Character Interview: James Davis, The Soldiers Life

CG: Since you brought up General Anderson, I think this would be a good time to talk about your life. Tell my readers how you got to where you are.
JD: I was born to a slaveholding family from Mobile, Alabama on August 2, 1826. That makes me fifty-four year old.

CG: And that would make your sister fifty-one.
JD: Just don't tell anyone that I said it. Hell hath no fury like that of a woman whose age has been revealed.

CG: Were you born at Sauf Asir.
JD: No. My parents were visiting Washington, DC when I was born. If I were superstitious I would say that is why I'm a politician now.

CG: Did you always want to be a soldier?
JD: No. I just didn't want to be a planter. My father got me an appointment to West Point. I graduated in 1846 and was immediately sent to Mexico as a young 2nd Lieutenant in the infantry. I was under the command of Zachary Taylor. It was while in Mexico that I met a Cavalier First Lieutenant of Artillery from Kentucky by the name of John Lee Anderson.

CG: So Mexico was your chance to "See The Elephant".
JD: Mexico was a fun war

CG: Because you won?
JD: That is always fun. No, it was how we won. In most of our engagements we were heavily outnumbered and had to capture the high ground. Yet we still won overwhelming victories.

CG: Better aim?
JD: Maybe. If I were more devout I would say that we had God on our side. Either way, all the land we acquired in that war is now in The Republic. When the war ended, I invited John to spend some time at Sauf Asir. It was there that he met my sister for the first time. She was eighteen.

CG: Susan says that she was married at eighteen. It must have been a whirlwind courtship.
JD: She would turn nineteen about six weeks after her wedding. The courtship was helped by the fact that Brevet Colonel Anderson was stationed at Fort Morgan.

CG: That's convenient.
JD: Almost as convenient as my first assignment being in the War Department. I am convinced that my cousin Jefferson Davis had something to do with both our assignments. My parents didn't have that much influence.

CG: How was life in Washington?
JD: It was a whirlwind of social activity. Dinners, parties and dignitaries. I was bored out of my mind

CG: How so?
JD: It's not the kind of excitement that a young soldier seeks. Mexico had whetted my appetite for combat.

CG: So you hated life in Washington?
JD: At first. I spent nearly seven years at the War Department behind a desk. Maybe it's a relief for a soldier posted at some isolated fort that was fated never to get any action.

CG: Like Sumter and Leavenworth.
JD: Point taken. The Confederate attack on Sumter and the Republic's attack on Leavenworth both had this in common, they were the first major battle at the garrison. My time in Washington had one benefit, though.

CG: What is that?
JD: It's where I met Katherine Ann Bradford, who after a short courtship became my wife.

CG: We will come to Katherine and your family shortly. What ended your life at the War Department?
JD: Family, in a way. My Sister, while courting John, made it clear that she didn't want to be travelling all over the nation. She wanted security. So she convinced John to resign his commission and they began life as civilians in a place neither had any ties to. Trenton, New Jersey. I didn't get to see my sister and her family much. And then family life intruded on my life in the War Department.

CG: How So?
JD: My cousin, Jefferson Davis, became Secretary of War. We were able to meet quite frequently and I told him about life in our part of the Davis clan. One day during the Winter of 1855 my brother in law shows up at my house. He's back in military uniform but this time it's as Brigadier-General, not the Captain brevet Colonel I knew. President Pierce has ordered him to take a civilian homesteading expedition to the upper parts of the Nebraska Territory. Since I was in the War Department, he wanted my advice as to who to pick.

CG: Who did you pick?
JD: First, let me say, never let the War Department lead a civilian expedition. To the soldier, civilian means wife and children. I don't think we had one true civilian family in the group.

• John, Susan, Thomas Walter and Robert Lee Anderson
• Colonel Kenneth Mark Bassett of Maine, Single, Captain at the time, courting Kimberly Ann Chase of Boston at the time.
• Kenneth Lee Dawes of Virginia, stationed in Texas at the time with his wife Maureen, a Texan, and their young son Robert. Promoted to Captain on his arrival.
• First Lieutenant Gary White of Boston, Corps of Engineers, stationed at Fort Warren. Single, though courting Laurie Ann Jacobson of Sandwich.
• Major Thomas Garfield of Illinois, commander of Fort Ridgely in Minnesota. Wife Michelle and four children.
• Colonel Willard McDowell, born in Scotland, lately of Florida. Commander of Fort Jefferson in the Caribbean. A Career soldier, single.
• Pierre Renault, Colonel, Canadian army, wife Patricia, formerly of Montreal.
• Catherine, myself, and the first of our three children.
• We were also given one hundred cavalry.

We arrived at Fort Pierre and realized that what we really needed was engineers, and First Lieutenant White was it. We were forced to improvise winter barracks. I remained John's aide-de-camp for seven years, which Susan loved, because she had her brother on hand to help raise a family of four children.

(I have been deciding whether to make this 3 or 4 parts, I'm leaning to 4. We'll continue with the arrival at Fort Pierre next time.