Jefferson Davis, American

by William J. Cooper

  Even in isolated posts, Lieutenant Davis’s social life extended beyond his family and James Pemberton. In the army he ran into some of his old West Point chums like Albert Sidney Johnston. In addition, he met new people like Captain William S. Harney, a fellow officer at Fort Winnebago. Eight years Davis’s senior and a ten-year veteran, Harney became a boon companion whom Davis would admire into old age. At Fort Winnebago, Davis also shared a most pleasant association with Indian agent John H. Kinzie and his wife. The Kinzies felt close enough to Davis for their daughter to request a favor during the Civil War and remark on “Auld lang syne” on the frontier.26

  His location in the Northwest provided the opportunity to renew his friendship with a Transylvania intimate, George W. Jones. While searching for deserters from Fort Crawford, Davis learned that Jones lived in the general area. When he came upon Jones’s cabin one night, the two college mates enjoyed a happy reunion. Thereafter Lieutenant Davis often visited at Sinsinawa Mound, Jones’s home located in present-day southwestern Wisconsin. The two men cemented a friendship that remained firm until Davis’s death six decades later.27

  The social and sporting activities popular with young officers occupied much of their time and certainly attracted Davis. Not unexpectedly, hunting, fishing, and animals were central. Expeditions frequently proceeded into the wilderness to take advantage of the unlimited supply of wildlife, from wolves to rabbits. Some pursuits went beyond hunting. There were foxhunts, but with a difference: frontiersmen would bring in wolves, and the officers would chase them with “horse and hound.” At times the entertainment turned in a more brutal direction. The officers would stage fights between dogs and wolves. One of Davis’s friends took pride in his ability to wrestle wolves successfully.28

  Not all off-duty exertions revolved around wild animals. Winter sleigh rides offered diversion and excitement. Enjoying horses immensely, Davis had the reputation of being able to ride anything. On one occasion he narrowly escaped serious injury when he jumped from a horse that had tried to throw him and reared until it fell. When the horse rose, the intrepid rider leaped once again into the saddle.29

  Young Lieutenant Davis proved that he was not only active but also physically strong and courageous. Searching for trespassing settlers west of the Mississippi one winter, Davis found himself caught in a snowstorm. He found refuge in a cave where he stayed the night; that the cave was an Indian sepulchre did not deter him. Once, when crossing the Mississippi, his horse refused to swim. Davis sprang from the horse’s back and tried to guide the animal, swimming with bridle in one hand and gun in the other. Refusing to follow his rider’s lead, the recalcitrant and frightened horse threatened to drown them both. Davis placed his foot on the horse’s shoulder, pushed off, and swam for the opposite shore. As he scrambled upon the bank, his mount almost clambered over him.30

  Several accounts demonstrate Davis’s ability to defend himself. Approaching him as he was sitting on some lumber, a discharged soldier asked if he was an officer. Hearing a positive answer, the soldier told Davis to prepare, for he had sworn to whip the first officer he encountered. Immediately Davis bounded up and knocked the man down. The downed pugilist announced that Davis was a gentleman and not the officer he was seeking. Another time, for an unknown reason, Lieutenant Davis found himself in combat with a lean, muscular carpenter standing six feet four inches and weighing 185 pounds. After some sparring, Davis decided he could flatten his opponent and delivered a mighty blow. Unfazed, the carpenter grabbed Davis in a bear hug. Fearing he would lose, Davis resorted to a trick he had learned as a boy wrestling with slaves. He caught the carpenter by the collar, sprang upward and backward. As the carpenter rushed to pin him down, the prone Davis nailed his adversary in the stomach with both feet and knocked him on his back. A superior officer arrived and stopped the fight, though Davis wanted to continue.31

  Not only strong and vigorous, Lieutenant Davis in his early twenties was also a handsome and engaging young man. Remaining slim, just as at West Point, made him seem taller than his five feet eleven inches. He probably weighed less than 150 pounds. Davis’s smooth face and bright coloring made him look especially youthful. His personality along with a “gay laugh” charmed many of his compatriots. A fellow officer said he always comported himself as “a corteous gentleman,” though at times, as even Davis later admitted, he could be arrogant and sarcastic. On horseback he could dazzle. Riding through a parade ground in “white drill Pants, made quite narrow at the boot, and quite wide at the thigh, and undress coat,” he attracted attention. In one trooper’s opinion, no one else could have made “a more gallant and dashing Dragoon.”32

