Jefferson Davis, American

by William J. Cooper

  The isolation and masculinity of the camps and forts could seem like an extension of West Point, but not always. Usually only senior officers, and not all of them, brought along wives and families. They were indeed rare. Unattached women were even rarer. Sharp differences from the Military Academy stood out; the tight control and esprit de corps dominant among the cadets did not often appear on the frontier. Lieutenant Davis would experience almost every side of this army.

  He did not long remain at Jefferson Barracks. On March 24, 1829, he received orders to report to the headquarters of the First Infantry Regiment at Fort Crawford in Michigan Territory, now in the state of Wisconsin. Located at the junction of the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers, Fort Crawford was situated right beside Prairie du Chien, a long-established trading center but little more than a village. With a population ranging upward of 500, depending upon the season of the year, Prairie du Chien attracted traders, trappers, and hunters, both Indian and white. Responding to the westward movement of Americans after the War of 1812, the U.S. government founded Fort Crawford in 1816. When Davis arrived thirteen years later, it was largely unfinished. Because the original fort had been located in the lowlands subject to flooding, in 1825 the army chose a new site on higher ground, yet in the very next year ordered its abandonment. The outbreak of Indian troubles in 1827 led to its reopening, but in 1829 much work remained to be done.6

  Soon after Davis’s arrival at Fort Crawford, the regimental commander, Colonel Willoughby Morgan, sent his new lieutenant on to Fort Winnebago, some 180 miles northeast of Fort Crawford at the portage between the Wisconsin River flowing southwest toward the Mississippi and the Fox River heading northeast toward Lake Michigan at Green Bay. The fort stood on the east bank of the Fox about two miles from the Wisconsin. Because of the Indian difficulties, the army in 1828 directed construction of Fort Winnebago at this strategically critical point between Green Bay and Fort Crawford. When Davis reached the still largely unbuilt fort, he stood literally in the midst of a great wilderness.7

  Davis’s first assignment turned him into a construction superintendent. At the time he reported, Fort Winnebago consisted of “only log huts connected by a stockade.” The post commander, Major David E. Twiggs, put the young lieutenant in charge of working parties to obtain materials for the construction of blockhouses, barracks, and stores. One group went to the pine forests farther up the Wisconsin; another attacked the hardwood forests on a different stream. When the timber came down the Wisconsin, the water ran so high that it spread in a broad sheet across the portage to the Fox. Taking advantage of the temporary water course, Davis and his construction unit built rafts and floated the lumber all the way to Fort Winnebago.8

  North-Central United States, 1808–40; State Boundaries, ca. 1840.

  Papers of Jefferson Davis, I, with permission of the LSU Press

  Lieutenant Davis did more than gather building materials. He also had a short-lived career as a furniture-maker when officers’ quarters were under his charge. Mrs. John H. Kinzie, the wife of the Indian agent at the fort, remembered the furnishings. The bedstand she described as “of proportions amply sufficient to have accommodated Og, the king of Bashan, with Mrs. Og and the children into the bargain.” She also marveled at an “edifice” designed for universal storage from clothes to china upon which Davis and his helpers had “exhausted all of their architectural skill.” Mrs. Kinzie detailed this “structure”: its “timbers had been grooved and carved”; the front pillars “swelled in and out in a most fanciful manner”; not only paneled, the doors also “radiated out in a way to excite the imagination of all unsophisticated eyes.” This showpiece had one problem, however. The numerous shelves were so close together that getting even a gravy boat between them proved almost impossible. The reason for this shelving, according to Davis, derived from the designer’s original purpose, for each shelf to hold an officer’s coat without folding. Mrs. Kinzie and Major Twiggs’s wife “christened the whole affair, in honor of its projector, a ‘Davis.’ ”9

  Lieutenant Davis’s contributions to the improvement of Fort Winnebago did not end his military construction career. Two years later, when back at Fort Crawford, he took on an important task in the rebuilding and expansion of that post. His new commanding officer, Colonel Zachary Taylor, assigned him to oversee the logging and sawmill operation that provided the lumber for the reconstruction project. This time Davis operated on the Yellow River (in present-day Iowa) about twelve miles northwest of Prairie du Chien. This work lasted for approximately six weeks.10

