A Word on Words; 3917; James Swanson

liz from nashville studio way celebrating offers the ideas for more than three decades this is word on words ellen johnson once again welcome to word on words my guest today james swanson yet the reason both history and will use an edgar award winning author of a man on a probate case for lincoln's killer whose here today with a riveting single bloody crimes the chase the jefferson davis and the deaf pageant for lincoln's corpse every traces the dramatic pass to foreign leaders one <unk> mark levin and one appeared in one james watson welcome to our north like a temperate air here talk about this wonderful book on that is a it is a powerful retracing a

moment history that needs to be remembered because of the death of a president needs to be remembered to because another president as i just said man reviled and vilified the subject of women and in his own right such a story how'd you come over the idea putting the funeral procession the pageant hasn't turned out to be with the flight five the forest flies by jefferson davis than formal prose and the convention what came up with the idea after i finish reading man and i thought that was going to be my take on the spring of eight in sixty five but if i finished that book a number of readers sent to me a book events wall what happened next because

i do mention very briefly a manhunt that there was a chaste jefferson davis and i alluded to the fact that there was a funeral procession for lincoln but that was the on the story of the assassination and hunt for both i started to think about that and i realized that the manhunt for booth is really one third of a great trilogy of stories it's the the assassination and the hunt but it's also what happened next election because the lincoln was dead that really wasn't the end of his story and davis was an entirely different journey of his own i it's one of a couple reasons cause i didn't think about doing two separate books one just on the funeral pageant in a separate book on the chase for davis but as i started to do the research i discovered how much they had in common things that shocked me is that i realize the story was joint more than by chronology of these things are happening at the same time it was also joined by who these men were and what happened to them after they fell from power both of them became greater martyrs to their

causes after their fault then when they were at the height of their power and i started to see some of the patterns that are similar and not different that became fascinating to me and i decided that my mysteries into what the research is phenomenal and the reader gets a sense of it to begin with first really catches up and drama of the moment we hear two presidents in one on one day not really aware that robert e lee's kmiec a storm on a surprising that they are i'm in the end is hours away in jefferson davis is in the richmond white house not aware that the end is so near omaha and lincoln at the same time is it going in the field instead his jowl with m o r n and then that value you the research has captured and made come alive

love the drama these two presidents at war one anxious see rich windfall lincoln so we can move in the other and not aware there were with in no time he's got to be on one bomb and when he's on the run he doesn't understand fully for maybe forty eight hours of the the depth of the trouble is and it's masterful and our trade those communicate the letters from lee the letters from the end the notices from lincoln and lincoln at one point says drew on this as to grant me show sharon says if pressed we will surrender the thing the press and that the thinking tv and in lincoln's original him a telegram

has underlined that is that is that non drama i mean you in pen and one on ten here's jeff's and it was surrounded by his cabinet at least on the talon look instead he says it's getting tough out here i'm surrounded i'm out land we're going to get wiped out is an insider be it's gonna be a massacre doesn't every week and without making it that explicitly i guess at that point it's understandable that jefferson davis was to be tone deaf well david stopped the self to finance various in church on the morning of sunday april second st paul auster yes i was just there last week and that telegram comes from lea in the front pew the church all eyes are upon him as the messenger walks down into the front row and hands davis' told them he reads it

all one of the women who's their constant scary a great caregiver later mary davis is private secretary says davis turned white he read the message and he exited the church and i was thinking my god what what terrible news is calm and he now richmond was in danger he knew that he was having a tough fight around petersburg theater evacuated his wife arena and the children from richmond va before the wholesalers anticipating the news might be that he didn't think he would come that quickly and you're right he had several hours he went home he went to his office he picked up and he left richmond that night live imagined this scene he's pulling out on the train and shortly after he leaves town richmond is in flames the whole central core of the city burns that this wasn't a crazed random flight to just save his own life that was unlike the chase for john wilkes booth he was running as fast as he could to save himself to davis this was an orderly retreat and most of the

critical focus you know jolly leaders of the sec he filled trunks with documents the cabinet and entourage an orderly journey out of towels and now back to me well i you know there are about you know that have to be collected and show is huge and you pointedly is an invaluable effect we receive that message from davis crumbled in the sand drop it on the ground asserting his aides and i'm sure i give him more are dealing with violence and so then it does that well you know it and i don't think that ever before read and listen to how did our own the sun ms love by justin davis is just how compact in the timeframe was on him in one week

and they only go in is in the field anxiously at the richmond and then he's there and then he even jefferson davis' house yes and within a week he did yes on lincoln's entry to richmond i think as we're in most dramatic thing all american president has ever done it was certainly the most dangerous thing the president has ever done here is the confederate capital it's taken six hundred and twenty thousand lives in four years to travel less than a hundred miles from washington and richmond lincoln comes ashore in a robot he's with at will porter an army officer susan sontag and a dozen sailors and marines lincoln gets on the back and forth known as waiting for the union armies in town but that an even a lake and coming he starts to walk through town freed slaves see him and rejoice they do summer salsa dance they saying they followed his feet and lincoln is disturbed by this don't

