Happy Christmas and Seasons greetingswe turn our gaze to the Christmas past, and the experience of an English born participant – Ensign John Davis of the USS Tulip and founder of the London Branch of American Civil War Veterans.
John Davis London Branch Founder.
“Lost to history are many of the personal experiences of our London Branch forebears. However, we are fortunate that their founder John Davis had his memories recorded in, “Marvel of Mercy” written by the Revd Codling. During the Civil War, John had been involved in the slaughter and fall of Vicksburg whilst serving on a gunboat and had seen the horrors of the war unfold before him. With the battle behind him, he engaged in patrol duties between Maryland and Virginia. One day, they raided southern shores, stole spirits, and overstayed the excursion, which resulted in his apprehension, placement in irons, and a ‘sharp lesson’ where he experienced forgiveness. For a time, John became ‘quite respectable’ and gave up drink. However, his morals soon changed in the same way that a super summer can transform to the worst winter.
When winter of 1863 arrived John Davis and the crew of were ordered to Washington Naval Yard where their vessel was berthed, “ All was made snug on board, the crew was taken ashore into barracks, and Davis left as ship tender. It was bitter weather, and the ship was quickly frozen in. Alongside, in the same plight, was a coastguard steamer, her crew ashore, and the craft in charge of a man who hailed from London. The vessels were lashed together to keep them from drifting in case the ice suddenly gave way, and the two men fraternized. Davis did not much like the duty, for, as he says, "It was mortal dull work." An officer would come over the ice to see if we were all right, but it was a nasty, risky job, and you may be sure that they did not come more often than they could help. The two neighbours took it in turns to go ashore for provisions, never forgetting the whisky. It was dreadful stuff, and when taken to excess, drove men mad. Davis declares that it "killed men by the thousand" and that it was "as vile as if it had been brewed in hell."
Bill and Jack [John] became great friends. Both hailed from the old country and in a land of strangers, surrounded as they were generally by foreigners who could not speak English, that went a long way towards disposing them favourably to one another. Hours were spent in each other's cabins, and when battened down for the night to keep out the bitter cold, they had nothing to do. but drink the abominable whisky and play cards. There, they would sit facing each other as long as they could hold the cards, see the pips, or the bottle held out.
It was a reckless, heathen life those two men lived, with no thought of God or Christ, salvation, or heaven, and yet in the old home over the sea both had been taught to read their Bibles and worship God. But one night, a change came. Davis says he shall "never forget it if he lives to be a hundred," and, indeed, he often fancies he will remember that night throughout eternity. The cronies had lighted their pipes, broached a new bottle of whisky procured that day on shore, shuffled the cards, dealt them out, and began to play. The game continued for a while, then suddenly Bill threw his cards down on the table and said, "Jack, do you ever think of death? You and I, old man, saw something of it at Vicksburg. Do you ever think of it now?".
He leant eagerly over the table, the cards spread out, and the whisky bottle before him. The bogie stove threw a glare across the narrow space, and the lamp swinging from the roof dimly illuminated the smoky, dirty little cabin. In response to his mate's strange and startling appeal, John Davis also threw down his cards, for the question burned home to his conscience. He began to think .God had been very good to him all through the terrible slaughter at Vicksburg. He had watched over and shielded him, and what had he done? What was he doing? There, he sat gambling and drinking just as though there were no God, no judgment, no heaven to gain, or hell to shun! The answer rose to his lips involuntarily, as though not himself but some unseen being was speaking through him. "Bill, the Bible is true, every word of it; and the worst of it all is it tells me that I am going to hell, for I have sinned against God and am going on sinning still."
They sat and talked the thing through. There they were - there could be no doubt about it - a couple of drunken blackguards, cursing, gambling, sinning against God. Davis says, "We knew all about it. 'The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.'" They had utterly forgotten God, and the conclusion was forced upon them that they both richly deserved hell!
Down on the floor of that dirty, smoky cabin both men knelt, the cards still strewing the table, the half-empty whisky bottle standing like a monument of evil amongst them, and there and then they asked God to forgive them their sins for the sake of Jesus Christ. Ungodly scamps as they were, they were not ignorant of the way of salvation.
As they prayed, a measure of satisfaction and rest came into their souls. That they were really converted, or how far they had fulfilled the conditions on which salvation is given we can not say; but they at once brought forth the fruits of penitence. Rising from their knees they threw the pack of cards on the fire, took the whisky bottle on deck and broke, it over the ship's side, and solemnly pledged each other that so long as they remained in those ships they would neither drink whisky nor gamble. Obtaining a Bible, they began to read and pray over it, spending the long evenings, thus instead of playing euchre and drinking. Neither of them knew much about religion, either of its privileges or its obligations, but they did know that Jesus Christ had come to the world to save sinners, among whom they felt themselves to be the greatest; and they gathered from the Bible that God was ready for Christ's sake to forgive their sins. Somehow, a copy of John Angell James's "Anxious Enquirer" came into their hands, and the reading of it helped them wonderfully. The days and nights of bitter wintry weather sped slowly by, and the two men kept their word, refraining from the outward manifestations of sin and finding a strange new pleasure in their purified life.
So God had met our reprobate sailor. It seemed as though the long night of his sin had come to an end, and a new day of joy and peace had dawned. So indeed it was, and we can not help believing that from that new morning, wrapped though it was in the mists of ignorance, John Davis might have gone straight forward on his heavenly way. How much guilt and heartache he would have escaped if this he had done; but the faithful chronicle tells, alas! a sadly different tale. For the time, all went well. Then the ice broke up. The ungodly crew returning on board swarmed over the vessel, making it reek with the fumes of whisky and foul with curses, lewdness, and blasphemy. No Christian hand was extended to help. No brotherly voice gave counsel or invited to prayer. The love of the young believer cooled; his zeal was extinguished; his half-instructed mind was ill-furnished for answering arguments and resisting the strain of temptation. Somehow he got entangled with a sham jewellery company, and, discouraged by his mistakes and failures, drifted back, slowly it is true, but none the less surely, into the old, abandoned life”.
Fortunately, as history has shown, John’s relationship with a reckless, heathen life changed. Repentance led to devotion to faith and fraternity with veteran peers until his death. As our December moves into 2024, perhaps on January 5th, the anniversary of his passing, we can give a thought to him. Recognising his commitment and the positive ripples he created more than a hundred years ago for our veteran forebears. God bless you, John. God bless everyone!!
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