821. Pensacolian Helps President Jefferson Davis Escape 1865

PRESIDENT BY Wilds Leroy "W. L." W1TTICH (1847-1913) (CO. E, 56TH ALA. CAV.), PENSACOLA, FLA. I read in the March Veteran an article from Lieut. Milford Overly, 9th Kentucky Cavalry, entitled "The Escort to President Davis." In the main Lieutenant Overly is correct, but there are omissions to which I wish to call attention. I have not seen the Augusta Chronicle article to which he refers, hut I am concerned just now only in regard to the omission. Ferguson's was not a Mississippi brigade, though it had a Mississippi regiment, and General Ferguson was a Mississippian, but the majority of the brigade was composed "of Texans and Alabamians".

Look for city directories and look for photo on hard drive.

CV Magazine 1908 page 263 ***

Now as to the escort after the President left Abbeville, S. C., I do not know; but I do know that the 56th Alabama, of which I was a member (Company E), preceded Mr. Davis to Washington, Ga., and during Mr. Davis's halt there a Cabinet meeting was held in a small brick office building. Company E, 56th Alabama, furnished the guard on that occasion, and I was one of the number. Our company, numbering about eighteen men (Captain Riley), was a Smith Alabama company from Butler County.

Mr. Davis left Washington in the early morning, and at sunrise we (Company E) followed him, being from time to time in sight in his rear. If there were any other troops ahead of him, we did not see them; certainly there were none in his rear. They continued several days until 6 p.m. May 8, when we were captured (Company E, 56th Alabama), our company numbering at that time thirteen men under Captain Riley.

Mr. Davis was taken prisoner next daj a few miles from where we were captured, and no troops were with him I be remnant of Company I 56th Alabama, must have been the last armed troops he saw.

The morning of the day we surrendered we had a brush with a squad of Yankees, and bad one man wounded. My wife has my parole in her war scrapbook. The Federals seemed very glad to capture 11s. and told us at the time that we were about the last armed Rebels ai large. The officer in command gave us an order on any United States quarter- we might mi el fi ir supplies.

The intention of ibis communication is simply that the and Alabama cavalry may not be deprived of the honor of being a part of President Davis's escort, as all who were with him are entitled to equal honor.

Obit 9-30-1913 page 2 "The Commerical Appeal" Memphis, TN has the obit for General W. L. Wittich, native of Georgia, CSA, and veteran of the Russia & Turkey war i 1878. He was a pioneer lumber and timber exporter and is credited as the first man to load a steamer with lumber and timber at any Gulf port.

Wilds Leroy Wittich (1847-9-28-1913) son of Reverend Ernest L. Wittich (1806-1847) and Eliza C. Warren (1807-1883 Buried St. Michael's) and husband of Mary Olivia Roberts(1845-1934)

W L Wittich

Birth Date: 1847

Birth Place: Madison, Georgia

Enlistment Rank: Private

Muster Place: Georgia

Muster Regiment: Cobb's Legion

Muster Information: Enlisted

Side of War: Confederacy

Survived War?: Yes

Residence Place: Madison, Georgia

Last Known Residence Place: Greenville, AL & Pensacola, Florida

Death Date: 28 Sep 1913 Death Place: Pensacola, Florida

Additional Notes: Married Mary Roberts in 1868.

Served in Russian Army in war against Turkey in 1878

At the outset of the Civil War, Wittich was studying at the Georgia Military Institute. He joined Cobb's Legion and served until being wounded in Virginia. After recovering, he joined Company E of the 56th Alabama Regiment in the fall of 1863.

Was an Alabama soldier living in Escambia County and pulling a Florida pension. Married Mary Roberts. According to his death certificate Wilde was born on January 16, 1847 in Madison, Georgia the son of Ernest Christian and Eliza Baird Wittich. His father was born in Madison and his mother in Charleston, SC. Wildes married Mary O. Roberts on September 15, 1868 in Butler County, Alabama in Greenville by the Judge of Probate Samuel S. Gardner. He enlisted in October 1861 in Company E of the 56th Alabama Cavalry Regiment of Partisan Rangers as a sergeant and was discharge at Brown’s Ferry, Georgia on May 8, 1865.

