BIOGRAPHICAL
TIMELINE OF JAMES ALLEN DAVIS, 1831-1907
1831
May 20 Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, eldest son of printer
and Underground Railroad conductor Benjamin Davis and his
wife, Hannah Allen Davis.
1834
March 17 William Clifton Davis, J.A.'s younger brother,
is born in Cincinnati.
1836
January 28 Emma Lee Davis, J.A.'s younger sister,
is born in Cincinnati.
1852
Graduates with A.B. degree from Oberlin College in Ohio.
1853
Marries childhood sweetheart Martha Craig of Ripley, Ohio;
moves to Keokuk, Iowa to teach school. Daughter Sarah Emmeline
Davis is born on September 30.
1855
Accepts a teaching position in Lawrence, Kansas; attends the
Free State convention as a delegate in October and meets James
Lane, the “Grim Chieftain.”
1856
May 21 Sarah Davis dies of fever in Kansas.
Martha Davis runs off with an actor from Missouri. Davis,
overwhelmed with grief and rage, joins Charles Jennison’s
“Jayhawkers” and spends the next five years participating
in raids on pro-slavery settlements in Missouri, rescuing
slaves and destroying plantations.
1861
June 11 (Tuesday) William "Cliff" Davis
enlists in the 6th Ohio Volunteer Infantry at Camp Dennison.
October 24 Davis is mustered in as a 2nd Lieutenant
in Company “K” of the 1st Kansas (later the 7th
Kansas) Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, formerly Jennison’s
Jayhawkers.
December
11 Davis meets frontier writer, Clarence J. Lipsey
in a saloon in Leavenworth, Kansas. The two become fast friends.
December 31 Participates in the raid on Dayton,
Missouri, in which a young family is accidentally burned alive.
Davis resigns his commission in disgust and returns to Cincinnati.
James
Lane, now a U.S. Senator from Kansas and a friend of President
Lincoln, talks Davis into returning to the field as an Army
scout. Davis is introduced to Brigadier General Ulysses S.
Grant, fresh from his victories at Belmont, Missouri and Paducah,
Kentucky.
1862
January 28 (Tuesday) Joins Grant's army near Paducah.
January 30 (Thursday) Heads down the Tennessee
River with Grant's army to attack Fort Henry. Davis begins
making sketches of the action and filing dispatches.
February 6 (Thursday) Fort Henry taken by
gunboats and ground troops under the command of Flag Officer
Andrew Foote, USN.
February 12 (Wednesday) Grant surrounds Fort
Donelson, commanded by Gen. Gideon Pillow, CSA, on the Cumberland
River. Davis sketches the action.
February 14 (Friday) Grant and Foote begin
a coordinated assault on Fort Donelson. Foote is injured in
the foot when his flagship, the U.S.S. St. Louis, is shelled.
The assault is repulsed.
February 15 (Saturday) Pillow's Confederates
attempt to break out of Fort Donelson by attacking Grant's
troops under the command of Gen. John McClernand, but are
unsuccessful and withdraw back into the fort. That night,
Gen. Nathan B. Forrest leads his cavalry out of the fort and
escapes. Gen. Pillow also flees, leaving command of the fort
to Gen. Simon B. Buckner, CSA.
February 16 (Sunday) Gen. Buckner attempts
to secure terms of surrender from Gen. Grant, who replies
that "No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender
can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works."
J.A. is standing within earshot of Grant as he dictates this
message. Buckner reluctantly surrenders Fort Donelson, and
Grant becomes a national hero.
February 24 (Monday) Accompanies Grant's
army to Nashville, where he meets up with his brother, who
has recovered from his wounds, and whose regiment has arrived
to reinforce Grant.
March 17 (Monday) Joins Grant and his staff
as they travel down the Tennessee River to Pittsburg Landing.
April 6-7 (Sunday-Monday) Covers the action
at Shiloh, where he is hit by shrapnel. He spends two weeks
recovering in the Army hospital, where his friend Lipsey finds him and urges him to leave the Army and become a war correspondent.
April 21 (Monday) Summoned to Washington,
D.C. by the editors of Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization,
who have seen his sketches (courtesy of General Grant) and
offer him a position as Special Artist Correspondent, covering
the operations of the Army of the Potomac in Virginia.
April 27 (Sunday) Arrives by ferry at Newport
News, Virginia, and joins the encampment of Gen. George B.
McClellan's forces near Yorktown. Befriends fellow Harper's sketch artist Alfred R. Waud.
May 4-5 (Sunday-Monday) Sketches the action
at Williamsburg, Virginia. Meets Dr. Thaddeus Lowe and accompanies
him once in his hot air balloon to observe Confederate movements.
May 25 (Sunday) President Lincoln wires Gen.
McClellan and urges him to attack Richmond. J.A. witnesses
a tirade of McClellan's against the President.
May 31-June 1 (Saturday-Sunday) Covers the
Battle of Seven Pines, near Richmond.
June 13 (Friday) Nearly captured near Hanover
Court House, Virginia, by advance elements of Confederate
Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's Virginia cavalry as they encircle McClellan's
Army of the Potomac.
June 25 (Wednesday) Seven Days' Battle begins
near Richmond.
June 26 (Thursday) Covers the Battle of Mechanicsville,
Virginia.
June 27 (Friday) Covers the Battle of Gaines'
Mill near Richmond.
June 28 (Saturday) Collapses from heat exhaustion
and briefly hospitalized. He unexpectedly meets his sister,
Emma, who has become a Union Army nurse.
June 29 (Sunday) Covers the Battle of Savage's
Station, Virginia.
June 30 (Monday) Covers the Battle of White
Oak Swamp, Virginia.
July 1 (Tuesday) Covers the Battle of Malvern
Hill, Virginia.
July 2 (Wednesday) Accompanies McClellan's
army on its retreat to Harrison's Landing.
July 4 (Friday) Celebrates Independence Day
in camp with the Army of the Potomac.
July 7 (Monday) Sees President Lincoln for
the first time when he arrives aboard the U.S.S. Ariel at
Harrison's Landing, Virginia to confer with Gen. McClellan.
August 15 (Friday) Leaves the Peninsula by
steamer with elements of McClellan's retreating Army of the
Potomac to Alexandria, Virginia. Continues on to Washington.
August 16 (Saturday) Arrives in Washington,
D.C., and sends dispatches and sketches to New York to be
published in Harper's Weekly. Stays in Willard's Hotel at
the corner of "E" and 14th Streets in Washington,
where he meets with Waud, Gantt, and several other correspondents
of the "Bohemian Brigade." Receives a letter from
his brother, 1st Lt. W.C. Davis of the 6th Ohio, who was posted
in Athens, Alabama on July 4th. Learns of the death of his
mother, who passed away on July 1 in Cincinnati.
August 26-30 (Tuesday-Saturday) Covers the
Battle of Second Manassas in Virginia.
September 7 (Sunday) Joins the Army of the
Potomac's march northwest to defend the capital against a
possible invasion of Maryland by the Confederate Army of Northern
Virginia.
September 13 (Saturday) Enters Frederick,
Maryland with McClellan's troops.
September 14 (Sunday) Covers the Battle of
South Mountain, Maryland.
September 17 (Wednesday) Covers the Battle
of Antietam Creek, Maryland, where he saves the life of 2nd
Lt. M.D. Neal of Company "D," 28th Massachusetts
Volunteer Infantry, who is severely wounded in the assault
on Burnside's Bridge, and is unable to move himself until
J.A. arrives.
September 18 (Thursday) Assists with the
wounded in the impromptu military hospital near Sharpsburg,
Maryland. Tries unsuccessfully to find his sister, Emma.
September 19 (Friday) Meets Clara Barton
and Mrs. Walker of the U.S. Sanitary Commission.
October 3 (Friday) Witnesses the Grand Review
of McClellan's Army of the Potomac for President Lincoln near
Antietam, who remains frustrated with his commanding general's
inaction.
November 5 (Wednesday) Arrives in Washington
City to file dispatches in time to hear that McClellan has
at last been relieved of command by President Lincoln and
replaced with Gen. Ambrose Burnside.
November 26 (Wednesday) Arrives at Aquia
Creek, Virginia, and camps near Gen. Burnside's headquarters.
President Lincoln visits the General the next day.
December 2-9 (Tuesday-Tuesday) Sketches skirmishing
between Union and Confederate pickets near Falmouth, Virginia,
and on the outskirts of Fredericksburg, Virginia.
December 11 (Thursday) Witnesses Union bombardment
of Fredericksburg.
December 13 (Saturday) Covers Battle of Fredericksburg,
including the disastrous Union assault on the Confederate
entrenchments at Marye's Heights.
December 16 (Tuesday) Withdraws to Falmouth,
Virginia, with the battered Army of the Potomac.
1863
January 21-23 (Wednesday-Friday) After spending the
holidays with the Army of the Potomac in their winter encampment,
accompanies them on the infamous "Mud March" along
the Rappahannock River. Assists in freeing trapped teamsters
in the supply train. Returns to winter encampment in frustration
with the troops.
February 5 (Thursday) Meets Gen. Joseph "Fighting
Joe" Hooker, who has replaced Burnside as the army commander.
J.A. and Hooker strike up a congenial friendship. On this
day, he also learns for the first time of Lincoln's Emancipation
Proclamation, which went into effect a month ago.
March 17 (Tuesday) Attends St. Patrick's
Day festivities in the camp of the Irish Brigade. Lt. Neal
introduces him to Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher.
April 16 (Thursday) Assists Lt. Neal in distributing
new red trefoil II Corps badges to soldiers of the 28th Massachusetts
and 69th New York infantry regiments of the Irish Brigade.
April 28 (Tuesday) Crosses the Rappahannock
River with the army as Hooker attempts to flank Confederate
Gen. Robert E. Lee's left. Arrives in Chancellorsville the
next day.
May 1-3 (Friday-Sunday) Covers the Battle
of Chancellorsville, Virginia.
May 12 (Tuesday) Returns to Washington, where
he meets his sister in a Washington hospital, who informs
him that his brother was severely wounded at the Battle of
Stone's River in Tennessee four months ago, resulting in the
amputation of his left leg. He has been discharged and is
recovering with their father in Cincinnati. Emma persuades
J.A. to remain in Washington rather than try to travel to
Ohio. She also introduces him to the poet and sometime nurse,
Walt Whitman. Takes up residence at Willard's Hotel and spends
time with his sister. Over the next five weeks, he writes
several letters to his brother and father.
June 28 (Sunday) Learns that Gen. Lee's army
has invaded Pennsylvania, and that Hooker has been replaced
with Gen. George Meade. Accompanies the Army of the Potomac
north to meet this new Rebel threat.
July 1-3 (Wednesday-Friday) Covers the Battle
of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, with other correspondents, including
his friends, Alfred Waud and Ephraim Gantt.
July 10 (Friday) Receives a telegram from
his editors at Harper's Weekly, summoning him to New York
City to help with etchings and production at their offices
in Franklin Square. He brings his dispatches and sketches
from Gettysburg with him on the train, and takes up residence
on Broadway, where he spends his nights meeting with other
"Bohemians" at Pfaff's Cave.
July 14-15 (Tuesday-Wednesday) Attempts to
reach the area of the City engulfed in the Draft Riots, but
is prevented by police and militia from getting through.
August 1 (Saturday) Meets and falls in love
with Irish barmaid Mary McClannahan, a 24-year-old, red-haired
beauty from County Mayo. The two are inseparable for a month.
September 9 (Wednesday) Ordered by his editors
to travel by train to Tennessee to cover Gen. William Rosecrans's
operations against Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg. After a
tearful parting from Mary, he arrives in Knoxville, Tennessee
three days later.
September 19-20 (Saturday-Sunday) Covers
Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia.
September 21 (Monday) Retreats with Rosecrans's
army to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he endures the two month
siege, making day excursions into the Tennessee countryside.
November 24-25 (Tuesday-Wednesday) Covers
Battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. Has a warm
reunion with Generals Hooker and Grant, who both remember
him well.
November 30-December 2 (Monday-Wednesday)
Travels by steamboat and train to Cincinnati, where he spends
the holidays with his brother, father, and his sister Emma,
who has left the hospitals of Washington to care for their
brother, Cliff.
1864
January 5 (Tuesday) Travels by train to Washington
City, where he takes up winter residence at Willard's Hotel.
A week later, he learns that Mary McClannahan has married
a fireman named McLatchey in New York City. He falls into
a depression for several weeks, squandering his meager resources
on women and drink among the "bawdy houses" of Washington.
One of his friends and editors, Miles Campbell, finds him
drunk at Willard's in mid-February and reprimands him, motivating
him to get back to work.
March 8 (Tuesday) After two months of organizing
and submitting his reports and sketches from the Chattanooga
campaign, he is delighted to run into General Grant and his
son in the lobby of Willard's. Grant informs him that he has
been appointed overall commander of the national armies and
has been given the rank of Lieutenant General. The two share
a drink to celebrate.
April 8 (Friday) Attends the session of the
U.S. Senate at the Capitol where the Thirteenth Amendment
is passed by a vote of 38-6, abolishing slavery forever in
the United States.
May 4 (Wednesday) Joins the Army of the Potomac
as it crosses the Rapidan River and moves south to begin the
Wilderness Campaign. He meets again with his friend, the former
Lt. Neal of the 28th Massachusetts, who has now been promoted
to Captain and assigned to the staff of General Winfield Scott
Hancock of the II Corps.
May 5-6 (Thursday-Friday) Covers the terrible
Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia.
May 9-12 (Monday-Thursday) Covers the Battle
of Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia, where he is captured
and briefly detained on the 11th by Confederate cavalry. He
barely escapes when his captors are surprised by a Union patrol
in the chaos of the fighting, and takes eight hours to reach
the safety of Union lines.
May 19 (Thursday) Crosses the Po River southeast
with Grant's army.
May 23-24 (Monday-Tuesday) Covers the Battle
of the North Anna River, Virginia.
June 1-3 (Wednesday-Friday) Covers the disastrous
Battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia.