  The spirited lieutenant certainly evinced an interest in the opposite sex normal for a young man of his age and time. At Jefferson Barracks, even before he headed for the Northwest, he reveled in female attentiveness. Writing to one sister, he noted with pride that the pin she had given him “drew attention in ball rooms” from Missouri girls. But, trying to appear older than twenty-one, he added that if he had been four years younger, their solicitude “might have made me vain.…”33

  Evenings at frontier posts were enlivened when nearby settlers hosted what they called “gumbo balls,” named for the chief refreshment. At these affairs the officers mingled with the “respectable” young, single women who always attended. The civilian and military guests danced to music usually provided by a local fiddler.34

  Sometime in 1832 while stationed at Fort Crawford, Jefferson Davis evidently for the first time seriously courted a young woman. He was attracted to Mary Dodge, daughter of Major Henry Dodge, who would later be Davis’s commanding officer in the Dragoons. She and Davis enjoyed special occasions together, including a sleigh ride that ended when the sleigh capsized in a snowdrift and the courting couple were pitched into a snowbank. Of course, her father and uncle teased Mary about her beau. Although Jefferson and Mary were delighted with each other for a while, their romance did not lead toward marriage. No documents record the end of the courtship, but Davis forever cherished his joyous time with Mary Dodge. Writing to her a half century later, he treasured “the pleasant memories of one springtime” when they shared “the flowers of youth’s happy garden.”35

  The extent of Davis’s participation in the common army diversions of alcohol and gambling is not totally clear. According to the historical record, he never got into trouble on either count. Later in life, both Davis and his wife zealously guarded his self-proclaimed image of never drinking or gambling. Davis did not have a history of gambling, though the outcome of horse races certainly interested him. Yet it is difficult to believe that the bon vivant of the West Point years utterly disappeared. A considerable distance separates some drinking from drinking that would cause official problems.36

  Anecdotal evidence indicates that Davis’s cadet persona did survive. One recollection places him at a wedding reception where after substantial imbibing he became the “leading spirit” of the party and captain of the dancers. The fancy he took to a young Indian girl, niece of his hostess, the Indian wife of a settler with French antecedents, led to his taking “improper liberties.” His advances resulted in a confrontation with the girl’s inebriated brother. Knives and pistols were drawn; Davis’s commanding officer intervened to prevent violence. Whether or not this particular episode ever happened, Davis surely made every effort to enjoy his off-duty time.37

  In his assignments on the frontier, Lieutenant Davis was part of a military force whose chief mission was to prevent conflict between settlers and Indians, and, if that effort failed, to protect the settlers. Davis made unfriendly contact with Indians only infrequently. Although at the Dubuques Mines he did a superb job of keeping miners and Indians apart, incidents did occur when he confronted the natives. On a reconnaissance patrol out from Fort Winnebago, Lieutenant Davis and his party encountered a group of Indians. One blocked the path, and the others attempted to turn Davis’s unit in the wrong direction. Davis acted promptly. Charging the blockader, Davi
s grasped him by the hair and dragged him for a distance. This quick action so disconcerted the Indians that Davis and his men proceeded without further challenge.38

  Despite that dramatic episode, Lieutenant Davis spent very little time between 1829 and 1835 facing Indians in combat situations. He also missed the greater part of the major military event that took place during his tour of duty, the Black Hawk War. During the spring and summer of 1832, Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, or Black Hawk, a sixty-five-year-old Sauk warrior, led a small band from his tribe in an uneven and ultimately disastrous contest against the Illinois militia and the regular United States Army. While Indians and soldiers marched and fought through northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, Jefferson Davis spent most of these months on leave.39

