Sold – Abraham Lincoln and the Confederate Bribery Incident

Henry C. De Ahna was a German officer who was given a colonelcy of an Indiana regiment at the start of the Civil War. His superior was General John C. Fremont, and when the imperious De Ahna tried to enter his even more imperious commander’s headquarters, he was stopped by the sentinal and told he was not on the approved entry list. He indignantly forced his way past anyway, and for this rather minor infraction was court marshaled for conduct unbecoming a gentleman. He was convicted, but that verdict was overturned on appeal by the Judge Advocate and the overturning concurred in by Gen. Winfield Scott. President Lincoln pardoned him, the reason being, as noted by John Hay in his journal, that De Ahna had “suffered sufficiently for having lifted his recalcitrant heel against the dignity of the General’s [Fremont’s] Body Guard.” Then De Ahna, through his friendship with the Blair family, somehow got the President to nominate him for brigadier general. The Senate refused to confirm, one senator calling De Ahna a foreign adventurer. Gen. Frank Blair again intervened, asking Lincoln to make De Ahna a member of member of General McClellan’s staff. That never happened, and Lincoln, initially in sympathy with De Ahna, may have ended up seeing him as tiresome.

On August 10, 1863, Lincoln was a busy man, metting with General Hooker and with abolitionist Frederick Douglass. John Hay recorded, “[Douglass] intends to go south and help the recruiting among his people.” The President acknowledged that “Douglass is…a loyal, free, man, and is, hence, entitled to travel, unmolested. We trust he will be recognized everywhere, as a free man, and a gentleman.” Lincoln also found time for a brief visit from De Ahna that day. But this time De Ahna did not olny come pleading for a job, but to tell the President a tale involving a Confederate attempt to bribe Union generals to betray their commands and surrender. He came with $2000, the supposed down payment of bribe money. This promised to be a long meeting, Lincoln apparently thought as De Ahna began, and the President had neither time nor inclination to hear him out. Since there was money involved, Lincoln pawned De Ahna off on Secretary of the Treasury Chase.

Autograph Note Signed, Washington, August 10, 1863, to Secretary Chase. “Hon. Sec. of the Treasury, Please see & hear Gen. De Ahna.”

So as not to step on toes, Chase contacted Secretaray of War Stanton, who agreed Chase should see De Ahna, which he did. Chase recorded the details of his meeting with De Ahna in his diary in the entry for Thursday, October 1, 1863. “General called with strange story. He says a letter came from Richmond with $3000 from [Judah] Benjamin. The money was to be used by Charles d’Arnaud, formerly of Fremont’s staff, to corrupt Percy Wyndham, an officer of one of our cavalry regiments & induce him to betray his command to the enemy. This letter came to a Mrs. Van Camp, wife of Mr Van Camp, said to have the confidence of the President…and through some mistake in identity this letter of Benjamin came to De Ahna.” Chase continued, “He showed me Benjamin’s note which promised compensation for ‘articles’ meaning I suppose ‘horses.’ He also paid over to Hogan [a Treasury detective] $2000 of the money sent by Benjamin which I directed Hogan to deposit with Jay Cooke & Co. De Ahan was told to discover, if he could, what was being done in complicity with the rebels & advise me or the Secretary of War.” In December 1864 Congress ordered the money given over by De Ahna be confiscated by the United States.

Om January 31 1864, De Ahna wrote Lincoln a lengthy letter in which he refered to his meeting with Chase. The letter complained that Chase had not believed him despite evidence, and that nothing had been done to follow up on this serious matter. If Lincoln ever replied, it is not recorded. Although clearly Lincoln, Chase and Seward were not worried, there was a real letter from Benjamin and $2000 in cash with more promised. The real truth behind the matter was never determined. As for De Ahna, he ended up as Collector of Customs at Sitka, Alaska.