Jefferson Davis: President of the Confederate States – Pipe Smoker
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Kevin Godbee - Jul 29, 2011
- 8 min read
By Fred Brown
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va.– There it was – a priceless relic of the Civil War, displayed in a simple Plexiglas box in a small Virginia museum, its graceful lines accented by a dramatic beam of light, its bowl as scuffed and dark as Black Cavendish.
The pipe itself was beautiful, yes-but it was its provenance that made it so exciting: Its owner had been none other than Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.
An avid Civil War buff and pipe smoker myself, I had never known of its existence until a recent trip to Virginia Beach, Va., when I visited the prison at Fort Monroe where Davis had been incarcerated for two years after the defeat of the Confederacy by Union forces.
Davis was a pipe smoker long before he became the leader of the ill-fated breakaway Confederate states in 1861. In fact, there are recorded discussions of his “corncob” when he worked his Mississippi plantation, Brierfield, so named for its tangled woods and forests.
Historians have written that Davis actually worked in the fields beside his slaves, and smoked his cob while at work.
Davis was born into a wealthy Mississippi plantation family and given a top-notch education, eventually making his way to West Point. He was not a particularly good student, considering good times and beautiful women more interesting than studying dusty military tactics.
After several years in the U.S. Army, and participation in the Mexican War with many of his West Point classmates, he resigned his commission and returned to Mississippi and Brierfield and entered politics as a U.S. House member, and then Senator from Mississippi.
There is not a lot of information to be found on Davis’s Meerschaum pipe or if he was a collector during his years in Washington. But there are volumes of information about his participation in the war.
During the brewing secession crisis through the 1850s, Davis cautioned his political colleagues to avoid rushing into action. He opposed war after his experiences in Mexico where in 1847 he had been wounded at the Battle of Buena Vista.
Despite his aversion to war, Davis assumed the role of the Confederacy’s president and he supported the “peculiar institution” of slavery. He and his family owned and traded in slaves in Mississippi.
Davis’s position on slavery was not unusual for the wealthy planter class in the South during the run up to the Civil War. Even though many slave owners opposed the war, most wanted slavery left alone. Even President Lincoln said in his early campaign speeches and in his inaugural address that he would not remove slavery where it existed, but let it die out of its own accord. However, the President would prevent slavery from advancing into other territories and states coming into the Union.
When the crisis came to a boiling point with the secession of Southern states, Davis resigned his seat as a senator, saying he would return home, and attempt to sit out the coming tragedy, or perhaps even take a military command for his state.
But his destiny was already being discussed in the breakaway Confederate States of America capitol of Montgomery, Ala., where Davis was chosen at the CSA’s president.
Reluctantly, he accepted leadership of the seceded states in 1861 and left Montgomery, Ala., soon afterwards. His inaugural in February 1861 in Richmond, Va., was a lively affair, but public sentiment foreshadowed the four long and bloody years to follow.
As CSA President, Davis was in overall charge of the Confederacy’s future. But his fortunes, as well as those of the 11 seceded slave states, rested with its army and navy, both of which were ill-equipped to do battle with the Union, which had the advantage of the military and manufacturing might of the United States under President Abraham Lincoln.
Roughly 650,000 souls were either killed, wounded or listed as missing in action during the four years of war. The staggering statistics still outrank all of America’s war casualties combined. And when Richmond was lost to northern forces in 1865, Davis quickly fled with his family, aided by military officers, friends, and Cabinet members.
His intent was to cross the Mississippi River, collect the Confederate forces that had not yet surrendered, and somehow continue the war. There was even talk of transplanting the CSA government to Havana, Cuba, from whence the fight would carry on. That didn’t happen.
Davis was captured by federal troops in Irwinville, Ga., May 10, 1865, and was moved to Fortress Monroe, a Virginia coastal fort that had never surrendered to the Confederacy during the war. The fort had proved to be a thorn in the side of the Confederacy, since it was south of Richmond and situated on an important port of entry.
Fort Monroe in Hampton Roads, Va., was a stalwart redoubt constructed during the years 1819 to 1834 to protect access to the Chesapeake Bay and the James River. Here, the former CSA president was ignominiously locked into a very spartan cell and charged with treason.
He was kept in the fort’s casemate, which is now a museum on the fort grounds. The inner hallways and arches of the casemate are short and narrow, leading into low-ceiling rooms, many feet thick of brick and mortar. Davis’s re-created jail cell, less than 20-by-20, is equipped with a bunk bed and a diminutive desk with an oil lamp and chair. The desk sits in front of a small window, which was his only view of the world during the time he was held prisoner. Davis was manacled for much of his two-year incarceration until U.S. Army physician Lt. Col. John Craven, ordered the chains to be removed for the prisoner’s health. It was during this time that Craven, who had been assigned the Davis case, walked into the cell and was astonished at Davis’s distressing physical condition.