  Jefferson Davis certainly did not spend all of his time in building enterprises. Like most young officers, he experienced an enormous variety of duties. Between 1829 and 1835 he served as a company commander, acting assistant quartermaster, assistant commissary of subsistence, and adjutant. He also saw detached service on recruiting duty and searching for deserters.11

  At times these jobs could be quite tedious. Army bureaucracy and regulations required incredibly detailed record-keeping, especially in the quartermaster and commissary areas. In August 1830, Washington informed Davis that in his quarterly account for commissary activities he had made an error of 7 cents. Later that year he explained to the quartermaster general his actions regarding five oxen, one horse, and six small boats that had all been condemned. Then there was the correspondence over the conversion into bulk of 3,678 rations of extra whiskey. Did that amount come out as 118 gallons 2 gills or 114 gallons 30 gills? In 1831 the Office of the Commissary General corrected Davis’s reporting on the 68 pounds of candles he had sold to officers. He had sold them at 14 cents a pound instead of the 14.5 cents he should have charged with the incorporation of transportation costs. Davis responded that he believed his calculations correct: transportation had cost 1.5 cents per pound, actually 1.47 cents.12

  At other times Davis’s assignments could be both exciting and trying, especially when on detached service. Literally one of the first white Americans in northern Illinois, and what would become Wisconsin and Iowa, he traversed much of the northwestern wilderness. In 1829 he made one of the first journeys from the portage to Chicago. He remembered the delays caused by “wandering through bogs” and going three and a half days without food and thirty-six hours without water. Killing a pheasant and its brood enabled the lieutenant and his men to “escape starvation.” Davis’s arrival underscored the extraordinary nature of his trek. The appearance of a white man on the bank of the Chicago River opposite Fort Dearborn created a stir within the garrison. In later years Davis maintained that he led the first party of white Americans to the site of Madison, Wisconsin, then known as Four Lakes Country.13

  The wilderness landscape captured his imagination. Writing of the countryside around Fort Winnebago to sister Lucinda, Davis described the prairie as “new beautiful and being studded by islands of woods possess[ing] by a variety in the scene an advantage over west Prairies.” Enchanted by the Fox River, he pictured “a sluggish and very crooked river its banks low and the grass grow[ing] to the water’s edge which makes it look beautiful at a distance.” Water “so clear that you could see the fish swimming all through it” impressed him. In a lengthy 1831 report to the quartermaster general he catalogued the routes and provided a detailed description of the countryside for more than 100 miles in every direction of Fort Winnebago. “A country richly clothed with grass” pervaded his world. Marshes, boggy bayous, deep ravines, rapids, and swift streams all caught the eye of the young lieutenant.14

  One major assignment took him far beyond the narrow confines of army posts and omnipresent regulations. In October 1831 Colonel Morgan ordered him to lead a detachment to the Dubuques Mines, near present-day Dubuque, Iowa, to prevent the outbreak of hostilities between pioneers and Indians. American settlers were eager for the opportunity to mine lead in that area, but the Fox and Sauk (sometimes Sac) Indians retained the land. By an unratified treaty of July 31, 1831, the Fox and the Sauk agreed to remain on the west side of the Mississippi, and the white
s were to stay on the east bank. Zealous settlers determined to press across the river, however, and violence threatened. When Lieutenant Davis showed up, he discovered that the reports of white intrusion on the western bank were accurate. He also reported that he feared more white intruders. Although he wanted to thwart mining activity by obstructing navigation in the streams the miners used for transporting lead from mines to furnaces, he realized that he had an insufficient force. Thus, he maintained his position of guarding the mines and keeping red and white apart, which he did successfully through the winter.15

