Jeremiah Dixon Ferree was a bright young man. By early 1864 seventeen year old J. D. Ferree, as his friends called him, was teaching school at the Line School in Sidney. All that changed when the dashing young Major Frankenberger of the First Ohio Cavalry stopped in Sidney on a recruiting trip. Ferree immediately enlisted and dismissed his classes. It was February 21, 1864. He was off to be a horse soldier.

The unglamorous reality of war soon set in. The First Ohio participated in the battle of Nashville and numerous other engagements. The fighting conditions were miserable. Ferree and his men lived on parched corn only for eight days straight as they fought their way to Macon, Georgia. During one stretch, they engaged the Rebels for 30 consecutive days. It was late April, 1865 when the news of the assassination of Lincoln and the fall of Richmond was received. Soon they would be going home!

On May 1, 1865 a call went out for volunteers. Men of "discretion and courage" were needed for one last assignment. "We were told it would be a secret and dangerous expedition" Ferree would later recall. The thirty-five men were given confederate uniforms and revolvers. Their mission: capture President Jefferson Davis.  Captain Yeoman, the leader of this band of daring soldiers, addressed them as follows: "President Johnson has offered a $100,000 reward for his (Davis') capture, dead or alive...Now if we run onto him and he has less than 200 men with him, by the eternal I am going to attack him. If there is anyone here who will not ride where I lead, let him come forward." No one did. Final plans were made.