As Craven talked to Davis, he noticed a beautiful white, Meerschaum pipe on a wall shelf. A pencil sketch of that meeting is now part of the museum collection as well. The pipe is not quite distinguishable in the pencil artwork. The doctor is seen talking to Davis, who appears to be sitting on the edge and rising from his bed.
The Meerschaum is described in the “American Heritage” section of the U.S. Army Historical Foundation web page, as the creation in 1865 of Kaldenberg and Sons of New York, a company in business from 1858 until 1893. The manufacturer worked in Meerschaum, ivory and amber and made pipes, cigar holders, canes, ivory combs. The Davis “meer” pipe bowl is egg-shaped and clutched in the talons of four carved eagle claws. The pipe is described as being 8.5 inches long and weighing 8 ounces.
A silver metal band fits around the shaft and the stem appears to be pure amber and there are some bite marks on the bit. The bowl, heavily scratched and dark from much use, has been colored beautifully by the tobacco of that time, probably a Virginia or Kentucky leaf.
When the doctor mentioned the pipe, he also noticed that Davis was apparently suffering from acute tobacco withdrawal. Until that day, his captors had prevented him from smoking. In response, the young doctor sent an aide to find a stash of tobacco and allowed Davis to fire up his lovely meer.
Davis was so grateful for the gift of tobacco that he told the physician, “This is a noble medicine. I hardly expected to receive it. And, I’ll have to admit the deprivation has been severe.”
It has been reported that at the end of his incarceration, when all charges against him were dropped, Davis gave the pipe to the young Dr. Craven.
However, that account is also a puzzle, since The New York Times reported in its 1897 edition that Davis gave the pipe to Sgt. John Howard, who had been in command of the “detachment of the Chicago Board of Trade Battery which captured Jefferson Davis.
. . . . While Jefferson Davis was a prisoner of war, Howard became well acquainted with him, receiving from the Confederate president a meerschaum pipe and a collection of gold coins.
How the pipe traveled from either Sgt. Howard or Dr. Craven to Fortress Monroe Museum is also debatable.
And then in 1977, The New York Times reported in a United Press International wire service story that the pipe had been stolen, but recovered:
AUGUSTA, GA., (UPI)-The Federal Bureau of Investigation said today that it had recovered Confederate President Jefferson Davis’s meerschaum pipe and case, which were stolen in Virginia. The antiques were taken from a display at Casement Museum at Fort Monroe, Va., six days ago and turned up in the hands of a private individual, the agency said. No arrests have been made.
Uncovering the back story of a pipe is just as exciting as learning the history of its owner. In this case, the owner has long since departed the scene, but the Meerschaum lives on in the Casemate Museum in Fort Monroe, Va.
Fred Brown is a Retired Senior writer for the Knoxville News Sentinel and was a working journalist for 46 years before retiring in 2008. He lives in Knoxville, TN., where he continues to freelance. |
Written by Kevin Godbee
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It revivified a long dormant memory that is mine, and mine alone, and that’s enough. I keep it in a drawer with other old English pipes. In some ways, it’s nothing special, just a nice old pipe. I don’t lavish it with any particular care that arguably befits the hidden treasure that it holds. It’s not in a special box, or displayed preciously in a glass cabinet. Every once in a while, I take it out, point my nose bowlwards, and every time, those memories return just as powerfully as they did the first time. I have no idea how long it’s been since its last owner smoked it, but in the years I’ve had it, there seems to have been very little degradation of the aroma, and that’s […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 635. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with James Ravenwood. James is the boutique tobacco blender of Ravenwood Blends. His blending started out as a fun hobby, and he now has professionally packaged commercially available products with some great tin art. Part of his interest in pipe smoking goes back to fond memories of a retired Navy Veteran that lived on his street while he was growing up that would sit in his driveway smoking a pipe all day. Later, in 2011 he began smoking pipes and soon after started experimenting with mixing different tobaccos. His other hobby, that he has been doing for 30 years, is photography. He takes wonderful photos of outdoor spaces, and still life pictures of pipes and tobacco. You can see them on his Instagram @thebriarfellowship. At the top of the show we’ll have an Ask the Pipemaker segment with renowned pipe artisan Jeff Gracik.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 634! Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Warren Ertle. Warren is an extremely accomplished musician with a PhD in music. He started early as a percussionist in sixth grade. Later his grandmother got him a cheap Casio keyboard which he taught himself to play. He started playing in blues bands in high school, and has been a pianist with jazz big bands for years. Even though he was already a professional musician, he took his first real piano lesson when he enrolled in college with his studies in classical music. He is of course a pipe smoker. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