  The war stemmed from Black Hawk’s long-standing hostility toward the Americans, which dated back to his service on the British side in the War of 1812. He became increasingly unhappy with a treaty negotiated in 1804 by his tribe and the Fox with the United States, by which the Indians gave up their considerable holdings in western Illinois and southern Wisconsin. In return the United States paid a nominal annuity of $1,000 and permitted the tribes to remain on government-owned land. But after surveys and sale to white settlers, the Indians would have to move west of the Mississippi, where the United States would honor their land claims and protect them. By 1830 the increasing white settlement prompted the government to commence selling the land. Thinking removal west of the Mississippi inevitable, most of the Sauk and Fox began establishing new villages in present-day Iowa. Black Hawk, however, refused to go along.

  Rallying dissidents to his cause and believing advisers who predicted that other tribes as well as the British from Canada would aid him, Black Hawk challenged American authority and power. Although conflict was averted in 1831, it broke out the next year. Misunderstandings and failed opportunities to settle matters brought bloodshed in May 1832. For the next three months the army, the militia, and Black Hawk mostly marched and occasionally fought inconclusive skirmishes. Finally, in early August, the Americans caught up with Black Hawk’s beleaguered band near the mouth of the Bad Axe River on the east bank of the Mississippi. The resulting Battle of Bad Axe, in which 150 Indians were killed, ended the Black Hawk War.

  Jefferson Davis may have been at Bad Axe, but before then he surely did not take part in the war. Several authorities have described him as a full-fledged participant, and in later years Davis claimed for himself a significant presence in the conflict. In this instance Davis’s memory failed him just as surely as the other commentators based their conclusions on erroneous or incomplete information.40

  The record is clear. On March 26, 1832, Lieutenant Davis left Fort Crawford for Mississippi with a sixty-day furlough. By the end of the month he had reached St. Louis. In mid-April he mailed a letter from Natchez, and in May he was at Woodville, where he remained until at least July 9. In the meantime he had requested and been given a four-month extension of his leave. He did not stay in Mississippi through the summer, however. The muster roll from Fort Crawford lists him as having rejoined his unit on August 18, 1832. News of the hostilities evidently brought him back to the army. But even if he had departed from Woodville promptly after July 9, the most efficient mode of transportation, the steamboat, could not have delivered him to Fort Crawford before July 21 or 22. Then Davis would have had to travel to the army in the field. Thus, if he fought at all, it could only have been on August 2, 1832, at the Battle of Bad Axe.41

  While it is impossible to be absolutely certain whether or not Davis saw combat, there is no doubt about his major contribution to the American effort. Although Black Hawk managed to escape from the debacle at Bad Axe, he did not long retain his freedom. By the end of August he was captured by a party of Winnebago and delivered to the Indian agent at Prairie du Chien, who handed the prisoner over to Colonel Zachary Taylor at Fort Crawford. Taylor assigned an escort to take Black Hawk and some 100 other Sauk captives down to Jefferson Barracks. After cholera struck the detail, Taylor had to make some changes in personnel. This time Lieutenant Jefferson Davis was instructed to head a second detachment and make sure that Black Hawk arrived safely at Jefferson Barracks.42

  On September 3, the steamboat with Lieutenant Davis and his charges aboard set out from Fort Crawford. During the weeklong journey down the Mississippi to Jefferson Barracks, the young army officer and the venerable Indian warrior developed a mutual respect. Davis admired the campaign Black Hawk had commanded as well as his bearing in captivity. When the boat stopped at Galena, Illinois, Davis did his best to keep Black Hawk from becoming a public spectacle. He did prevent onlookers crowding the boat from entering Black Hawk’s quarters.