Wilde applied for his Confederate pension that was approved for $100.00 per year as of July 6, 1907. He died on September 29, 1913 in Pensacola of organic heart disease and was treated for his condition by Dr. L. C. Phillips from August 13th to September 28, 1913. He was a timber inspector at the time of his death. There is a Wilde Leroy Wittich Jr. His widow made a claim for her pension in 1924 while she was living at 1110 North Palafox Street. She was approved and awarded $300.00 per year effective November 7, 1924. Wilde was born in Morgan County, Georgia on January 16, 1847. His captain was F. B. N. Reilly and some say Benjamin J. West and his colonel was William Boyles. At the time his unit surrendered in Greenville, Alabama Wittich claims to have been escorting President Davis south of Greensboro, North Carolina. He was paroled on May 8, 1865 at Browns Ferry.

His military service was attested by James Farinas and William H. Murphy as well as John L. Pinney of Camp #10. He had been a member of Camp #10 since its inception. Murphy had been a member of Company E of the 15th Battalion of Alabama Partisan Rangers that was consolidated with the 56th Alabama Rangers on May 8, 1862 at Greenville, Alabama. James Farinas was a member of Company E of the 56th Regiment. He lived in Pensacola continuously since 1869. Is now a merchant.

1885 Wilde is dealing in wholesale groceries at Palafox and Romana Street. also a timber and lumber merchant operating off Central Wharf.

His next door neighbors living in #1110 was Wildes Leroy Wittich Sr. and his wife Mary O. Roberts. Her husband Wildes owned a lumber company with an office on the sixth floor of the Blount Building. He and his wife had previously settled in Georgia before deciding to come to Pensacola where their four children were born. They eventually moved to Pensacola prior to 1900 where Wildes entered the booming timber business.

Wildes was born on January 16, 1847 in the community of Madison in Morgan County, Georgia, the son of Ernest Christian Wittich and Eliza Baird. His childhood was normal but as he approached his adolescent years his neighbors as well as the local newspapers were ablaze with talk of succession if the North dared to elect the dastardly Abraham Lincoln. But alas the dreaded election came and went with Lincoln deposited in the White House, which in turn angered the entire southern populace. Following the guns of Ft. Sumter, the South had cast their fate to the wind and that fate was war.

When the war arrived, Wildes enlisted in Cobb’s Georgia Legion on October 1, 1861 where he served until he was wounded around Bethel, Virginia and sent home to recover among his family. After his wounds mended he returned to the army to enlist in 1863 in Company “E” of the 15th Battalion Alabama Partisan Rangers which was later consolidated on June 8th of that year into the 56th Alabama Cavalry Partisan Rangers under the command of Captain F. D. N. Riley. The regiment was assigned to the brigade of General Samuel Wragg Ferguson under the cavalry division of Major General William H. Jackson of the Army of Tennessee. It later was transferred to the command of General Joe Wheeler where Wildes rose in rank to the level of sergeant. The unit experienced the fighting in and around Vicksburg as well as the hundred day campaign from Resaca to Atlanta where he was wounded again in 1864. He was captured near East Point, Georgia but escaped from his captors and rejoined his regiment. He followed Joe Wheeler in his raid around Chattanooga and later opposed Sherman in his infamous march to the sea. His unit surrendered in Greenville, Alabama but Wildes was assigned at the time to the detachment that was escorting President Jefferson Davis in his retreat from Richmond through the Carolinas. The escort was dismissed at Washington, Georgia and shortly thereafter he and his comrades were captured by Union forces and later paroled on May 8, 1865 at Brown’s Ferry, Georgia.

After the war he migrated to Greenville, Alabama in Butler County where he engaged in the expanding grocery business. He soon met and married Mary Olivia Roberts on September 15, 1868 and the happy couple moved to Pensacola the next year in 1869 where he continued in his chosen profession. However in 1878, he entered the timber and lumber exporting business and even chartered the first steamboat to carry a cargo out of the port city.

