Growing up I was always interested in history, especially military history, especially Civil War history. In my early teens I saw an ad or got a letter from the Military Book Club ready to give me 4 books for only $1. Man was I hooked, immediately joining and buying book after book, I'm sure they loved me. I sure cut a lot of lawns to buy those books. Most of those books, those that can fit, still sit on the bookshelf in my office. They are primarily biographies of the Generals or books about specific battles.
Anyway, I was pretty engrossed in the Civil War period when in 1978 my grandfather's distant cousin wrote looking for information on the family. Among the things she sent to him were three letters written by a young soldier named Joseph Davis. I was immediately engrossed in reading them and trying to get every detail of what he wrote. They were addressed to his uncle, Wm. D. Russell, who was my great-great grandfather. It was thrilling, here was my very own Civil War soldier, he was part of my family and he was there for that great conflict. Remember, I was in my mid-teens and it was all so romantic and glorified, it was just so cool! And then there was the tintype (I use that term very loosely). When going through the old photographs with my grandfather we found wrapped in newspaper a 'tintype' of a soldier who appeared to be from the Civil War era. My grandfather didn't know who it was, but it was obvious to me that this was Joseph Davis. So now I had the letters and a photograph it all fit together so well.
Jump ahead three or four years and I'm now in college in Illinois. I was taking a class on the Civil War and my professor gave us an assignment to look at deserters from Illinois units. He showed us that the majority of most companies were formed from a county or adjoining counties, so we could pick a company from our home county if we wanted to. Recalling the letters, I asked my professor if he could give me any advice on how to determine which unit my relative had been in. You see Joseph never mentioned his unit, just some specifics on where he was and what battles he was in. My professor asked me some basic questions and then read over the letters. He helped me narrow down which Illinois units were involved in the various events mentioned in the letters. Then, using the Adjutant General's Report for Illinois, we looked at each of the units trying to find a Joseph Davis. Voila! It took a little while, but I found him. My professor then told me that I could order his military papers from the National Archives and helped me find the form to send. I then sent off my request and waited.......for those of you who've only done research in the age of the internet you may not understand what this entailed. I waited 3 or 4 months to hear back that they did indeed have the records. I then had to write back to say that yes I did want them and I got to wait another 3 or 4 months to get them. That was pretty standard if you wrote to a county courthouse or State archive also. Finally, the papers arrived, he even had a pension record which showed he'd moved to Kansas, married, etc.
Jump ahead another 8 years or so, it's 1990 and I was now working in the Pentagon after finishing up four years in the Air Force. I'd been working on various family lines over the intervening years when time allowed. But now.... now I was in D.C. and could spend a lunch hour in the National Archives or Library of Congress. I could go after work and spend four hours there before they closed for the evening. I'd gotten to know some of the archivist and was feeling pretty comfortable with my research abilities. My grandfather had died in 1982 right about the time I'd been trying to find Joseph Davis' unit. The old tintype was now in my possession and seeing it one day it made me think about Joseph. I decided to retrace my steps and look again at what had happened to him and who his children were. I still had his papers that said he'd gone to Kansas and so it was time to look through census records. He appeared soon enough, but when I started to look backward to see who his siblings were it became apparent that he was the wrong Joseph Davis!
It was time to start from scratch again. I pulled out the old letters and started looking to see what I knew about him.
- His unit was in camp in Memphis, TN on July 25th, 1864 and they'd been marching for a month at that time. They'd been in a battle at Tupelo, MS, the rebels under Lt. Gen. Lee and the union under Maj. Gen. A.J. Smith. He mentions the Smith boys, Gabriel Wiley, Arch, Ciss, and Pap.
- On August 7th, 1864 they are still in camp in Memphis, but they expect to take the cars (train) to Lagrange and march from there to Holly Springs, MS. They might spend time repairing the rails in that area. He also mentions that his Regt. would muster out on the 14th of October but that he'd have to stay as he'd not joined until the 2nd call. He also mentions that he got part of his $300 bounty. Again in this letter he mentions the Smith's, Gabriel Wiley and Arch D. It is also at this time that I realize he didn't send this letter to Wm. D. Russell, he'd sent it to another Uncle, probably Leonard, William D's older brother, and asked that the letter be shared with Wm. D.
- By March 17th of 1865 Joseph is in Camp near New Orleans, LA. There is force going over to Mobile and he expects they'll be fighting. His Regiment is left to load the supply train but will follow the main force in a week or two.
Joseph Davis was born about 1843 in Jackson County, Illinois. He was the oldest known child of John Davis and Mary Russell. His younger sister Mary Ann was born in April 1845, but no other children have been found in records. Their mother died about 1852 and their father remarried in 1853. John Davis moved with his new wife and their baby to Lawrence County, AR in 1856. Joseph and his sister Mary Ann went with them and remained in Arkansas until at least 1860. I don't know, but my feeling is that Joseph may have then moved back to Illinois to live with his Uncle Wm. D. Russell Sr. His uncle was only 10 years older than him and as other letters show, Wm. D. felt some responsibility for Joseph. As Joseph mentioned in his letter, he joined with the second call and was listed as a recruit in his unit. His papers show that he enlisted in St. Louis on November 23rd, 1863 for three years. He's described as a farmer, age 19, 6 feet, 1 inch tall with a fair complexion, grey eyes, and a light hair.
Joseph's regiment had already been bloodied at Shiloh, Iuka, Corinth, and in Grant's Central Mississippi Campaign. In January 1864 Joseph moved with his regiment to Vicksburg and then participated in the Meridian and Red River campaigns in the winter and spring of 1864. They spent the next couple of months moving often and skirmishing with the enemy. In July they were with Maj. Gen. A.J. Smith in his Tupelo Campaign which included the battle on July 14th and 15th that Joseph referred to in his letter. They continued to pursue the enemy for the remainder of the year and in December participated in the battle of Nashville. In February 1865 they moved to New Orleans and on March 17th the main body of troops moved toward Mobile. This was this same day that Joseph wrote the third letter to his uncle. Joseph ended this letter as follows:
Well uncle I think this rebellion is as you say about played out, I think it will play out before long. I think that I will not have to serve all my term of enlistment if our army proves successful which there is no doubt but they will. Well I will have to close by saying write soon and often.
I remain yours
Joseph Davis
Less than a month later Joseph was with his unit at Mobile. On the evening of April 9th, 1865 (the same day Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox) the 21st Missouri along with several other regiments assaulted and captured Fort Blakely in Mobile Bay. Among those killed during the assault was Joseph Davis, a 21 year old farmer from Jackson County, Illinois. Joseph is buried in the National Cemetery in Mobile, Alabama.
I mentioned earlier that I believe that William D. Russell Sr. felt some responsibility for Joseph Davis. They must have been somewhat close. In Joseph's letters he mentions that he ought to see his namesake and that he'd send $50 confederate money to William's son Joseph. My great-grandfather was Joseph Edward Russell and he was born in 1862. Whether Joseph Davis saw him as a baby or not, I don't know. In the package of letters my distant cousin has, there are also letters from William D. Sr. to Joseph Davis's, half-sister who lived in Arkansas. It is apparent from these letters that William was doing what he could to get any money due Joseph's estate and that it should go to the half-sister and her siblings. Joseph Davis's estate was settled in the 1870s and his half-siblings in Arkansas did get a little money out of his estate.
One last item....the tintype.... it wasn't Joseph. I had several people who study uniforms and the Civil War look it over. They determined it was a cavalry man, probably from earlier in the war. I've since decided it was probably one of the Killgrove brothers, but I'm saving their story for another time.
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