A firsthand report on transfer of Alaska to US in 1867

It was written by Mariette Davis, the wife of the U.S. Army general who commanded a contingent of troops sent to oversee the ceremony, and afterward take control of the territory. He was Jefferson C. Davis, not the Davis of Confederate fame, but one of Lincoln's generals. Mrs. Davis wrote letters from Sitka to her sister back in Indianapolis.

Contrary to common opinion, the purchase of Alaska was not unpopular. When the Senate voted on the treaty presented to it by Secretary of State William Seward, the tally was 37-2 in favor, hardly an expression of unpopularity. Moreover, a scholar who surveyed the 48 major urban newspapers being published in the U.S. in the summer of 1867, found that 44 of them either endorsed the purchase or were silent on the matter.

Unfavorable impressions of Alaska were dispelled by careful review of the many scientific studies completed by the Russians.

The Senate vote came in July, and rather than wait for the House to appropriate funds for the payment, military officials advised that the transfer should take place before winter because of the uncertainty of potentially stormy travel by sea. So as soon as arrangements could be made, the Russian chosen to officiate, Capt. Alexis Pestchuroff, sailed for America, where he met with the American transfer officer, Gen. Lovell Rousseau. They went to San Francisco by train and embarked for Sitka.

Gen. Davis had already sailed, with a contingent of 250 troops. Arriving about 10 days ahead of the transfer commissioners, so as not to cause problems with Russian military and civilians they stayed aboard their ship in the harbor. When the commissioners did finally arrive, everyone disembarked quickly and walked up to the governor's modest house, Baranov's Castle, where the ceremony took place. Mrs. Davis wrote that it was a rather dreary affair, over in a few minutes. An American garrison and a Russian one faced each other as the flags were run, and Capt. Pestchuroff pronounced the transfer.

Mrs. Davis did report, though, that as the Russian flag was being struck, its rope stuck and it would not come down properly. A sergeant rigged a bosun's chair, and a Russian sailor was hauled aloft. He could not free the flag, so he cut it loose, and then dropped it. It floated down and came to rest on the upraised bayonets of the Russian garrison. The symbolism of this was too much for the Russian governor's wife, Princess Maksutov, who fainted dead away. When she was revived, everyone retired to the governor's house for tea. Mariette Davis remained in Sitka for some months, and her letters home were expansive and full of good humor. She described the town as depressing, characterized by few fit buildings and too much rain. She wrote to her sister that she and her husband rose at the crack of dawn. She cautioned that her sister needn't worry that the Davises were overworked, though, for as it was December, dawn was at 9 a.m.

There were a few cows, she reported, but when they were butchered, the meat tasted like fish, because that's all they could find to eat. Eggs were scarce, so for the Thanksgiving holiday she made a pie without any. Her husband, she observed, ate it with delight, whether to please her or out of genuine enjoyment she could not tell.

One reason for sending Army troops to Alaska was uncertainty in government circles about the attitude of Sitka's Tlingit Indians toward the purchase. Only a few years earlier some of the clan houses there had plotted an attack on the Russian fort, thwarted when one Indian informed the Russians. But Mrs. Davis noted that Sitka's clan leaders were hospitable and curious about the Americans.

Her husband's experience was similar. After two years of positioning small garrisons in Wrangell, Kodiak and Kenai, he withdrew them all to Sitka, judging their presence elsewhere an unnecessary expense.

Steve Haycox is a professor of history at the University of Alaska Anchorage.