Jefferson C. Davis (1828–1879)

Jefferson Columbus Davis served as a general officer in the Union army during the Civil War. Fighting in numerous battles, including the Battle of Pea Ridge, he is best remembered for killing his superior officer in a confrontation.

Born on March 2, 1828, in Clark County, Indiana, Jefferson C. Davis was the oldest child of William Davis and Mary Drummond Davis. Davis’s father operated a farm and later a general store. Davis went by a shortened version of his name, Jef, throughout his life. He received some education at a school in nearby Charleston, Indiana.

At the outbreak of the Mexican War, Davis joined a local company that became part of the Third Indiana Regiment. At the age of eighteen, Davis was promoted to corporal. After his performance at the Battle of Buena Vista, Davis received a promotion to sergeant. The officers of his regiment supported his appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point with an endorsement from President James Polk. Through a series of errors, Davis never took the appointment, and another resident of Indiana received the slot. After more than a year of uncertainty, Davis received a direct commission as a second lieutenant with the First Artillery Regiment in 1848.

Over the next decade, Davis served in Maryland, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Florida, Virginia, and South Carolina. During this time, Davis led his troops in combat against the Seminoles in Florida and led independent commands on several occasions. He served at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, where he defended the fort against an enemy attack in April 1861 that led to the outbreak of war. The garrison was evacuated to New York City, where Davis received orders to go to Indiana, where he took command of organizing state volunteers. While serving in this role, Davis received a promotion to captain in the regular army. Davis accepted command of the Twenty-Second Indiana Infantry with the rank of colonel of volunteers and took his unit to St. Louis, Missouri, arriving on August 18, 1861.

The troops continued to train, and Davis received command of a small division consisting of two brigades. The first brigade included the Eighth, Eighteenth, and Twenty-Second Indiana Infantry Regiments and the First Battery of Indiana Light Artillery. The second brigade consisted of the Thirty-Seventh and Fifty-Ninth Illinois Infantry Regiments and a battery of the Second Illinois Light Artillery. The First Missouri Cavalry was also attached to the division. Davis was given the rank of acting brigadier general shortly after his arrival in Missouri.

The Army of the Southwest, under the command of Major General Samuel Ryan Curtis, moved southward from Missouri into Arkansas in early 1862. Elements of Davis’s division encountered Confederate cavalry on February 16 at Pott’s Hill, marking the first engagement on Arkansas soil during the war. Davis commanded his division at the Battle of Pea Ridge and received praise for his role in the engagement, with his men fighting at Leetown, among other locations on the battlefield. Moving with the Army of the Southwest across southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, Davis and much of his division were split from the main body of troops and sent to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, for movement across the Mississippi River. Davis was promoted to brigadier general on December 18, 1861. He also received a brevet promotion to major in the Regular Army for his actions at Pea Ridge.

Joining the Union’s Army of the Mississippi, Davis commanded a division at the Siege of Corinth. By late summer 1862, Davis was seriously ill and exhausted. He received a twenty-day furlough and returned to Indianapolis.

During a brief leave from the army in the winter of 1861–1862, Davis married Marietta Athon in Indianapolis; the couple did not have children.

While he was at home, Confederate forces began pushing through Kentucky, and Federal commanders scrambled to meet the enemy. Davis reported for duty in Louisville under Major General William “Bull” Nelson and was given the task of organizing the untrained Union troops flocking to the city. Nelson quickly became unhappy with the progress Davis made and relieved him from duty in late September, ordering Davis out of the city and across the Ohio River. Returning to Louisville on September 28, Davis provoked Nelson in a public argument the next morning. Following the argument, Davis shot and killed the unarmed Nelson. Arrested in the aftermath, Davis never faced a court-martial for the murder and a month later, he returned to command.

Following the murder of Nelson, Davis commanded various units in the Western Theater, leading a division at the Battles of Stones River, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga. During the Atlanta Campaign, Davis took command of the XIV Corps, which he led for the remainder of the war.

Davis received notoriety during the Savanah Campaign when he ordered a pontoon bridge be removed before hundreds of newly freed slaves could cross a creek, leading to the deaths or capture of many of the freedmen. Davis never received another official promotion, although he did receive a brevet promotion to major general on August 8, 1864, and brevet promotions to lieutenant colonel, colonel, brigadier general, and major general in the Regular Army.

At the conclusion of the war, Davis took command of the Twenty-Third Infantry with the permanent rank of colonel. In 1867, Davis received command of the Military District of Alaska. Remaining in that command until 1870, he spent the next three years in recruiting and administrative positions in New York City before receiving command of the Department of the Columbia in 1873.

Based in the Pacific Northwest, Davis succeeded Brigadier General Edward Canby, who was assassinated by members of the Modoc tribe. In a few months of campaigning, Davis captured the leaders of the Modoc, several of whom were convicted of crimes and hanged by federal authorities.

In 1874, Davis took active command of his regiment at the Omaha Barracks in Nebraska. Suffering from jaundice, Davis repeatedly took leave for treatment, including a trip to Hot Springs (Garland County) in 1876. He contracted pneumonia at a meeting of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland in late 1879 and died in Chicago, Illinois, on November 30, 1879. He is buried in Indianapolis.

For additional information:
Clifford, James. “Murder at the Galt House: The Strange Career of Union General Jefferson C. Davis.” On Point 11, no. 4 (2006): 9–17.

Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher. Civil War High Commands. Redwood City: Stanford University Press, 2002.

Hughes, Nathaniel Cheairs, Jr., and Gordon Whitney. Jefferson Davis in Blue: The Life of Sherman’s Relentless Warrior. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2002.

“Jeff C. Davis.” Chicago Tribune, December 1, 1879, p. 5.

Jones, James P. “General Jeff C. Davis, U. S. A. and Sherman’s Georgia Campaign.” Georgia Historical Quarterly 47, no. 3 (1963): 231–248.

David Sesser
Southeastern Louisiana University