June 19 (Sunday) Arrives in Petersburg, Virginia,
where Grant's forces begin to dig in for a lengthy siege of
Lee's Confederates holding the city. J.A. settles in with
the army, sketching camp life and the exasperating tedium
of siege warfare, making occasional sorties to the supply
depot at City Point.
August 24 (Wednesday) Contracts dysentery
in camp and is bedridden for three months.
November 8 (Tuesday) J.A. is pleased to hear
that Abraham Lincoln has been reelected President.
November 16 (Wednesday) Begins a correspondence
with his colleague from Harper's Weekly, Theodore R. Davis
(no relation), who is travelling as an artist correspondent
with Gen. William T. Sherman's army as it marches through
Georgia.
November 24 (Thursday) Travels by train to
Nashville and joins General Thomas's Federal Army to cover
Hood's advance into Tennessee.
November 27 (Sunday) Joins General Schofield's
army at Columbia, Tennessee.
November 29 (Tuesday) Accompanies Schofield's
army on its miraculous escape from Hood's pickets near Spring
Hill, Tennessee.
November 30 (Wednesday) Covers the bloody
Battle of Franklin, Tennessee. Returns to Nashville with Schofield
to regroup with Thomas. Reunites with Junius Browne of the
New York Tribune and Alfred Waud of Harper's Weekly.
December 15-16 (Thursday-Friday) Covers the
Battle of Nashville and the disintegration of Hood's once-proud
Confederate Army of Tennessee.
December 19 (Monday) Returns by steamboat
to Washington, D.C. to spend the winter at Willard's Hotel.
Organizes and submits his sketches and reports from the 1864
Virginia and Tennessee Campaigns. Meets and falls in love
with Miss Mary Willey, an actress, poet, and Pinkerton agent.
1865
March 4 (Saturday) Attends President Lincoln's Second
Inaugural Address at the Capitol. Meets the noted actor, John
Wilkes Booth, who is also attending the ceremonies. The two
stand near each other during Lincoln's speech, but J.A. is
behind Booth, and thus does not notice the look of contempt
on the actor's face. J.A. is inspired by Lincoln's words of
reconciliation and healing.
March 27 (Monday) Returns by steamer to City
Point, Virginia, hoping to get a sketch of President Lincoln's
meeting with Generals Grant and Sherman and Admiral Porter
aboard the River Queen, but is unable to persuade the Army
Provost Marshal to let him through. Catches a glimpse of Lincoln
as he stands upon the deck during a break in the meeting the
next day, but does not get his sketch.
April 3 (Monday) Enters the fallen Rebel
capital of Richmond, Virginia, with victorious Union troops.
Is appalled by the desolation of the city and shocked by the
destitution and defiance of the local white population.
April 6 (Thursday) Covers the Battle of Saylor's
Creek, Virginia, as Lee's army tries to break free from Grant's
iron grip.
April 9 (Sunday) Is present outside McLean's
house in Appomattox Court House, Virginia, where Lee and Grant
are signing the surrender terms, but is not granted access
to the actual ceremony. Makes a quick sketch of Lee as he
leaves the house and mounts Traveller, and Grant raises his
hat in salutation.
April 12 (Wednesday) Covers the formal surrender
of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox
Court House, Virginia.
April 15 (Saturday) Hears the tragic news
of President Lincoln's assassination in Washington.
April 19 (Wednesday) Attends the President's
funeral ceremonies in Washington.
May 23-24 (Tuesday-Wednesday) Covers the
Grand Review of the Union armies in Washington.
June 6 (Tuesday) Arrives in New York City
to begin his new assignment as a reporter and artist covering
local politics.
1870
Travels to France to cover the Franco-Prussian War for Harper's
Weekly; covers the Battle of Sedan.
1872
Returns to New York, continues to sketch for Harper’s
Weekly, and begins to write his memoirs of the War; lectures
at Cooper Union and Columbia.
1874
Davis and C.J. Lipsey accompany George Armstrong Custer’s 7th Cavalry on
its expedition into the Black Hills, Dakota Territory. Remains
with Custer through April of 1876, missing the Battle of the
Little Bighorn by two months.
1876
Completes memoirs; travels in Europe on a speaking and sketching
tour. He and Mary Willey are married in Paris on December 21.
1877 Travels with his new bride to Moscow to attend the world premiere of Swan Lake at the Bolshoi Theatre.
1879
Travels to South Africa to cover the Zulu War for Harper's
Weekly. Meets famous war correspondent William Howard Russell of the London Times and sketch artist Melton Prior of the Illustrated London News.
1881
Retires in San Francisco with Mary Willey and writes a weekly
column for the San Francisco Examiner.
1901
Meets President Theodore Roosevelt and writer Mark Twain.
1907
November 11 Dies in his sleep in San Francisco at the age
of 76.
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