This post probably appeals to those of you who love history and lots of details, but I’ll try to summarize the information as we go. If you’ve been to other presidential libraries, you’ll appreciate the detail in this one, especially since it highlights a president from the mid-1860s. One of the docents walking around enjoyed giving us more detail about the Confederacy uniforms and what they mean to us today. I so wish I could have remembered all that he said.
uniforms
Since color photography wasn’t available then, one soldier wrote that the uniform was a “red shirt worn outside of white duck plants.” [Today duck pants are durable, heavy-duty work or outdoor pants made from a tough, plain-woven cotton fabric called cotton duck, known for its strength, often featuring practical details like tool pockets and hammer loops, and brands like Dickies and Carhartt make popular versions for rugged use, available in various fits and finishes like waxed or flex.] He also said that most soldiers chose to wear “black slouch hats.” Their other two uniforms were black and blue.
“Tiger Rifles” was a volunteer company from the New Orleans area as part of 1st Special Battalion, Louisiana Volunteer Infantry (2nd Louisiana Battalion). A large number of the men were foreign-born, Irish Americans, many from the city’s wharves and docks. Many men had previous military experience in local militia units or as filibusters (irregular soldiers who fight on their own. They later became known as the Tigers. We know them as Louisiana Tigers (football team).
1808 – 1818: family and youth
Davis’ parents met in South Carolina during the Revolutionary War, and Jefferson was the last of their 10 children. Jefferson thought that schooling wasn’t what he wanted to do, but when he found out his other option was picking cotton, he changed his mind.
1924 – 1928: West Point years
Davis started at West Point when he was only 16 along with 91 others in his class. He wasn’t a great student and graduated 23rd out of a class of 33. Math was probably his worst subject.
After graduating, he went home to reacquaint himself with his family until he got his first orders.
1829 – 1835: frontier and his first wife, Sarah Knox Taylor
His first orders were to report to Fort Crawford in present day Wisconsin. This fort had been built in 1816 because of the westward movement of Americans that attracted traders, trappers, and hunters. One of his duties was to swear in the militia, including Abraham Lincoln. The Black Hawk War kept the soldiers busy, and Davis was one of the soldiers who transported Chief Black Hawk and his braves to a prison at Fort Monroe in Virginia. [Remember this detail; we’ll come across it later in this post.]
Davis and Sarah wanted to marry, but her parents wouldn’t give their approval since he was in the military. Two years later he resigned his commission so they could marry.
Eventually the couple were both struck down with malaria. She died in 1835 at an age of 21. They had only been married for 3 months. Grief made it harder for him to recover, but he finally returned to his family’s plantation in Mississippi just south of Natchez [where we’ll be going next on this trip].
1835 – 1843: Brierfield and political beginnings
Again Davis’ older brother helped him out as he was recovering by offering him some land (later known as Brierfield) adjacent to his own plantation (Davis Bend) and a loan of $10,000 (roughly $368,000 today) to start his life in agriculture. Jefferson worked hard to clear the overgrown acres of brush, briers, and trees so he could produce an excellent crop of cotton. [Learning about how to grow cotton as a youth helped him as he got older.] Davis broke tradition by hiring James Pemberton, a slave given to him by his father years ago.
He also kept up with the political news of the day by reading the debates in the newspapers.
Jefferson’s first attempt at office was when he ran for the Mississippi State House of Representatives in 1843. While he lost, he made an impression on the Democratic party in the state, especially since he was willing to go up against the Whig leadership. It was also at this time that he met a young woman who captivated him.
1843 – 1845: Varina Banks Howell
Varina was born in 1826 just across the Mississippi River from Natchez [we stayed on her side of the Mississippi on our next stop at Natchez] on her grandparent’s plantation. Her father, William Howell, was good friends with Joseph Davis, Jefferson’s older brother. The two families were so close that the children always referred to Joseph as “Uncle Joe.”
Varina and Jefferson met in December of 1843 when she traveled to Hurricane Plantation owned by Joseph Davis. [Most wealthy plantation owners owned numerous plantations. We’ll learn a little about this when we tour a plantation outside of Natchez.] Jefferson saw a young, intelligent, handsome woman; and she saw an older man who would put himself in danger to protect others.
Jefferson spent his days clearing land and growing cotton, while she tended the garden, cared for sick servants, and wrote letters to her family. They visited Joseph’s family and other neighbors nearly every day.
1845 – 1848: U.S. Representative and the Mexican-American War
Eventually Jefferson was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 1845, and the couple moved to Washington, D.C.
By early June, he rejoined the military as an officer as the country moved toward war with Mexico.
While this war was fought principally over President Polk’s expansionist plans for Oregon and for California, which belonged to Mexico, and over the southern border of Texas. Texas claimed the Rio Grande as its border, and Mexico hadn’t even recognized Texas as a state; Mexico said the border with the U.S. was 130 miles north.
