[central_va]

I guess like any human he wanted to be put on trial or freed, the cowardly Yankees couldn’t make up the widdle minds. They were skirt of Massa Davis.

[wideawake]

You miss the point. Davis, of course, wanted not to be in prison. And, in furtherance of that very understandable goal he fought tooth and nail to get his case thrown out of court so that he would not have to go to trial.

He was unsuccessful - every court that reviewed his indictment upheld it. It was through the magnanimity of his former foes - Ulysses Grant and Salmon P. Chase - that the charges were dropped. Grant did not want to open old wounds.

It was only after he was assured of his freedom, and when he began holding court at Beauvoir with his admirers, that he started claiming that he had wanted to go to trial.

This was an obvious falsehood - he had fought his indictment in court for years rather than face trial. He did one thing, but said another.