Jim Limber (also known as Jim Limber Davis, possibly born James Henry Brooks) was an American orphaned boy of mixed white and black descent who lived with the family of
Confederate president
The president of the Confederate States was the head of state and head of government of the Confederate States. The president was the chief executive of the federal government and was the commander-in-chief of the Confederate Army and the Confe ...
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as a ...
from February 1864 until the family was captured by
Union forces
Union commonly refers to:
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* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
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* Union (band), an American rock group
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in May 1865.
On February 14, 1864, Davis's wife,
Varina Davis, was returning home in
Richmond, Virginia
(Thus do we reach the stars)
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, when she saw the boy being beaten by a black woman. Outraged, she immediately put an end to the beating and had the boy come with her in her carriage. He was cared for by Mrs. Davis and her staff. They gave him clothes belonging to the Davis's son, Joe, since the boys were of similar age. When asked his name, he just said, "Jim Limber."
Although Limber's legal status was unknown at the time the Davis family took him in, he was likely the orphaned child of free parents, and Davis officially registered the child as "free." It is unknown if Davis actually adopted him. There was no adoption law in
Virginia at that time, so any adoption would be an "extralegal" matter.
Varina Davis described Limber as a "great pet in the family."
Limber was with the Davises when they were forced to abandon Richmond before the
Union Army captured the city in April 1865. When the Davises were captured by Union forces in
Irwinville, Georgia, on May 15, Limber was separated from them. Some recounts of the story say this was due to a swift kidnapping of him by the Union Army, while other accounts say that the Davises recognized a Union general they knew well,
Rufus Saxton
Rufus Saxton (October 19, 1824 – February 23, 1908) was a Union Army brigadier general during the American Civil War who received America's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions defending Harpers Ferry during Confed ...
. The Davis family never saw Limber again.
Limber briefly lived with Saxton in
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...
, but was eventually sent north for education until he was old enough to support himself.
Though it is mentioned in some of the more sympathetic biographies of Jefferson Davis that he never stopped searching for Limber, this search seems to be recorded only in oral history as it is not mentioned in his voluminous surviving correspondence for the last two decades of his life in which mention at all of Limber is fleeting.
[
In 2008, the Sons of Confederate Veterans commissioned a life-sized statue depicting Davis holding hands with his son, Joseph Evan Davis, and Jim Limber. The statue was completed in fall 2008 at a cost of $100,000. The American Civil War Center in Richmond initially accepted it without guaranteeing to exhibit it.]
References
External links
Jim Limber in ''Encyclopedia Virginia''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Limber, Jim
Jefferson Davis family
People of Virginia in the American Civil War
People from Richmond, Virginia
Year of birth unknown
Year of death unknown