Jefferson Davis' Meerschaum Pipe

johnnyreb · Feb 16, 2015

The Happy President's Day thread made me think of this. For those who haven't seen this Meerschaum pipe before it belonged to Confederate President Jefferson Davis and was among his possessions during his two year imprisonment at Ft. Monroe, VA. Check out the detail of the carving!

voorhees · Feb 16, 2015

Very cool and very priceless.

admin · Feb 16, 2015

Thanks for posting Johnny.
In case you haven't seen it, we have a profile on him, along with a great shot of the pipe.
Jefferson Davis: President of the Confederate States - Pipe Smoker

freakiefrog · Feb 16, 2015

That is so cool!! Look at the carving on that thing, wow.

Chasing Embers · Feb 16, 2015

Seeing pics of that bad boy years ago was what inspired the purchase of mine. Would love to have an amber stem made for mine.

http://pipesmagazine.com/members/chasingembers/album/picture/15528

johnnyreb · Feb 16, 2015

Thanks Kevin. I hadn't seen it before but I enjoyed reading the profile very much.

huntertrw · Feb 16, 2015

I wonder what tobacco President Davis favored? My guess is that it was not Union Leader!

Chasing Embers · Feb 16, 2015

Fascinating read Kevin! Would love to see more accounts of other notable historic pipesmokers!

condorlover1 · Feb 16, 2015

@chasingembers Unless you are used to amber stems I would recommend you give it a miss. Amber is hard and can be very brittle and anything in the pipe department with a curved amber stem is an accident looking for a place to happen in my opinion.

Chasing Embers · Feb 16, 2015

Noted condor, have also read that it is very light sensitive as well. Thanks for the advice.

johnnyreb · Feb 16, 2015

Sometimes history is not as distant or as far removed as we often think. All it takes is an object such as this pipe or sometimes a descendent of a historical figure to bridge the gap. I think that's why I enjoy it so much.
Just two yrs ago on Valentine's Day, 2013 Kit Carson Cody & his brother Barry Garlow Cody died together in a small plane crash in FL. They were the great-grandsons of William F. Cody.

literaryworkshop · Feb 16, 2015

I'll bet he smoked Virginia blends.

warren · Feb 16, 2015

If you are a clincher, amber should not be your stem of choice. Very hard on the teeth. Well, at my age, very hard on the tooth.

mso489 · Feb 16, 2015

Jesse Winchester, the late singer-songwriter who lived in Canada to avoid the Vietnam draft, was a fifth generation

descendent of Robert E. Lee. I've visited the mausoleum where REL is entombed with many members of his family

in Lexingon, Va., on the campus of Washington-Lee University. Also there is the home of Stonewall Jackson who

taught there before he became in Confederate officer. He was such a self-conscious professor that he wrote out,

then memorized every lecture. As many people know, Robert E. Lee's beloved horse Traveler is buried just outside

the door to the family crypts. I heard Jesse Winchester about a year before he died about a mile from my home in

a small church in an industrial park. He really was a brilliant songwriter and looked somewhat like Robert E. Lee.

johnnyreb · Feb 17, 2015

MSO,
My dog Traveller is named in honor of a grey speckled Appaloosa my grandfather used to ride, who was in turn named in honor of Lee's Appaloosa, Traveller.
Cole Younger and his brothers were related to Robert E Lee thru their mother who was a Fristoe. She was directly related to "Light Horse" Harry Lee.

lordofthepiperings · Feb 17, 2015

I remember that PM article from a time ago. Always fun to see the pipe again.

flipflopsandshades · Feb 21, 2015

Very, very, cool.

johnnyreb · Feb 22, 2015

"From the colouring on it, he sure did not run short of tobacco during his imprisonment. :D"
Actually during much of his imprisonment Davis was chained and deprived of tobacco for his pipe. Quoted from the article Kevin linked above:
"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."
(Snip)
"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."

prndl · Feb 22, 2015

if any of you get the chance to hit the gulf coast, you should try to visit "beauvior", his retirement home in biloxi...it took a hit from katrina and took many a dedicated, unpaid hour from a world of folks to get her back into shape.
fascinating place and story.

Jefferson Davis' Meerschaum Pipe

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