  Black Hawk appreciated Davis’s consideration. In his autobiography, the defeated warrior wrote fondly of the “young war chief, who treated us all with much kindness.” Calling his captor “a good and brave young chief,” Black Hawk reported that he was “much pleased” with Davis’s conduct. According to Black Hawk, Davis recognized “what his own feelings would have been if he had been placed in a similar situation, that we did not want to have a gaping crowd around us.”43

  At Jefferson Barracks, however, Davis could not keep away all who wanted to see the great Black Hawk. Now held in shackles, Black Hawk attracted many prospective viewers. On one occasion Davis was directed to permit “several gentlemen” to observe Black Hawk and some of his comrades. Annoyed, Davis commented, “Oh, Sir! Gentlemen, here is the Grand Llama of Tartary, worshipped in foreign parts and here is the real live lion stuffed with straw.” Noticing Davis’s discomfort, one of the party, Washington Irving, “laughed heartily” and remarked, “I see, Sir, you do not like the part of showman.” Thereupon, the famous writer and the obscure lieutenant engaged in “some pleasant conversation.”44

  Following his assignment with Black Hawk, Davis resumed his interrupted furlough. Then in January 1833 he returned to Fort Crawford, where he would remain until spring. For his first four years on active duty Davis served in the Northwest, but in his final two years he moved to the Southwest. The shift occurred because in March 1833 Congress authorized a cavalry regiment to operate on the frontier. This new elite unit, designated simply the Dragoons, was designed to combine the speed of horses with the firepower of muskets to provide a mobile force for the protection of settlers. The secretary of war decided to station the Dragoons at Jefferson Barracks. Davis’s commander at Fort Crawford, Colonel Zachary Taylor, gave him an assignment plum by naming him one of the junior officers who would go from the First Infantry to the Dragoons. In April, he left Fort Crawford for duty with the Dragoons. His orders sent him directly to Lexington, Kentucky, where he spent around two months successfully recruiting troopers for the new regiment. Finally on July 11, 1833, he reported to regimental headquarters at Jefferson Barracks.45

  While Davis responded promptly to his new orders, he grasped the opportunity presented for his promotion. He had entered the army in 1828 as a brevet second lieutenant, as did all new Academy graduates. In March 1831 the brevet was dropped when he received his commission as second lieutenant in the First Infantry, to rank from July 1, 1828, the date of his graduation from West Point. Promotion in the regular army came slowly at best, and at irregular intervals certainly. Only the promotion, resignation, or death of incumbents, or the creation of new units, opened up opportunities for advancement.

  When he joined the Dragoons, Davis realized that his previous regimental rank made him senior to the three first lieutenants in his new regiment. He pointed this out to the secretary of war, while emphasizing his loyalty and obedience. “I am as ever ready to render my best services wherever the Government may require them, not doubting but that I shall receive all to which I am entitled.” Then he detailed the relative ranking. Two months later Davis’s commanding officer, Colonel Henry Dodge, recommended Davis’s promotion, telling the War Department that “due to his Merit,” Davis deserved the promotion. These entreaties were successful, for
in February 1834 Davis was promoted to first lieutenant, Dragoons, to rank from March 4, 1833, the date of his assignment to the regiment. The promotion carried with it an increase in pay and allowances of approximately $250 per year.46

  Davis’s case for promotion was certainly not hurt by Colonel Dodge’s naming him on August 29 adjutant of the regiment. Previously the first field-grade officer to arrive at Jefferson Barracks had appointed Davis adjutant of the squadron, composed of the earliest reporting companies. Then when Colonel Dodge appeared, he made Davis’s appointment official, and for the entire regiment. In this capacity Lieutenant Davis acted as chief aide to Colonel Dodge, whom he had known back at Fort Crawford. As adjutant, Davis occupied a critical position. All orders went through him, usually bearing his signature for the commander. They covered a wide range, from the appointment of special duties like courts-martial, to normal housekeeping matters like orders designating staff officers. In addition, he coordinated the activities of the companies that made up the regiment.47

  Adjutant Davis’s first major task was to plan for the move of the Dragoons from Jefferson Barracks to its permanent station, Fort Gibson in Arkansas Territory (now in Oklahoma) on the Arkansas River, fifty miles northwest of Fort Smith. On October 26, 1833, a directive from the War Department had reached Jefferson Barracks instructing Colonel Dodge to set up regimental headquarters at Fort Gibson. The orders stipulated that Colonel Dodge should act “as early as practicable,” which he interpreted to mean promptly. Within a month all necessary preparations had been made; by November 20 the column pulled out of Jefferson Barracks.48