Ulric Dahlgren

Ulric Dahlgren (April 3, 1842 – March 2, 1864) was a colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War. In 1864, he led an unsuccessful raid on the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, and was killed. The failed raid resulted in the Dahlgren Affair after incriminating documents were discovered on Dahlgren's corpse.

Early life

Dahlgren was born April 3, 1842, to Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren and Mary Clement Bunker.

File:UlricDahlgren1860.jpg

Ulric Dahlgren

American Civil War

Papers found on Dahlgren's corpse shortly after his death contained orders for an assassination plot against Confederate President Jefferson Davis. The discovery and publication of the Dahlgren Papers sparked controversy in the South. The disrespectful display of Dahlgren's corpse in Richmond inflamed Northern public opinion, until the intervention of Elizabeth Van Lew enabled its burial, at considerable risk to the Union spy network she ran in the Confederate capital. The papers may have contributed to John Wilkes Booth's decision to assassinate U.S. President Abraham Lincoln a year later.

See also

• Dahlgren Affair
• John A. Dahlgren

External links

• Memoir of Ulric Dahlgren, By John Adolphus Bernard Dahlgren, Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren