I9290: Mary ALVIS (ABT 1834

Notes

Boyhood home of Jefferson Davis: Rosemont was built about 1810 by Samuel and Jane Davis, the parents of Jefferson Davis. It was the Davis family home until 1895. The youngest of ten children, Jefferson Davis was two years old when the family moved to Woodville, MS from Kentucky. It was home to President Davis and he visited here throughout his life. It is the only Davis built home which survives. Many Davis furnishings remain in the home, among them the Davis four poster bed and several family portraits. Five generations of the Davis family lived here and are buried in the cemetery at Rosemont.

While Rosemont is a private home today, it is open to the public Monday through Saturday from March through December 15.

Jefferson Davis
West Point cadet 1824-28
U. S. Army 1828-35
U. S. Congressman 1845-47
Colonel and commanding officer of the Wilkinson Volunteers, sometimes known as the Woodville Rifles, Mexican War 1847-48
U. S. Senator 1848-53
U. S. Secretary of War 1853-57
U. S. Senator 1857-61
President, Confederate States of America 1861-65
AUTHOR
AMERICAN PATRIOT

The writing of Jefferson Davis' two volumes of The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government. Jefferson Davis continued writing The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government after purchasing Beauvoir. After the two volumes were completed, Davis began to travel around the South and to write magazine articles.

A universal amnesty bill pending in Congress was slated to pass some 11 years after the war. Senator James G. Blaine from Maine rose at the last minute to offer an amendment reading:

"...with the exception of Jefferson Davis."

Blaine offered to promote his candidacy for president. A storm of protest arose, a Kentucky newspaper expressing it well:

"The idea of making Jefferson Davis a vicarious sufferer for acts for which he is no more answerable than thousands of his followers is one which every honorable Southern man will resent."

But the amendment passed and Jefferson Davis alone remained a non-citizen. But Blaine did not become president ~ his reputation became stained by his involvement in a major railroad scandal, and crowds throughout America marched down streets shouting: "Blaine! Blaine! Continental liar from the state of Maine!" But he was an American citizen, while Davis was not.

Many people urged Davis to apply for a pardon, so that the Mississippi legislature could elect him United States senator. At the time, all senators were elected by their state legislature, not by the people. But Davis would not apply, and he avoided politics. The Mississippi legislature, on March 10, 1884, in a joint meeting of both houses, honored Davis, who spoke to that body:

"It has been said that I should apply to the United States for a pardon, but repentance must precede the right of pardon, and I have not repented. Remembering, as I must, all which has been suffered, all which has been lost, disappointed hopes and crushed aspirations, yet I deliberately say, if I were do do it all over again, I would again do just as I did in 1861."
Some were fearful that he would give offense to the North, but they were satisfied when he continued:

"...Our people have accepted the decree. It therefore behooves them...to promote the general welfare of the Union, to show the world that hereafter, as heretofore, the patriotism of our people is not measured by lines of latitude and longitude, but is as broad as the obligations they have assumed and embraces the whole of our ocean-bound domain."

During his later years, Davis made numerous trips in which large crowds honored him in ceremonials. In contrast to the criticism he received when the Confederacy fell, Davis was
greeted with tremendous ovations. In 1886, in trips to Montgomery and Atlanta, his reception surpassed any which he had previously received. He always spoke of the fact that the United States was now one country and on the theme of reconciliation. Despite this, some Northern newspapers claimed to see danger for the country. However, not all Northern newspapers were so obtuse.

The Springfield, Massachusetts Republican noted
Southerners' "unswerving purpose, bravery, and resolution" and said:

"And when the end came, it was the defeat of men devoted to what was in their estimation a patriotic purpose...Now they gather to commemorate the lost cause, with no desire to recall it, only to recognize it for what it was to them, to assert it to the world and go about their affairs again."

"That is the way we read the honors to Jefferson Davis...How could we respect the Southern people if they did not believe in the thing they undertook to do...if they did not honor their leaders and their soldiers, nor exalt their services and their sacrifices? They do well to cherish the sentiment that hallows their story."

This perceptive paper understood that the South was not refighting the war, but was merely giving expression to its love and reverence for those who had sacrificed so much.