Under General Zachary Taylor, Jefferson’s ex-father-in-law, President Polk sent 4000 soldiers to the Rio Grande to protect U.S. interests in our newest state.
The Battle of Buena Vista was the fiercest fighting that Davis’ 1st Mississippi Regiment saw in the war. It resulted in Santa Ana retreating from the region and leaving much of northern Mexico to the American occupation. Davis was shot in the foot, and the wound pained him for many years. He was hailed as a hero for his decisive commands in the heat of battle and his innovative idea about a “V” fighting formation that saved the day for the rest of the American soldiers on the field.
Once more he went home to Davis Bend to rest, recover, and plan his next moves for their future.
For the next 12 years, Jefferson divided his time between home and Washington. He built a new home on the plantation, and in Washington he supported state sovereignty and spoke about the need for cooperation to keep the Union together.
As he took his seat as a congressman in 1846, he spoke on the question of naturalization of immigrants that was being discussed. He said, “Make it easy or withhold it altogether.”
Davis was also on the select committee of seven to consider the bill to take the $508,000 [$21.3 million today] bequest of Scotsman James Smithson to the United States and establish the Smithsonian Institution for the “increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.” It had been available but not used for 8 years until this committee approved the bill and President Polk signed it into law.
1848 – 1860: Senator and Secretary of War
In 1851 Davis resigned from the senate to run for Governor of Mississippi. He lost the election, but was appointed Secretary of War just two years later under Franklin Pierce.
As Secretary of War, he increased the size of the army and updated its weapon technology both for national defense and to protect settlers moving westward. [Interesting how he got the Federal army ready for the Civil War. He also knew its strength and weaknesses, and its generals, when he led the Confederacy.] When he returned to the Senate in 1857, he continued to speak out for state sovereignty, even though he strongly believed in constitutionalism.
As a trained engineer when at West Point, along with Architect Thomas Walter and others, he planned new buildings for the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as constructed the larger dome.
Next came the transcontinental railroad in the North.
California statehood followed in 1850 that started massive emigration of the “Gold Rush” to the West.
The 912-mile transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869 when work starting in the existing eastern network at Council Bluffs, Iowa, connected with the work that came from the Pacific Coast at Oakland, California. The two lines met at Promontory Summit, Utah, on May 10, 1869, marked by the driving of the ceremonial “Golden Spike.” [Amazing how the two lines, without computers or other devices, could meet each other exactly.]
The Northern Democrats just didn’t have the same view as their Southern brothers, opening up the chasm that would allow Abraham Lincoln to win the next election. The Southerns didn’t believe that Lincoln would have their best interests at heart, and the newly formed Republican Party had set their sights on completely “putting the South under their boot heels.”
[As a Northerner (Iowa), this is a point of view that I hadn’t heard before. But since slaves were only countered as 3/5th of a person (or 3 out of 5), Southern states didn’t have representation in Washington, D.C. that the Northern states had. If you want to learn more about this 3/5th compromise when our nation was founded, this AI link should help you.]
[From the National Archives website: African Americans were set free by the 13th Amendment in January 1865, effectively abolishing the 3/5th Compromise; citizenship was guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, which became law in July 1868, and officially repealed the 3/5 Compromise; and Black males were given the right to vote by the 15th Amendment in February 1870.]
[Now all persons were to counted for congressional seats, except for the untaxed Native Americans. If you want to learn more about voting rights for the Native Americans, this link to the Library of Congress website will start your education.]
[You’d think all of this would have cleared up our Nation’s problem, but in the early 1890s, steps were taken to ensure subsequent “white supremacy.” Literacy tests for the vote, “grandfather clauses” excluding from the franchise all whose ancestors had not voted in the 1860s, and other devices to disenfranchise African Americans were written into the laws of former Confederate states. If you want to know what happened next, go to the National Archives website to see how the Nation worked out our problems. Our docent for the tour of Beauvoir said that if the South would have been given just 4 more years, they would have resolved their issues with slavery. Don’t know if this is true, but it is interesting.]
South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860. Mississippi followed the next month. In the following days and weeks, the other Southern states joined them.
That month Jefferson Davis rose one last time in the Senate chambers to give his last speech. He told them that looking at succession as a passing mood was a serious miscalculation. He left no doubt that while he championed peaceful separation in the hopes that reunification would one day be possible, but that if war came, the South would meet it with resolve.
1861 – 1865: The War for Southern Independence
In just under 30 minutes on February 9 in Montgomery, Alabama, the electors to the Provisional Congress had nominated and appointed both the new Confederate President and Vice-President. When Davis learned about his new role, he agreed to accept it even though it wasn’t what he had wanted. [He was a military man at heart.]
Over the next four years many places that no one had heard of came to have a special yet terrible meaning for all Americans: Shiloh, Antietam, Vicksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg were just a few.
The Confederate flag that’s the best known to us is what’s called The Stars and Bars; the flag at the top of the following poster is what this flag looked like. But since it looked so much like the Stars and Stripes, especially in the heat of battle when rolling battle smoke made them seem almost indistinguishable. At the Battle of Bull Run (Manasseh), the confusion resulted in Confederates shooting other Confederates, as well as Yankees; and Yankees shooting Yankees as well as Confederates.
Confusion still reigned because while people never confused the Beauregard flag with the Union’s Stars and Stripes, many people then, and now, confuse the Beauregard flag with the Stars and Bars. But we now know the difference.
Native American Indians were an integral part of the Confederacy. I wonder if this allegiance was because of President Andrew Jackson. Around 1820, he forced the Cherokee people to Oklahoma along what is known as the Trail of Tears.
A number of Black men fought alongside the Confederate soldiers.
One of my favorite is Hank Collier (1846-1936).
He became a noted bear hunter after the war, killing over 3000 bears during his lifetime. Mr. Collier was so famous among big-game hunters that he was asked to serve as President Roosevelt’s tracker during his famous Mississippi bear hunt of 1902.
1865 – 1877: prison and recovery
With the surrender of the Confederate Generals, President Davis and Varina quickly left Richmond, the Capitol, on different paths. They met up again near Irwinville, Ga. (northeast of Tifton for those of you who know Georgia), and on May 10, 1865, federal troops found them and captured President Davis.
He was taken to Fort Monroe in Virginia, the same place where Davis as a lieutenant had escorted Chief Black Hawk on the first leg of the chief’s trip. [Remember we read about this earlier in the post?] His early days in prison were painful and humiliating because he was kept in leg-irons and held in a damp casement.
Amazingly the North came to his defense and encouraged the Federal army to put him in a more comfortable cell, and his family was allowed to send him letters and gifts. Eventually Varina and their youngest daughter, Winnie, were allowed to stay at the fort in an apartment usually assigned to an officer so they could be close to him.
In May 1867 he was released from prison on $100,000 bail [around $2.2 million today] after two years. He had been stripped of his livelihood, his health, and finally his citizenship.
Over the next ten years he traveled to England, Europe, Canada, and the U.S. In 1869 he was offered the position of president of the Carolina Life Insurance Company out of Memphis, Tennessee. He recruited former Confederate officers to act as agents for the company. He resigned in 1873 when the company merged with another firm. He then applied to other companies, but they were afraid that hiring him would anger the Northern states who saw him as a traitor.
At the urging of family and friends, Davis decided to write his memoirs. He wanted people to understand the reasons that the South had for secession: to have equal representation in Congress, to have the right to govern their people under the articles of the Constitution, and to abolish excessive and unfair taxation of their crops. But where to go to write this book?
Davis had many homes in the South as shown in the following picture:
- top left: his birthplace in Kentucky;
- middle left: his boyhood home in Woodville, Mississippi;
- middle: his plantation home known as Brierfield about 20 miles downriver from Vicksburg. It was destroyed by fire in 1931.
- top right: Montgomery, Alabama was the provisional capital of the Confederacy. His family lived in this house for 3 months prior to May 1861 when the capital was moved to Richmond, Virginia.
- bottom right: the Confederate White House in Richmond Virginia. He and his family resided here from July 1861 to April 1865 during the war.
1877 – 1889: Beauvoir and legacy
In 1877, Jefferson Davis traveled to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to search for a piece of property to purchase so he could write his memoirs. An old school friend of Varina’s, Sarah Ellis Dorsey, wrote a letter inviting the family to live in a small cottage at Beauvoir (French for beautiful view). They lived here for two years when Sarah’s husband died and left the property to his wife. At first Davis paid for his lodging, but eventually Sarah left the entire property to Jefferson and his daughter, Winnie, in her will.
For ten years the family enjoyed living here on the coast. Much more about his time living at Beauvoir is in the previous post.
Remember we said that Davis lost his citizenship after the war was over? In 1978, President Jimmy Carter from Georgia restored his citizenship, calling it “the last act of reconciliation in the Civil War.”
Davis’ body lay in state at City Hall in New Orleans for several days before the largest funeral procession every held in the South took him to his final rest in Metairie, Louisiana. Two years later he was re-interred in Richmond, Virginia.
Varina wanted it to reflect her husband’s involvement in military affairs, and she wanted a military procession to honor him. The framework features examples of armament in its design. The Louisiana State Militia caisson was pulled by six black horses and carried the remains of Davis in a copper-lined casket. The militia provided an eight-man honor guard.
What a loving sendoff for this man who served the nation and the Confederacy. We now have a thorough understanding of him and who he was during the 1800s.
But what was his personality like? I couldn’t really determine what he was like in his interpersonal relationships, except for the loving marriages he had. I asked chatGPT, and it told me about the two sides of his personality. He was a military leader more than a politician; he was quiet more than gregarious; he liked to tell people what to do more than get their opinions, especially his generals during the war. This description made me wonder what chatGPT would say about me or you.
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