Sold – President Lincoln Praises the Service of One of Zachary Taylor’s Aides and Intervenes to Assist a Friend From His Earliest Days

Levi Davis moved to Illinois as a 23 year old lawyer in 1831. Impressing important people, Davis was appointed in 1835 by Governor Joseph Duncan to the position of Auditor of Public Accounts for the state, succeeding a relative for whom he had served as an aide. Three weeks later, a 26 year old Abraham Lincoln arrived to serve as a state representative to the Illinois General Assembly (his first office). He was assigned to the Committee on Public Accounts and Expenditures, and soon became the chairman of the House Finance Committee. This gave the two men, Lincoln and Davis, many opportunities to work together, and letters of Lincoln to Davis exist as early as 1836. In 1839 Davis moved to Springfield, when it became the state capitol, and retained his position as auditor until 1841. It is said that Davis and Lincoln once shared a double house together, before Abraham and Mary Lincoln were married. Davis continued the practice of law, and in 1846, he moved to Alton, Illinois, where he worked for a number of years as the attorney for the Chicago and Alton Railroad. In 1851, Davis sold Lincoln two lots of ground in Bloomington; signing for Davis pursuant to a power of attorney was David Davis, a cousin who came to Illinois at Levi’s urging, on his promise that the practice of law in Illinois was better than elsewhere. Lincoln and David Davis became close friends, and in 1862 President Lincoln appointed David Davis a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. All of the sons of Levi Davis – Levi, Jr., Charles and James, sought service in the Union Army.

Although there were over 2,000 units that constituted the Union Armies throughout the Civil War, only 29 were from the Regular United States Army (and in July 1861, some of these 29 had not yet been commissioned). The balance were provided by the individual states. There might be 60 officers per regiment, so perhaps a few thousand total officers in the Regular Army at any given time. Officerships in the Regular Army were prized, and they were generally expected to go to West Point graduates. Young Levi Davis was ambitious and sought one of these, though lacking the West Point credential.

Eleazer Paine graduated from West Point in the Class of 1839. He served in the Seminole War and wrote a training manual entitled “Military Instructions; Designed for the Militia and Volunteers.” He then established himself in a law practice in Monmouth, Illinois, and one of his friends in those days was fellow Illinois attorney Abraham Lincoln. Following the outbreak of the Civil War, Paine was elected colonel of the 9th Illinois Infantry; then in September 1861 he was made a brigadier general. Paine commanded the 4th Division of the Army of the Mississippi at the Battles of New Madrid and Island Number Ten, and also served in the siege of Corinth under General Rosecrans. Paine, having Levi Davis, Jr. in his unit, wrote Lincoln on Davis’s behalf on July 3, 1861, which was weeks before Bull Run got the war going in earnest. “Permit me to join Capt. Tucker and other officers in recommending Levi Davis for a second lieutenancy in the Regular Army. He is a well educated young man, and in his bearing and deportment an excellent soldier. I can recommend him as his colonel and drill officer and should have the utmost confidence in his courage and ability, were he a subaltern [junior officer] in my regiment.”

In a long endorsement reflecting back on his Illinois days, Lincoln approved the request and sent it on to Secretary of War Simon Cameron for action. Endorsement Signed, Washington, July 15. 1861. “The father of the young man – Levi Davis – within recommended for a Lieutenancy, is a very highly valued friend of mine, of long standing; and Col. Paine – to say nothing of others – who recommends him, is a fine officer educated at West Point, and who served in the Florida War. I therefore hope a Lieutenancy can be found for him.” That Lincoln was sensitive to the West Point aspect of this request is indicated by his very unusual addition of Paine’s West Point credential, though Paine was the recommending party rather than the candidate for the position.

Lincoln was asked for favors on a daily basis, and requests from friends (even William Herndon, his law partner) were no exception. The requests from friends were especially unwelcome, as they left Lincoln feeling put upon, and his attitude was generally to disregard them. In all our years in this field, we have only seen Lincoln intervene to assist one of his friends a small number of times. Here, his memories of Davis must have been warm ones, and with the war ramping up and the Regular Army expanding, the action requested a reasonable one. However, Secretary of War Cameron appears to have decided against honoring Lincoln’s appeal, or been unable to do so within his department, as there is no record that the appointment sought after was granted. This sheds light on the kind of relationship Lincoln had with the military establishment in the war’s early days, with that establishment quite willing to assert its own prerogatives without regard to the President’s wishes.

Levi Davis Jr. received an officership, but with state forces. He was commissioned second lieutenant in the 97th Illinois Infantry in January 1863. In that regiment his brother James was a captain and brother Charles a surgeon. They served at the battles of Arkansas Post, the Vicksburg Campaign, and the siege of Ft. Blakely in Alabama. As for Levi, Sr., he outlived his old friend Lincoln by 32 years, and when he died at age 89 in 1897, he was the oldest lawyer in the state of Illinois.