During that same year he took a hiatus for whatever reason and served three months with the Russian army in their fight against Turkey. He soon returned from the war and took up his timber business where he left off. In 1885, Wildes was working as a dealer in wholesale groceries out of his store at Palafox and Romana Street in addition to his timber and lumber business operating off the Central Wharf. At one time he was one of the largest exporters of timbers and lumber on the Gulf Coast and erected many of the mills in Pensacola of which one was the old Wright Mill on East Intendencia Street.

He applied in later years for his Confederate pension, which was approved in the amount of $100.00 per year as of July 6, 1907. On his application papers his military service was attested to by James Farinas and William H. Murphy as well as John L. Pinney of the United Confederate Veterans Camp #10. Wildes himself had been a member of the camp since its inception on May 12, 1887 and Murphy and Farinas had served next to him in Company “E” all during the war.

While employed as a timber inspector in later life Wittich developed organic heart trouble, which eventually brought about his death from organic heart disease six weeks later at 9:15 PM on Sunday evening on September 29, 1913 in his Pensacola home at 1110 North Palafox Street while under the care of Dr. Lawrence C. Phillips. He was survived by his wife and his children B. B. Wittich, Wildes L. Jr., Mrs. James K. Burton, and Mrs. John A. Avant (Power grid). His funeral services at St. Michael’s Cemetery were officiated by the Reverend M. H. Holt from the FirstMethodist Church. The pallbearers that escorted his mortal remains into the pale nations were some of the most powerful men in Pensacola at the time such as C. Julius Oerting, Joseph Spence Roberts, John A. Kirkpatrick, James Simpson Reese, John Cary Whiting, John A. Merritt, Gus Eitzen and Richard Miles Cary.

Seventeen years after his death his wife made a claim for her widow’s pension in February of 1924 while she was still living in the family home, which was finally approved in the amount of $300.00 per year effective November 7, 1924. See Pensacola Photo folder.

Among Davis’s advisors were John H. Reagan, Judah P. Benjamin, John Breckinridge, and Burton Harrison. A small but elite military escort was also in tow, and they all arrived in Washington, in Wilkes County, on May 3. The next day Davis held a final meeting with his cabinet, and the members dispersed after the president authorized their belated compensation from the remaining Confederate treasury, including gold.

Davis proceeded south to Sandersville, where on May 6 he entrusted the remaining Confederate treasury to Captain Micajah Clark, the acting treasurer of the Confederacy, and on May 7 he was reunited with his wife, Varina, and their children. Together they moved on through Abbeville, in Wilcox County, on May 8, keenly aware that Union forces were close behind. The pursuit of Davis resulted largely from the U.S. War Department’s false assumption that he was complicit in the assassination of Lincoln. A $100,000 reward was promised for anyone who could bring in the president and his aides.

Varina had left a note for her husband: “I dread the Yankees getting news of you so much, you are the country’s only hope, and the very best intentioned do not calculate upon a stand this side of the [Mississippi] river. Why not cut loose from your escort? Go swiftly and alone, with the exception of two or three. God keep you, my old and only love.” His cavalry being “not strong enough to fight and too large to pass without observation,” Davis wrote back, “I can no longer rely upon them in case we should encounter the enemy. I have therefore determined to disband them and try to make my escape. We will cross the Mississippi River and join [General] Kirby Smith, where we can carry on the war forever.” The idea of reviving the South again in the West was perhaps not so farfetched. It would take Federal troops several more decades to subdue hostile Plains Indians, many of whom had made common cause with the Confederacy. How they might have fared against 40,000 Confederates is an open-ended question. As a diversion, Davis sent Breckinridge off with the bulk of the remaining cavalry. Former naval officer Colonel Charles Thorburn mapped a route to the east coast of Florida, where he had a boat hidden on the Indian River. From there Davis might sail around the peninsula and across the Gulf of Mexico to Texas. Davis rode out with just 10 picked men, one wagon, and two ambulances. Union cavalry rode into town 12 hours behind them.