miles from St. Genevieve, and was much elated at Mr. Benton being elected to the Senate, albeit he did not then know what the office was which he and his father were to hold at the same time from contiguous States. These last three men were some years in the Senate after Mr. Davis entered that body.

General A. C. Dodge also gave a history of the creation of the dragoon regiment to which Lieutenant Davis was promoted for gallant service.

General Dodge said that, "After the Black Hawk War, in which his father bore a distinguished part, Congress ordered the creation of a regiment of dragoons. The first Governor Dodge, was made Colonel; Stephen W. Kearney, Lieutenant-Colonel; R. B. Mason, Major; Jefferson Davis, Adjutant. The general recalls as captains, Edwin V. Sumner, David Hunter, both distinguished in the war against the Confederacy.

"When the First Dragoons arrived at Davenport they were met by General Winfield Scott, and the officers were duly presented to their imposing superior. Captain Brown was a good inch taller than the general, and as the latter almost for the first time in his life-looked up to catch Brown's eye, he remarked, with dignified jocularity, 'Captain,

you outrank me.''

It was Colonel Kearney who had charge of the reconnaissance of the Iowa wilderness, the various "dragoon trails remembered by old settlers having been made by four companies under his command, of which Lieutenant Davis's was one.

CHAPTER XV.

RESIGNATION FROM THE ARMY.-MARRIAGE TO MISS TAYLOR.— CUBAN VISIT.-WINTER IN WASHINGTON.-PRESIDENT VAN

BUREN. RETURN TO BRIERField, 1837.

LIEUTENANT DAVIS's service had been arduous, and from his first day on the frontier until his last, he had always been a candidate for every duty in which he could be of use, and his conduct had been recognized by the promotion accorded to him by his government. The snows of the Northwest had affected his eyes seriously; his health was somewhat impaired and, naturally domestic in his tastes, he began to look forward longingly to establishing a restful home and to a more quiet life. His engagement to Miss Taylor had now lasted two years, and General Taylor's feelings toward him did not seem to become mollified.

Miss Taylor finally went to her father and told him that she had waited two years, and as, during that time, he had not alleged anything against Lieutenant Davis's character or honor, she would therefore marry him. She had inherited much of her father's decision of

character, and felt the manifest injustice that further delay would inflict on her lover.

A boat arrived from St. Louis, and near the time it was to return Captain McRee, with the knowledge of her family, engaged a stateroom and escorted Miss Taylor to it. Colonel Taylor was transacting some regimental business on the boat, and while he was there his daughter made another attempt to reconcile him to her marriage, but all in vain. She sorrowfully gave up hope of winning Colonel Taylor's consent, and went to St. Louis to be married to Lieutenant Davis.

In reference to this reported elopement Mr. Davis wrote: "In 1835 I resigned from the army, and Miss Taylor being then in Kentucky with her aunt-the oldest sister of General Taylor-I went thither and we were married in the house of her aunt, in the presence of General Taylor's two sisters, of his oldest brother, his son-in-law, and many others of the Taylor family." This house is still standing, and was afterward the residence of Colonel William Christy.

The estrangement between Lieutenant Davis and Colonel Taylor was not healed during the life of Mrs. Davis.

Mr. Davis had seen so much of the discomforts of army life to the families of the officers that, when he decided to marry, he also deter

mined to resign his commission in the army. His resignation was dated June 30, 1835.

After his marriage, Mr. Davis proceeded at once with his bride to visit his family in Mississippi. The first place at which they stopped was The Hurricane," which, by this time, had become a valuable plantation, with good quarters" for the negroes and a comfortable dwelling for the owner.

When Mr. Davis looked about him for an occupation by which he could support his family, his brother proposed to give him a certain tract of land called "The Brierfield," in lieu of the interest Mr. Davis had in his father's negroes, which had passed into the service of Joseph E. Davis. This was accepted, and he, with his friend and servant James Pemberton-of whom he spoke in the fragment of his Autobiography given in this memoir and ten negroes whom he bought with a loan from his brother, went to work on "The Brierfield " tract, so called because of a dense growth of briers which were interlocked over the land. The cane was too thick to be uprooted or cut, and they burned it, and then dug little holes in the ground and put in the cotton-seed, which made an unusually fine crop, and the prices of cotton then rendered. it very remunerative.

While he was busily at work the summer