clergyman educator military officer Soldier
Jaquess was born on November 18, 1819, in Poseyville, Indiana. He was one of the numerous children of a fervent and wealthy Methodist, Jonathan Garrettson Jaquess, and Mary Wood (Smith) Jaquess, who named their offspring after Methodist bishops. His grandfather, Jonathan, had moved to Indiana from Kentucky in 1815.
James attended Indiana Asbury University, from which he received the degree of A. B. in 1845. After studying law, and being admitted to the bar in 1846, he deserted that profession and in 1847 became an ordained Methodist preacher.
Jaquess never had an extensive circuit rider's career, for in 1848 he was chosen president of the Illinois Female College, a Methodist school at Jacksonville, and after a presidency of six years, he accepted a similar position at Quincy College, Quincy, Illinois, a new co-educational sectarian institution. At the outbreak of the Civil War his friend, Gov. Richard Yates, commissioned him chaplain of the 6th Illinois Cavalry. His experiences at Shiloh roused his military ardor, however, and determined him to drop this strictly clerical role. Accordingly, he recruited and commanded as colonel, the 73rd Illinois Volunteers, known as the "preacher's regiment, " because of its numerous minister-officers.
By the summer of 1863 Jaquess persuaded himself that he might be an instrument in bringing the war to a peaceful conclusion. The sight of fellow Methodists slaying each other depressed him. The intensity of his belief impressed in turn his commanding officer, General Rosecrans, James R. Gilmore, and finally Abraham Lincoln; and in the summer of 1863 he was permitted on his own responsibility to enter Confederate territory. He reached Petersburg but did not have the opportunity of summoning Jefferson Davis to repentance in a personal interview. Returning to his regiment, he fought with distinction in the battles around Chattanooga. In the summer of 1864, in company with Gilmore, Jaquess went to Richmond on a more pretentious peace mission. They actually held a conference with Jefferson Davis on July 17, and obtained from him the statement that the South was fighting for freedom or annihilation.
Upon his return North, Jaquess lectured on his interview with Davis as part of the presidential campaign of 1864. For one reason or another, he did not return to his regiment until April 1865. After the war, he was employed by the Freedmen's Bureau in the South. Subsequently he cultivated cotton, first in Arkansas and later in northern Mississippi. In 1876 he engaged in business pursuits which took him with increasing frequency to London. Jaquess died in St. Paul, Minnesota, on June 17, 1898.
Jaquess served as President of the Illinois Female College (1848-1854) and President of Quincy College.
Jaquess married Mary Sciple around 1845, who died only two years later. About 1847, he married his second wife, Sarah E. Steel.