  According to a later account, his personality and persuasiveness were also critical in keeping the peace. Refusing to use force against the miners, Davis listened carefully to their interpretation of their rights. After hearing them out, he responded that “time and patience” would eventually give them access to the mines. For the time being, however, Davis insisted that they would have to stay away. At one point he defused a hostile crowd by saluting them as friends and asking them to drink to the success of his plan. Upon hearing his offer to treat all, the recalcitrant miners cheered him.16

  Lieutenant Jefferson Davis did more than learn his trade as a junior officer. In a long letter written during his first army summer to his sister Lucinda, he reflected upon himself and his place in the world, as thoughtful young people so often do. Although he did not find the army exciting, he admitted, “I know of nothing else that I could do which I would like better.” Compatriots with “genteel” manners made for a general congeniality. Furthermore, “as far as morality is deemed necessary in the intercourse of men in the world it is strictly observed.” “Dissipation,” Davis noted, was “less common than among the citizens of Mississippi.” If drunkards appear, “they are dismissed from the service.”

  Still reflecting on the rightness of his occupation, he mused that if he had returned directly to Mississippi from Transylvania, “I might have made a tolerable respectable citizen.” West Point, however, “made me a different creature from that which nature had designed me to be,” and getting along with civilians might prove difficult. Still, Davis insisted that he would “endeavour to improve myself as much as circumstances will admit.” Army duties did not require serious thinking and called for “but small inducement to study.” And like most other men, most of his fellow officers did not “labour for the love of it.” Contrasting his own attitude, Davis informed his sister that he had ordered some books from New York City. He also hoped that he might someday be stationed at a post where he had access to a library.

  Jefferson Davis simply did not know what he wanted from the future. Acknowledging Lucinda’s anxiety about him, he was straightforward. “If I had any definite plan I would most willingly unfold it to you.” But he had none, except for his projected reading program. From that he expected “to acquire general information,” though he planned to concentrate on “legal reading.” He believed that focus appropriate, for “if at any time I should determine on a civil course of life I think I would prefer the practice of law to any other profession.” If, on the other hand, he remained in the army, “a knowledge of law” would qualify him for the responsibilities of a judge advocate, “an honorable and frequently pleasing and profita[ble] duty.”

  Writing on his twenty-first birthday, Davis admitted the collision between youthful aspirations and harsh reality. “When I was a boy and dreamed with my eyes open as most do I thought of ripening fame at this age of wealth and power.” He continued, “As I grew older I saw the folly of this but still thought at the age of [twenty-one] I should be on the high way to all ambition desired.” That time had arrived, however, and he was “the same poor being that I was at fifteen with the exception of a petty appointment which may long remain as small as it is at present.” That reality he faced as so many other young people have, but the realization did not drag him down. “Yet I am not distressed for I behold myself a member though an humble one of an honorable profession in which sychophancy … is not necessary to success.…”17

  The twenty-one-year-old Davis evinced pride in his profession while trying to come to terms with uncertainty about himself and his future. At the same time he obviously struggled with his emotional state. He had largely been on his own from age fourteen when he entered Transylvania. At sixteen he confessed the pain caused him by his father’s death. The correspondence with his family underscores its importance. Even so, he now lived far away from those he cherished and who cherished him. The loneliness and harsh conditions of far-flung frontier posts with their seemingly unending winters provided much time for pondering. Self-examination in those circumstances could lead to an enveloping sadness, which he clearly confronted. He also shared his confrontation. In 1833 a loving niece, Joseph’s oldest daughter, who was his contemporary, warned him against “that ever preying viper melancholy.” As an antidote she urged: “cherish ambition, cherish pride, and run from excitement to excitement.” “You have cause to look for happiness,” she wrote, “and that you may gather it[s] sweet blossoms to your bosom at last, do I fondly pray.”18

  Despite the great distances and lengthy absences, Lieutenant Davis clung to his family. The surviving letters, though few and all written to him, show that his mother, his brother Joseph, sisters, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, nieces, and nephews all cared enormously for him. Warm and chatty, the letters are filled with family news and expressions of love and concern for a loved one far away. As often with young people, Jefferson never wrote frequently enough for the folks at home. His correspondents recurrently talked about how much his letters meant to them, and always wanted him to write more regularly. In late 1833, Joseph’s wife, Eliza, told him that his mother “is resolved upon paying you a visit” unless more letters reached her.19

