Late on May 8, the night before his arrival at this site, Jefferson Davis and his party camped in Abbeville, 26 miles northeast, unaware that pursuit was close behind. Their pursuers, the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry under Lt. Col. Henry Harnden, had learned in Dublin of their passage and, after many hours of trailing through swamps and over boggy roads, reached Abbeville shortly after Davis's departure. Stopping only to feed and water, Harnden's men resumed the pursuit when the 4th Michigan Cavalry under Lt. Col. B.D. Pritchard arrived and learned Davis's probable route. Pritchard had been bound downriver to intercept other Confederate officials, but after Harnden departed he rode on some 12 miles, then abandoned his own mission, made a forced march, found the Davis camp later that night by posing in Irwinville as the escort, surrounded it quietly, and waited for dawn. Harnden had camped a few miles away and, unaware of Pritchard's presence, moved up just before dawn to surround the camp. His advance was fired upon and, in the fight that followed, two Michigan soldiers were killed before a prisoner taken by Harnden's men revealed the identity of the enemy. During this unfortunate collision, Pritchard closed in and seized Davis and his party, thereafter claiming for the 4th Michigan the fruits of the 1st Wisconsin's labors.