Davis Jefferson Davis: "The Lover"

[Discipulus]

I was researching the 33rd Illinois when I came across the attached newspaper clipping of a love letter by Jefferson Davis to a Miss Sara Taylor, dated 1834.

Forgive me for not transcribing it.

It is from the TOPEKA (KS) STATE JOURNAL, Sept. 13, 1898.

Enjoy.

 

[donna]

Sara Knox Taylor became his first wife. he loved her very much. She died a few months after they were married. She was the daughter of Zachary Taylor.

If you ever saw photo of her she is a very pretty woman. It was so sad that she died so young.

He was so fortunate that years later he meet Varnia Howell who became his wife and bore his lovely children...

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Sara Knox Taylor became his first wife. he loved her very much. She died a few months after they were marries. She was the daughter of Zachary Taylor.

If you ever saw photo of her she is a very pretty woman. It was so sad that she died so young.

He was so fortunate that years later he meet Varnia Howell who became his wife and bore his lovely children...

Sarah was indeed a beautiful girl.

SARAH KNOX TAYLOR DAVIS

She packed a lot of drama into her 21 years. The second daughter of future U.S. President Zachary Taylor, Sarah also was the first wife of future Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Her parents gave her the middle name Knox after Fort Knox, in pre-state Indiana, where her military father was stationed and where she was born in 1813 or 1814. Sarah was often called Knox or Knoxie.

The life of an army brat was certainly more dangerous in the early 19th century. During Taylor's posting in Louisiana, Sarah and her two sisters came down with "bilious fever," now thought to be malaria. Sarah survived, but her older and younger sisters died.

The Taylors were stationed at Fort Crawford (now Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin) in 1832, when Sarah met and fell in love with a young officer named Jefferson Davis. Zachary Taylor opposed the relationship, and accounts vary as to why—because he didn't want his daughter to continue to be exposed to the hardships of army life, or because he and Davis didn't get along. Or both.

Davis was transferred, so he and Sarah conducted a long-distance relationship for two years. They even planned their wedding by mail. The ceremony took place in June 1835, in Louisville, Kentucky. Sarah's parents did not attend. Once again there is disagreement over why they were absent.

The newlyweds immediately headed south, and they visited Davis's relatives in Louisiana. Sarah, mindful of the family tragedy the last time the Taylors traveled those parts, wrote home, "Do not make yourself uneasy about me, the country is quite healthy."

But while staying with Davis's oldest sister at "Locust Grove" in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, the couple fell ill with malaria. Jefferson Davis recovered, but Sarah died, barely three months into her marriage.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/19732/5-feisty-first-daughters

When I lived in Natchez, Mississippi - I had the opportunity to visit her tomb a couple of times. She rests not too far down the road in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=20981

 

[LoriAnn]

It is sweet to read his loving words to her. (Yet I also feel kind of bad that such a personal letter is out there for the rest of us to read.)

 

[Andersonh1]

It is sweet to read his loving words to her. (Yet I also feel kind of bad that such a personal letter is out there for the rest of us to read.)

According to the biography of him by William C. Davis, one of the things that Federal troops looted when they reached his plantation during the war were many of his private papers, including these letters to his first wife. It was deeply embarassing to have such private feelings out for all to read, as I can imagine it would be for any of us.

 

[DBF]

We are losing our ability to write. I think some of the best books I have read regarding the civil war are the diaries and letters from those living through this time. As I was reading this, I wonder what Jefferson Davis would have "texted" today to his love.

 

[LoriAnn]

Probably...

"My

longs for you!

."

 

[Two Eyed Jack]

I was researching the 33rd Illinois when I came across the attached newspaper clipping of a love letter by Jefferson Davis to a Miss Sara Taylor, dated 1834.

Hard to picture Davis as a "lovesick youth".

 

[FarawayFriend]

He was so fortunate that years later he meet Varnia Howell who became his wife and bore his lovely children...

And who really loved him so much that she forgave him that he never stopped loving Knoxie. He even led Varina to Knoxie's grave when they were newlyweds! Knoxie's death had broken his heart and it never entirely healed again.

Hard to picture Davis as a "lovesick youth".