  In addition to requesting that Jefferson improve as a correspondent, his family also expressed a great desire to see him. In turn, home never strayed too far from Jefferson’s mind. Whenever he thought of any other occupations, he placed himself in Mississippi. Though visits home could not be routine, a young niece remembered them as joyful. Between his postgraduation furlough in the fall of 1828 and the end of his military service in the spring of 1835, he returned to Mississippi only twice. He served for more than three years before receiving the first extensive leave that permitted him to return to Mississippi. Departing from Fort Crawford in late March 1832, he headed home. Writing from Woodville in mid-April, Lieutenant Davis requested an extension of his leave. He was granted four additional months, though the Black Hawk War interrupted his stay. Then three years later, in March 1835, he was granted a furlough for a trip home. This time he resigned from the army at the conclusion of his leave.20

  While maintaining contact with home was vital for Jefferson Davis, one person retained special importance, his brother Joseph. Aware of “the consequences you seem to attach to my opinion,” Joseph recognized his centrality for his youngest sibling. Joseph also loved Jefferson dearly, but did not dictate to him. Using his influence cautiously, Joseph informed Jefferson that he would advise, but Jefferson must make his own decisions. “No One can judge for an other, and the worst of all reasons,” Joseph reminded the young lieutenant, “is that such a one said so.” In charting “a plan of life,” Joseph counseled, “we should look to the end and take not the shortest route but the surest that which is beset with the fewest difficulty and the most pleasant to travel.” Even though Jefferson Davis had lost his actual father, the young man had a sage and sensible surrogate father.21

  The advice that Jefferson must make his own decisions about his future came in July 1832, when Jefferson was on leave in Mississippi. At that moment Lieutenant Davis was surely contemplating a change in occupation. He had in mind going to work for a railroad proposed for southwest Mississippi, and he wanted Joseph’s opinion. Joseph gave it directly. He had doubts about the future of the “small comy.,” but Jefferson had to make his own decision. Lieutenant Davis decided to stay with the army, though no evidence details his decision-making.22


  Although Jefferson Davis spent most of the time between 1829 and 1835 far from home and family, he had with him a constant human reminder of that special place and those special people. Throughout his army career Lieutenant Davis was accompanied by James Pemberton, his slave. At that time it was not at all unusual for army officers on active duty to have servants with them, including slaves. In fact, army regulations authorized a payment for the maintenance of officers’ servants. Each time the army paid Lieutenant Davis, he also received an allowance for one servant. The annual base pay for a second lieutenant was $300, which with allowances for subsistence and a servant went up to $834 for an infantry officer, with additional allowances possible. While on active duty Davis had no income save his army salary.23

  Originally the property of Samuel Davis, James Pemberton was the first slave Jefferson Davis ever owned. Samuel had specified in 1823 that James Pemberton belonged to his son Jefferson. Although there are no particulars on the legal title passing to Jefferson, family members never questioned his ownership. Pemberton, however, did not leave Wilkinson County to join his master until Jefferson Davis was on active duty in the army. Lieutenant Davis was single, but his slave evidently had a wife. Even though slave marriages were not recognized in Mississippi law, or in any other slave states, probably the great majority of slave owners recognized alliances between slaves, as did the Davises with James Pemberton. Family letters to the lieutenant report on the well-being of Julia Ann and a son, the wife and child of James Pemberton. They also ask for news of the absent husband and father.24

  The historical record is not revealing on the interaction between Lieutenant Davis and James Pemberton. Serving with Davis in various posts, Pemberton remained loyal to his master. No record of disciplinary problems or attempts to escape survives. But by every appearance a mutual respect and devotion grew over the years. One later account describes Pemberton nursing Davis through a serious winter illness. As for Davis, his actions spoke vividly. When he resigned from the army in 1835 to begin a career as a planter, he placed James Pemberton in charge of the land clearing. Later he made Pemberton his overseer.25