In 1887, following a speech in Macon, Georgia, Davis became seriously ill. When he recovered, he considered his days of public speaking over. But a convention of young men was held in March, 1889 at Mississippi City, only six miles from Beauvoir, and a delegation asked him to address them. He began his remarks with:

"Friends and fellow citizens," but he stopped and said:

"Ah, pardon me, the laws of the United States no longer permit me to designate you as fellow citizens, but I am thankful that I may address you as friends. I feel no regret that I stand before you a man without a country, for my ambition lies buried in the grave of the Confederacy."

He continued with these memorable words for his young audience:

"The faces I see before me are those of young men; had I not known this I would not have appeared before you. Men in whose hands the destinies of our Southland lie, for love of her I break my silence, to speak to you a few words of respectful admonition.

The past is dead; let it bury its dead, its hopes and aspirations. Before you lies the future ~ a future full of golden promise; a future expanding national glory, before which all the world shall stand amazed. Let me beseech you to lay aside all rancor, all bitter sectional feeling, and to take your places in the ranks of those who will bring about a consumammation devoutly to be wished ~ a reunited country."

It was almost a full century before Davis became a fellow citizen of these young men.
Senator Mark Hartfield of Oregon introduced a Senate Joint Resolution returning citizenship posthumously to Jefferson Davis. It would, he said, right a "glaring injustice in the history of the United States."

Passed unanimously by a voice vote, the resolution was successfully sponsored in the House of Representatives by Representative Trent Lott of Mississippi, whose district included Beauvoir. On October 17, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed the resolution into law. Jefferson Davis was no longer a non-citizen in the land of his birth ~ a nation he had served as an army officer, a Congressman, a wounded Mexican War hero, a United States senator, and a Secretary of War.

Jefferson F(inis) DAVIS
BIRTH: 3 JUN 1808, Fairview, KY
DEATH: 6 DEC 1889, New Orleans, LA
Father: Samuel Emory DAVIS - Mother: Jane COOK
Family 1: Sarah Knox TAYLOR - MARRIAGE: 17 JUN 1835, Louisville, KY
Family 2: Varina Anne Banks HOWELL-MARRIAGE: 26 FEB 1845, Natchez, MS
1. Samuel Emory DAVIS
2. Margaret Howell DAVIS
3. Jefferson Finis DAVIS
4. Joseph Evan DAVIS
5. William Howell DAVIS
6. Varina Anne "Winnie" DAVIS

His entire family was interred or re-interred at Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, VA (the Confederate capitol).

Brothers Jefferson and Joseph Davis 1784- 1870 had adjacent plantations on what was known as Davis Bend (now Davis Island), about twenty miles down the Mississippi River from Vicksburg. Joseph built his "Hurricane" estate in the 1820s, and Jefferson began clearing "Brierfield" in 1835. The main house (pictured here in a drawing from Davis' Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government) was constructed in 1848 after Davis returned from the Mexican War. It was destroyed by fire in 1931. After the war, Davis had to sue the heirs of Joseph E. Davis to regain possession of the plantation, which he did in 1878.

Jefferson Davis, who for some years managed his brother's plantation in Mississippi. Joseph Davis was known as the wealthiest planter in Mississippi, and his plantation, "Brierfield" was
a model enterprise. The overseer of the plantation was a Negro, James Pemberton. No slave was ever punished except after a formal trial by an all-Negro jury, Davis only reserving the right to temper the severity of the judgment.

The published volumes of The Papers of Jefferson Davis. Brierfield: Plantation Home of Jefferson Davis by Frank M. Everett. This title is out of print, may be able to find you a used copy Published by Univ Pr of Mississippi (Trd) Publication date: June 1979 ISBN: 0878050027

30 May 1998
Opening Ceremonies Jefferson Davis Presidential Library and Museum. GGG Grandson of Jefferson Davis, Bertram Hayes-Davis and Miss Mississippi (Myra Barginear), accompanied by Sarah Taylor Hayes-Davis and Joel Addison Hayes-Davis were on hand for the unveiling of the 8 foot bronze statue of Jefferson Davis, followed by the Ribbon Cutting by Greg Davis (Mayor of Southaven, MS), Representative Johnny Stringer (R-MS) and Alberta Martin, last surviving Confederate widow, pictured here with her son.

http://www.beauvoir.org/open.html Col. T. G. Davis of St. Louis, Mo. Col. Davis was a relative, his mother having been a Miss Ragland of Kentucky. Col. Davis was born in Kentucky and was a cousin of Jeff Davis, President of the Confederacy.