Why? I find it fascinating that he had not always been the cool political leader of his later years. He was not always distant and suspicious. To me it's fascinating that both Lincoln and Davis had lost the loves of their life as young men. Lincoln lost Ann Rutledge, Davis lost his first wife. Both married (again) but I would love to know what kind of men they would have become if their first love would have led to a long lasting relationship and fulfilling family life!

 

[Andersonh1]

By all accounts, Jefferson Davis was a devoted husband and father who loved his wife and children, and was not shy in expressing those feelings to them.

 

[Vicksburger]

This letter seems to verify that she was indeed sometimes referred to as "Knox," a fact I had wondered about.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

My goodness. I'm sorry to argue Faraway but we do hear a good bit of how Jefferson buried his heart with her- and it certainly must have taken an awfully long time to heal, poor man. Varina picked him out of the flock- she was very bright, educated, stunning and much sought after. He could have married anybody too- and picked her. I've always though it symbolic they visited Sarah's grave together, Davis letting Sarah know who it was in his life. I don't know. Just do not see Varina marrying someone whose heart was in the past. Varina was a heck of a girl. It doesn't take anything from his first marriage to say so. ( Will leave the Lincoln/Rutledge thing for another thread....)

Agreed- seems barbaric, looting and finding love letters which are then made public? I'm curious- did these survive and if so, were they returned to the Davis or Taylor family?

 

[donna]

An interesting site on Ann Rutledge and Abe Lincoln is at:
http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln34.html

 

[DBF]

An interesting site on Ann Rutledge and Abe Lincoln is at:
http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln34.html

Thanks for the link. It was an interesting read. Love how they describe her beauty - good teeth. I have read several books on Abraham and Mary Lincoln and always wondered about their relationship, but it was the marriage that they both made.

 

[Andersonh1]

Agreed- seems barbaric, looting and finding love letters which are then made public? I'm curious- did these survive and if so, were they returned to the Davis or Taylor family?

Off topic, but it has always seemed barbaric to me the way the soldiers that captured Davis, while escorting him through Georgia, sang the lines from the song about "hanging Jeff Davis from the sour apple tree" in front of his wife and children. "Sorry kids, we're going to kill your dad. And laugh about it to your face."

 

[LoriAnn]

I think Varina did feel that Davis's heart had never truly been 100% hers, and I say that because I could swear I read that she advised her daughter on that particular issue, but I will later look through my book and see if I can find the quote.

(ETA: I'm scanning, and though I haven't found it yet, I think the advice was for a friend's daughter, not her own.)

There's no judgment towards Davis from me though. I think a second marriage after the death of the first spouse is just going to be complicated, period. From Davis's point of view, I can understand wanting to visit Sarah's grave, looking to pay respect and perhaps silently asking for approval. I get that kind of loyalty.

From Varina's, I can completely understand if that was unnerving for her. And if she convinced herself out of fear that Davis was never 100% hers, I question whether or not he could have done anything to put her mind at ease. (In other words, he could have truly been totally devoted, but she would never have believed it.)

Makes me wonder...how many "true love"s does each person have? Is it really only one? My mother is sure there is more than one person out there with whom you can make that kind of connection ~ there are just too many personality combinations and possibilities to limit a person's life to one true love. With fear, doubt, and guilt cast aside, it is possible that a man in Davis's position could fully and happily commit to Varina. (Whether or not Varina believed it is another story. )

 

[FarawayFriend]

Here is a paragraph from one of my favourite books, from which I have quoted multiple times:
Intimate Strategies of the Civil War: Military Commanders and Their Wives, ed by Carol K. Bleser,Lesley J. Gordon
that back's @LoriAnn 's post:

https://books.google.de/books?id=I1...onepage&q=bleser strategies civil war&f=false

 

[LoriAnn]

Here is a paragraph from one of my favourite books, from which I have quoted multiple times:

That's it! Thank you.

You saved me some effort. I was scanning the wrong book and wouldn't have picked this one up ~ the one with the correct quote ~ until tonight.

 

[Bruce Vail]

I have Varina's bio of her husband on my bookshelf. I bought it for a few shekels at a book sale years ago, but I have never been moved to sit down and read it.

CORRECTION: The book is the memoirs of Varina, not a bio of her husband.

 

[LoriAnn]

After reading a bit about Varina's wit and independent nature ~ something Davis must have found attractive at some point (until she had an opinion that differed from his own perhaps...ha...not that any of us have experience with that ) ~ I wonder what Sarah was like.