On 18 April 1861, assistant presidential secretary John Hay recorded in his diary the report of several women that ""some young Virginian long haired swaggering chivalrous of course. . . and half a dozen others including a daredevil guerrilla from Richmond named Ficklin would do a thing within forty eight hours that would ring through the world.""The women feared that the Virginian planned either to assassinate or to capture the president. Calling this a ""harrowing communication,"" Hay continued his entry: ""They went away and I went to the bedside of the Chief couche .