeah. Man: And, uh...

♪

It's definitely, it's...

For me he wasn't just a,

a hero, or a villain,

I don't even care
about any of that.

He was a family member of me.
Man: Yeah.

Narrator: After the raid,

admiral dahlgren joined
the ranks of the grieving.

His son had been buried

in an unmarked
grave in Richmond.

Man: Some of the black servants
who had helped with this,

are questioned by
Elizabeth Van lew,

the great union
sympathizer and spy.

Elizabeth Van lew will
go and dig up the body

in oakwood cemetery, and
take a clip of his hair,

and send it to his father
saying that the body is safe.

Narrator: When the war is over,

the remains are returned north,

and buried in Philadelphia,

where today, father
and son lie together.

Man: He believed that
his son was innocent,

and that he had no part

in the assassination
of Jefferson Davis.

I'm sure he went to his
grave thinking that.

Narrator: In truth,

perhaps Ulric dahlgren
and John wilkes booth

have more in common

than supporters of either
side care to consider.

It seems both were willing
to murder for a cause.

Both may have been
acting under orders.

And, discovering the true
history is difficult,

because of missing documents.

When the war was over,

secretary of war Edwin Stanton

asked for all of the records

relating to the dahlgren raid.

He may have had an agenda.

Man: They disappeared
from history,

and we can be certain
that they wound up

in stanton's fireplace.

♪

Man: So what's in these papers?

What would we find if
we could go back in time

and get there before Stanton
sent the cleanup crew out?

Speculation is
different from knowing,

and we just don't know.