Soon now, supposedly, our neighborhoods will shift from grinning pumpkins, skeletons in various assortments, and zombies dashing about to pretty reindeer, angels, and flashing lights illuminating homes with sparkling stars and laughing, scurrying Santas. But, lest we forget, there is the turkey season, fancy pie aromas wafting from kitchens, and a national pardon of a big Tom Turkey. Remember, now, that only one of these holiday personalities is a pipe smoker. And that is the hefty, bearded fellow in a bright red suit sitting in a sleigh with a herd of deer hitched up and ready to streak across the globe, bringing tidings of joy and many presents. Ok, the scene is set for the next couple of months, right? So, before we get too far off the beaten path, let’s just take a deep breath of fresh autumn air, shall we? Ahh. That’s better, isn’t it? What’s got the Pundit in a snit is not all the Halloween spooks who came a-jostling for candy. 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A fact is not a truth until you love it—Shelby Foote. A parting thought: It is said that famed Southern author William Faulkner carried a packed pipe in a coat pocket wherever he went. That’s one effective way to deal with workday conflicts and confusion. A calm and objective judgment in our everyday human affairs, as the quantum man said.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 633. Our featured guest tonight is Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and the accompanying online store. We’ll have JD and Brian talking about what’s new at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, Brian will discuss tobacco growing, what happens to the leaf, and provide updated information on where tobacco is being gown today. Tobacco production originated in the United States and we were once the #1 producer. It’s quite different now.
Well there’s nothing like a touch of the plague to usher in the changing season. Leaving the airport just when the first advertisements for all things pumpkin spice began to appear—lattes, muffins, shampoos, trash bags, and myriad other concoctions—so, too, my ability to breathe freely disappeared. The unfortunate side effect of losing one’s sense of taste and smell for weeks is the utter inability to enjoy tobacco. Not that I consider myself an expert on anything but my own tastes, but be forewarned that this review was made with mildly impugned sensory equipment. Just when a comforting pipe was most needed, its comfort was denied. Be that as it may, the road to recovery found me limping along on one lung this past month, trying to wrest the particulars of two blends on offer from Sutliff: the latest 175th Anniversary blend, Silver Quarter, as well as their spooky seasonal Maple Shadows II. Silver Quarter is a new style on offer from Sutliff, their first coin-cut blend. Naturally a Virginia-Perique, it is enhanced with a traditional core of black Cavendish. In the tin it holds much promise, with a lightly bready and very woody, if ever-so-slightly sour, aroma. After some time acclimating to air, the bouquet softens further and offers hints of the burley with some chocolaty notes wafting through the more dominant dry grassy aspect. The tin art is of a coin-style bas-relief bust, presumably of a founding Sutliff brother, Ă la The Old Boss On the reverse of the tin we find the blend’s description: Reflecting on Sutliffs 175 years of tobacco excellence, we came across a brand that embodies true value, SILVER QUARTER. This name pays homage to Sutliffs roots, the legacy of two brothers who popularized pipe smoking in the burgeoning mining society of San Francisco. We celebrate this heritage with a coin cut composed of the finest African Virginias, complemented by a core of Perique and Black Cavendish. The tin notes are, forgive the pun, on the nose for a good VaPer blend: mild tart sweetness peeking out from behind dried hay and slight chocolate undertones, with a lightly tannic finish of weathered oak. It is always a joy to prepare a coin cut, my preference being to put a few in my palm and vigorously warm my hands together to fully break them apart. These well-formed discs pack and light easily, and smoke with little prodding to the end of the bowl. For technical points it scores well—it smokes light, and it’s easy to tend the ember. While it gets sharp after a few quick bowls, pacing should be heeded to easily smoke down to the heel without inviting bite. Of the flavor, though, I am left a bit wanting. There are tart and high notes aplenty, but very little of the lemony citrus I would anticipate, as well as scant midtones; they tend more toward the red wine-vinegary and sour. The flavors are muted, also, lacking the sweetness and piquancy of other marques—the small measure of Perique tickles the nose now and again with peppery hints, and there is a smidge of a deeper sweetness to be found in the Cavendish from puff to puff, but overall it lacks some dynamism. The Virginias, to