kneel to me you kneel to no man you kneel only to god you are free and then he says has a far to jefferson davis' house lincoln walks there is surrounded now by several thousand people lincoln later said i'm surprised that no one killed me when i walk through richmond anyone could've open a window or door open fire richmond was filled with thousands of people in a week and happenstance and within a week in athens and when you know there isn't and then there is the question of his mental attitude this other seminoles is a talker but he is still the same they aim has always been and when the jones says daum when we don't do with jefferson davis well known rove served lola lumpy easy lesson that mr beazley which really is where i think the country women gone yes in fact lincoln said that while he was a

jefferson davis' house when he arrived at the house he went to jefferson davis's first floor study saturn davis's chair but not a triumphant lincoln couldn't believe you finally won and he didn't go there to gloat or humiliate the south in the cemetery didn't speak is tired and he said man the less water they just set their last thought you know you must've understood the symbolism of the us knew the word would get out new it would circulate its own grandmothers times the hero and lincoln is when he said let em up easy on it sort of sets the stage for what ultimately comes from a while the knowledgeable unjust and that is a sort of a as you point out some of the joke was a clunky outside of boston they're beaten and asia down and

then overnight all know the south carolina lincoln's death camps jessica drew changes among his clients oh millan yes lincoln didn't want it must be captured all he told general german though i dont care issue and didn't want vengeance he didn't want trials even when executions lincoln would've been happy if jefferson davis escaped to mexico to bermuda that's what he wanted to happen and it's so clear and it was so hopeful that they don't understand that particularly in the context of the way you present at the close justin davis is just about to become a desperate man fleeing in fear for a modest in everybody's life i thought we might look again at the

cover of this book and i'm sure we have a lot to say first voter joining us were taught when james swanson about this book this wonderful book bloody crimes the chase for jefferson davis and the death pageant links and lincoln's corpse now there is the cover of re look at it just again for a moment but i'd like to go inside that cover and show you what is just inside there one hundred thousand dollar award and go that tells you how it quickly turns from a buffalo on they are overrun where nobody cares when he gets away now a two hundred thousand dollars and all it view capturing an event in ours surreal feeling that he had a hand in the end the assassination they may have been conspiring with the senate killers and where he did not he is the villain he's the architect his

actions led to the death of our president and he's in deep deep trouble let's write one lincoln got to richmond on april fourth there was no hot pursuit of davison he didn't order won the war was an over leaked was yet to surrender on april ninth and so davis was not the number one priority giving me to surrender was the priory bought when lincoln was murdered everyone in north believed it must have been a desperate plot or by jefferson davis and some may last man act to overturn the verdict on the battlefield and win the civil war andrew johnson the new president a lifelong fall of tennis they despise the case for years jansen put out a reward <unk> automation naming davis is a suspect in the lincoln murder and offering the hundred thousand dollar reward which was twice the reward the union had offered for the capture of john wilkes booth from that point i'm davis was a marked man he didn't learn about the murder toll on several days later on april nineteenth where he was in charlotte north carolina and a rumor spread davis rejoiced in the murder and said if it had to be done there

have been done better in other words also kill andrew johnson general services that's that's not true and said my years of research have convinced me that jefferson davis had no involvement in the plot to your family and everyone believed it did well they certainly didn't leave iran and an unbelievable last formal and we want on any circumstances his flight you tell the story of his flight and indeed juxtapose two journeys one that long journey home to lawyers for from former president and mayor of moore becomes an investment of frantic flight of four on current us and others fearing that not just an indian concert amy martin yes and done

and of course there is the suggestion on the immunity be charged with treason and you know within thirty days as you for now there is to capture there is a trial alone those assessment of wealth of this are at an historic moment and no you've gone and now you've got gerson has some unique way to solve well it's a mess but he was not captured or the union soldiers were furious at him because first when they find they chased him down and raided his camp on the morning of may ten year window georgia the union soldiers opened fire on each other in kilts feral of each other then when they ran sack davis' trunks and his wife and children belongings they didn't find the millions of dollars of

gold that was said davis were scaring but he wasn't and davis would not submit humbly to the soldiers he maintained the author of the southern planters and they were furious and so they spawn this tale that he was dressed in a dress and he's brandishing a dagger in their political cartoons and as indiana and in fact when the time comes for the capture he's wearing gray confederate gray suit and a raincoat now to write and the defiant new soldier came on an unwell might've they just they wanted to build another side on mount or some escaped which is that is silly as it sounds because davis was a war hero in the mexican war graduates point on he learned this is an indian truck and out west have a tip from an office allan take his horse that was his point but

