plicity in the assassination of the president having been dropped. On 5 June, at a session of the court held in Richmond, James T. Brady, one of Mr. Davis's counsel, urged that the trial be held without delay; but the government declined to proceed on the indictment, urging the importance of the trial and the necessity of preparation for it. The court refused to admit the prisoner to bail. On 13 May, 1867, he was brought before the court at Richmond on a writ of habeas corpus, and admitted to bail in the amount of $100,000, the first name on his bail-bond being that of Horace Greeley. Mr. Davis's release gave much satisfaction to the southern people. The interest taken in him during his imprisonment, and their prevalent idea that he was to suffer as a representative of the south, rather than for sins of his own, and was “a nation's prisoner,” had made him more popular there than he had been since the first days of the war. After an enthusiastic reception at Richmond he went to New York, then to Canada, and in the summer of 1868 visited England, a Liverpool firm having offered to take him as a partner, without capital. This offer, after investigation, was declined, and, having visited France, he returned to this country, he was never brought to trial, a nolle prosequi being entered by the government in his case in December, 1868, and he was also included in the general amnesty of that month. After his discharge he became president of a life insurance company at Memphis, Tenn. In 1879 Mrs. Dorsey, of Beauvoir, Miss., bequeathed to him her estate, where he ever afterward resided, giving much of his time to literary pursuits. In June, 1871, in a speech at a public reception in Atlanta, Ga., he said that he still adhered to the principle of state sovereignty, was confident of its final triumph, and was “not of those who ‘accept the situation.’ ” In 1876, when a bill was before the house of representatives to remove all the political disabilities that had been imposed on those who took part in the insurrection, James G. Blaine offered an amendment excepting Jefferson Davis, and supported it by a speech in which he accused Mr. Davis of being “the author of the gigantic murders and crimes at Andersonville.” Senator Benjamin H. Hill, of Georgia, spoke in reply, defending Mr. Davis from this charge. Again, in 1879, Mr. Davis was specially excepted in a bill to pension veterans of the Mexican war, the adoption of an amendment to that effect being largely the result of a speech by Zachariah Chandler. In October, 1884, at a meeting of Frank P. Blair post, of the Grand Army of the Republic, in St. Louis, Gen. William T. Sherman asserted that he had seen letters and papers showing that Mr. Davis had abandoned his state-rights doctrines during the war, and had become practically a dictator in the south. Mr. Davis, in a letter to a newspaper, denied the charge, and Gen. Sherman then filed with the war department at Washington papers that, in his view, substantiated it. On 28 April, 1886, Mr. Davis spoke at the dedication of a monument to Confederate soldiers at Montgomery, Ala., and was enthusiastically received. The engraving on the preceding page is a view of his early home in Mississippi.
Two biographies of Mr. Davis have been written, both by southern authors, which illustrate the extremes of southern opinion. That by Frank H. Alfriend (New York, 1868) represents those who are friendly to Mr. Davis, while that by Edward A. Pollard, with the sub-title “Secret History of the Confederacy” (Philadelphia, 1869), holds him responsible for all the disasters of the war. Mr. Pollard, who was an editor of the Richmond “Ex- aminer,” a paper hostile to the administration, concedes that Mr. Davis was thoroughly devoted to the cause of the south, and had indomitable pluck, but accuses him of vanity, gross favoritism, and incompetency. In addition to these works, see Dr. Craven's “Prison Life of Jefferson Davis” (New York, 1866). Mr. Davis himself had published “The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government” (2 vols., New York, 1881).—His brother, Joseph Emory, lawyer, b. near Augusta, Ga., 10 Dec., 1784; d. in Vicksburg, Miss., 18 Sept., 1870, was the oldest of the ten children of Samuel Davis, and in 1796 removed with his father to Kentucky. He was placed in a mercantile house at an early age, studied law in Russellville and in Wilkinson county, whither he accompanied his father in 1811, was admitted to the bar in 1812, and practised in Pinckneyville, and afterward in Greenville, rising to high rank in the profession. He was the delegate from Jefferson county in the convention that organized the state government in 1817, and took a prominent part in framing the constitution. In 1820 he removed to Natchez, and formed a copartnership with Thomas B. Reed, then the leader of the Mississippi bar. In 1827 he decided to retire from the profession in which he had won success by his learning, argumentative powers, and oratorical ability, in order to become a planter. In this occupation he was also very successful, and at the beginning of the civil war he possessed one of the finest plantations on the Mississippi river. During the war he was driven from his home with his family, and endured many hardships. He returned to Vicksburg at its close, and, after a controversy with the officers of the Freedmen's bureau, regained possession of his estate, but continued to reside in the city of Vicksburg. Mr. Davis was noted for his benevolence, and many youths of both sexes were indebted to him for a liberal education.
DAVIS, Jefferson C., soldier, b. in Clark county,
Ind., 2 March, 1828; d. in Chicago, Ill., 30 Nov.,
1879. His ancestors were noted in the Indian wars
of Kentucky. At the age of eighteen, while
pursuing his studies in the Clark county, Ind., seminary,
he heard of the declaration of war with
Mexico, and enlisted in Col. Lane's Indiana regiment.
For gallant conduct at Buena Vista he was
on 17 June, 1848, made second lieutenant of the
1st artillery. He became first lieutenant in 1852,
took charge of the garrison in Fort Sumter, S. C.,
in 1858, and was there during the bombardment
in April, 1861, at the beginning of the civil war.
In May, 1861, he was promoted to a captaincy and
given leave of absence to raise the 22d Indiana
volunteers, of which regiment he became colonel,
and was afterward given a brigade by Gen. Frémont,
with whom he served in Missouri. He also
commanded a brigade under Gens. Hunter and Pope.
For services rendered at Milford, Mo., on 18 Dec.,
1861, where he aided in capturing a superior force
of the enemy, with a large quantity of military
supplies, he was made brigadier-general of volunteers.
At the battle of Pea Ridge he commanded
one of the four divisions of Gen. Curtis's army.
He participated in the siege of Corinth, and, after
the evacuation of that place by the Confederate
forces, was assigned to the Army of the Tennessee.
On 29 Sept., 1862, he chanced to meet in Louisville
Gen. William Nelson, from whom he claimed to
have received treatment unduly harsh and severe.
An altercation ensued, and in a moment of resentment
he shot Nelson, instantly killing him. He
was arrested, and held for a time, but no trial was
ordered, and he was released and assigned to duty
at Covington, Ky. He led his old division of the