my palate, come off a bit on the dry side, and here they dominate the blend. The aftertaste and mouthfeel are neutral, again evincing more of the dry, woody, tartly tannic end of the spectrum. The blend has plenty of polish, but not enough depth or richness (*yet) to make it a standout. Here, comparisons are inevitable: Luxury Bullseye Flake has more sweetness, both from its Virginia as well as its Cavendish, and a better finish; Davidoff is similar but with a pronounced umami that is absent here; as for Escudo, I haven’t had any fresh tins lately so it would be unfair to compare. While it rates as a solid, fairly mild smoke, particularly to lovers of the genre, it does not surprise with any exceptional flavors. To be fair, all the boxes have been checked for the blend to benefit from some real aging, and it would be worth checking in on this after a couple of years sealed away. I’ve set half my tin aside to sample again in a month or two, in case I’m merely suffering from the lingering effects of parosmia, and will amend this review in that case. Maple Shadows II, on the other hand, made up for the weeks of sniffling and sneezing I’d endured. Offered in a full 8 ounce tin with delightfully spooky Halloween art, it’s (hopefully) enough to last through the season. Somehow I had missed this last year, so it’s a real pleasure to get some in my candy bucket this year. As the chilling winds of autumn draw eerie prattle from contorted, deciduous limbs, we find ourselves possessed by the spirit of the season. Bewitched by a dissonant charm, we’ve created Maple Shadows. In a season that is defined by the unlikely harmony of treats and frights, we’ve joined the enchanting sweetness of maple with the earthy spice of Dark Fired Kentucky for a smoking experience that captures the senses with an otherworldly fusion of flavor. This may be the best aromatic blend Sutliff’s ever made—and they make a ton of them. First off, it’s not overbearing in the least—quite the opposite, it is also one of the more restrained aromatics they’ve ever made, with a clear but very light topping that melds oh-so-well with their choice Kentucky added to the mix. Opening the tin, the sweet maple is up front and center, but so too is the must of fallen leaves, bready pie crusts, and a crackling fire in the hearth—a perfect invocation of HerbstdĂĽfte in a can. Packing best in an open and capacious bowl, the flavoring is subtle, and recedes to the background while puffing. With a sweet coffee or tea to accompany, the aftertaste of the maple is reinvigorated on the palate […]
Wonderful read! I knew he was a pipe smoker but didn’t know about the pipe pictured here! He had great taste in pipes!
Thoroughly enjoyed the article,particularly what was assumed he smoked. Please continue this venue. I also understand Grant,Lincoln and Custer were pipe smokers. Interesting about his reluctance to war and being president of the Confederacy..
Nice article. Even nicer pipe. That amber stem!
Great article. Two of my favorite subjects,pipes and the Civil War.
Thoroughly enjoyable read. As an avid Civil War buff I recall nothing about Davis being a pipe smoker. Knowing how difficult it is to get a meerschaum bowl to color I am stunned at the beautiful coloring of the claw.
A truly great read is Bruce Catton’s “The Coming Fury” which spends much of its time describing the process that Lincoln and Davis went through to secure their nominations. It is an amazing story political intrigue that occurred in the proverbial smoke filled rooms.
Excellent article and photos!!
Jaff Davis County in Texas is named for him, and Fort Davis, the home of his famous “camel experiment” when he was Secretary of War, in the 1850s.
I have his 500+pp tome “The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government” on my bookshelf, but it is hard reading and I’ve never finished it.
I had no idea he was a pipe smoker. So his pipe was stolen and recovered? This brings to mind another stolen VIP meerschaum, that of Albert Pike, father of US Scottish Rite masonry as well as an explorer, scout, poet and Confederate brigadier general. As far as I know, that pipe has still not been recovered.
A favorite bumper sticker of mine: “Don’t blame us! We voted for Jefferson Davis!”
🙂
That’s JEFF Davis County. (typo)
I’ll have to remember his quote concerning pipe/tobacco: “This is noble medicine”!
glad to read even the President smoked a corn cob pipe
Thank you Mr. Brown.
I have always loved the minutia of history more than the more grandiose.
I thoroughly enjoyed your article.
Please keep these wonderful writings coming.
Yet another famous pipe smoker.The pipe looks great.Very enjoyable article.Hope there are more on the way.
What a great article, very well written and factual. Thank you Mr. Brown for sharing.
Thank you, PipesMagazine.com, for a wonderful article. Here, in an interesting and skillfully accomplished amalgam of tobacciana, history, and biographical writing, Mr. Brown reveals yet another niche in this most edifying pastime of pipes and luxury tobaccos. I look forward to many similar offerings in the future.
Fantastic article! I may have to seek out a claw and egg Meer, just for the sakeof history!
Love this article! I definitely need to add a Meer to my collection.