then every now his wife showed up on the scene he was worried that she might be killed but you made shows on and protect him from the call of soda with a car buyers came directly out but you're right to say once they captured him they don't know what to do with them or soon enough they gave up their plans to triumph or lincoln's birthday know there was no evidence but then i thought well it's time for treason but he was kept in prison for two years of fortress monroe because the unions and won a triumph if you try him find him guilty of executing the south rise again from order if you try him and he's found not guilty of cork has just justified to session and said that the south was not wrong ultimately they decided to do what lincoln wanted to do just get rid of them and so they work with davis says lawyers and agree that davis could apply for bail usually granted and two years after his capture he was released he's released in the meantime there are many

stories to be told about his incarceration and there is a book written a loan which shapes and people up well davis arrives in prison and kept incommunicado in a cell phones allowed to speak to attain healthy every night to get her utensils he can't write every day for six months known can visit and the shackled when he first arrived in that spread served the south and south becomes outraged for real is that allowed to write then she's allowed after one year of his captivity to visit him she's a son parole asset for the human smuggling weapons or landscape she's a very loyal devoted wife she doesn't his visit him she her one year old gentry or old daughter move into prison and live with him in prison and she was a very happy woman before the civil war she writes the politicians were still a friend she writes to president johnson and she plays a vital role in securing his release along with the prison doctor who is entranced by davis and he writes a book about davis's

<unk> treatment that inflames the country and that helps a gin up popular support for his release you know it sounds it made as we're talking and i'm wondering maybe was another nose out of his camera and right now we are saying is this a pro confederate book it is not how it doesn't accurately depict the ordeal that justin davis and your end there is a model for how it might have happened and that model is romney lead comes in the series is s grant and surrenders and they sit down and grandchildren great respect but first go in their workout or arrangement yes so this can keep their horses they can keep their uniforms were not known rest when i'm going president tell him to go home and go back to the farm go back to their families it was over

and justin davis could've been treated just that way and the book would not of been written and then in the south and the rest of the nation and much of the nation was inflamed by the treatment of the day yes the villain in many of their minds but now but now on some of former leader then to mount freedom is only fan the fires that the war has just that washed yes and one of most fascinating things about the story after davis' really he lives on for twenty four years almost a quarter century after lincoln is dead after the civil wars ended and he lives long enough to enjoy an incredible resurrection he goes on a speaking to her and he gives what i think is the most important speech of his life of nicknamed it the seed corn speech where he goes to birmingham alabama on the twenty fifth anniversary of his

inauguration as president he speaks to the widows and veterans to dedicate the war monument and he says i can see them now those boys their rifles in their packs way more than they did but they're not dead they're alive the people went wild when he gave that speech newspaper reporters from the north said the south is aflame who knows where this will end farina said you better stop is toward your older seventy eighty or die davis says if i'm to die newbie pleasure to die in the presence of my confederate soldiers and so he is a greater hero twenty five years later and he had been at the heavens oh absolutely and of course in a room this murder it's hard when you look at the facts of the trial to make the case on all those who are executed winners around yeah i think she knew certainly she gave aid and comfort

to george bluth ii as others did bing bada but again there was a blood lust for all of their lives not just an animal opposed to come what a story it is you know somebody resurrected now if you want to get if you look at like the course of all other things remain within no time when i'm much too short reconstruction is their own small about the town of rosemary hasan killed on that controversial election santa brings an injury a construction is really only left the south as exactly as being

a really uses of in some way we are back into not slavery by races separation and discrimination that is punitive toward to a blacksmith and helen again you wonder had an embodiment and johnson might not have been given the you know well coulda been a leader with the courage and the capacity to stand up to the radicals and in congress who wonder actually appeared to avoid and don't forget abraham lincoln was assassinated in the very beginning of the second term he would remain president until march fourth eight in sixty nine and he could have done much good work in those four years to repair the rift between north and south there is no doubt that after lincoln died the freed slaves were treated terribly not just in the south

racism was rampant in the north they didn't want those freed slaves moving to the north jefferson davis once said after the end of the war yes the cell has its problems but i predict the north will treat them a racist wait to unveil not fare well under the northern people and caused the waldo you know men and i you know nobody crunch where just about a local unit in action well to do couple things i would do another historical book on the civil war probably my look back on what the war meant to the regular people are really about the heroes of written about the last man of american history jefferson davis a family taking lincoln to the grave and explore his legacy nothing i want to because i threw man hunted became friends with the couple great thriller writers patricia cornwell harlan coben and they've inspired me to give to try someone to try stewart the novel a thriller novel i like the show and i read it and i will try to do it now as oracles historical novel but with with minor crime in action and we'll

see if it's easier for the industry at least with history the plots than made up for me within our willingness to make of myself well a teva this book that project goes well it sounds pretty exciting thanks john thanks for coming on clinton thanks all of you were watching on johnson of forward own words he agreed it is