Daniel Webster Consults With the Adjutant General of the U.S. Army About the Return of the Body of His Son, Who Died in the Mexican War

Daniel Webster opposed the Mexican War, but nonetheless, against his wishes, his son Edward organized a company to serve and was named its major. His father feared less the “accidents of war” than “the effects of climate”, as back then many more soldiers died of disease than in battle. Unfortunately, his apprehensions were justified, as Edward contacted typhoid and died in camp near Mexico City on January 23, 1848. The father was notified of this in February and was devastated that he had outlived his 28-year-old son.

Roger ap Catesby Jones served in the War of 1812. He had caught the eye of Gen. Jacob Brown, who brought Jones into his staff as his assistant adjutant general prior to his 1814 Niagara campaign. Jones fought conspicuously on July 5, 1814 in the victory at Chippewa, and was personally commended by Brown for his performance at the Battle of Lundy’s Lane on July 25. For these, he won a brevet promotion to major. On September 17, he was involved in the sortie from Fort Erie, and performed so well he was given a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel. In 1815, after the war, Brown had Jones join him as aide-de-camp and adjutant general. In 1818 Jones became a brevet colonel and then accompanied Brown on a tour of the Northwest defenses. In March 1825 he was appointed Adjutant General of the U.S. Army (the Army’s overall chief of staff), a post he held for a record 27 years until his death. He was brevetted brigadier general in June 1832, and major general in May 1848. Jones took a personal interest in the loss that Webster and his family had sustained, and made the arrangements for Edward’s body to be returned to the United States.

Autograph letter signed, Wednesday, 4 pm, March 15, 1848, to Jones, agreeing to see Webster about this sad subject. “I shall be quite glad to see you, for 10 minutes, this eve, at 8 o’clock, or any other hour, at your house or mine, confidentially. Will you be kind enough to say whether you can comply with this request.”  Jones has docketed and signed on the verso.

Edward’s body arrived at Boston on May 1, and after the funeral Webster planted an elm on his lawn as a memorial.

Webster’s daughter Julia died of tuberculosis before her brother’s body came home, so the Websters buried two children within a month’s time. Daniel had lost his first wife in 1828 at age 47, and a daughter, Grace, and a son, Charles, who died young. Another son, Fletcher, commanded the 12th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War, and was killed at Second Bull Run. Thus, every one of Webster’s children came to early and untimely deaths, an extraordinary tragedy. Julia and Fletcher both had children before they died, and from them Daniel Webster has descendants.