CS President Jefferson Finis Davis commuted the sentence of every Confederate deserter condemned to death. Almost 1/2 of Confederate soldiers were wounded, captured, killed, or died from disease.

""The Confederate Nation," an exhibition from May 23 to Dec. 31, 2004, at the Museum of the Confederacy, 1201 East Clay Street, will explore the South's independence movement, including the role of patriotism among a populace that included many people who opposed the Confederate cause. The 40-minute tours of the White House of the Confederacy next door, carefully restored to its wartime appearance, focus on the lives of Jefferson Davis and his family. Open daily; general admission and tour, $9.50. Information: (804) 649-1861, www.moc.org.

The 70th Historic Garden Week of Virginia runs April 19 to 27 across the state, with Richmond properties featured on April 22, 23 and 24. The first day will showcase six homes on the 2300 block of Monument Avenue, just east of the Jefferson Davis Monument; the homes, all built from 1909 to 1926, include the neo-Classical Blair House, erected by a Confederate veteran to face the monument.

The next day, seven houses in Church Hill, the city's oldest section, east of I-95, will be open. They include the 1810 Turner House, and two other fairly rare antebellum homes (much of Richmond burned in 1865); ticket holders can also tour St. John's Church, where Patrick Henry made his "Give me liberty or give me death" speech. The third day focuses on the Cary Street Road corridor in the suburban West End.

A proper introduction to Richmond is a drive along Monument Avenue. The statues of heroes of the Confederacy - J. E. B. Stuart, Robert E. Lee, Davis, Stonewall Jackson and Matthew Fontaine Maury (a developer of the torpedo) - are stunning. And the sixth monument - the farthest west (at Roseneath Street) - raised in 1996 to the tennis star and humanitarian Arthur Ashe, a Richmond native, is telling about how the city has changed. Information available at www.monumenthouse.com/richmond.

A good place to begin touring Richmond is the National Park Service's Civil War Visitors Center at Tredegar Iron Works, next to Brown's Island at 500 Tredegar Street. The exhibits and orientation film present an overview of the war and how the city suffered. Civil War buffs can plan visits to the many battlefields in the area. The picturesque Tredegar complex was the largest foundry in the South, and made most of the Confederacy's cannons."
Open daily free, but parking is $4. Information, (804) 771-2145 and www.nps.gov/rich.

Jefferson Finis Davis (1808-1889) -- also known as Jefferson Davis -- Grandson-in-law of Richard Howell; son-in-law of Zachary Taylor; granduncle of Jefferson Davis Brodhead. Born in a log cabin, Fairview, Todd County, Ky., June 3, 1808. Democrat. Served in the U.S. Army during the Black Hawk War; candidate for Mississippi state house of representatives, 1843; Presidential Elector for Mississippi, 1844; U.S. Representative from Mississippi at-large, 1845-46; served in the U.S. Army during the Mexican War; U.S. Senator from Mississippi, 1847-51, 1857-61; candidate for Governor of Mississippi, 1851; U.S. Secretary of War, 1853-57; President of the Confederacy, 1861-65. His portrait appeared on Confederate States 50 cent notes in 1861-64. He was captured by federal troops in May 1865 and imprisoned without trial for about two years. Died of bronchitis and malaria in New Orleans, Orleans Parish, La., December 6, 1889. Original interment at Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans, La.; reinterment in 1893 at Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Va. Jeff Davis County, Ga., Jefferson Davis Parish, La., Jefferson Davis County, Miss. and Jeff Davis County, Tex. are named for him. See also: congressional biography. Books by Jefferson Davis: The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (1881); Books about Jefferson Davis: William J. Cooper, Jr., Jefferson Davis, American : A Biography; Davis,Varina, Jefferson Davis : Ex-President of the Confederate States of America : A Memoir by His Wife; William C. Davis, An Honorable Defeat: The Last Days of the Confederate Government; James Ronald Kennedy & Walter Donald Kennedy, Was Jefferson Davis Right?; Robert Penn Warren, Jefferson Davis Gets His Citizenship Back; Herman Hattaway & Richard E. Beringer, Jefferson Davis, Confederate President.
http://politicalgraveyard.com/special/trouble-disgrace.html

A Jefferson Davis Funeral Train Story
By: Calvin E. Johnson, Jr.

If you listen closely, and the wind blows the right direction, you may hear a train whistle in the distance.

As a youngster near Atlanta, this and the sound of "taps" from nearby Fort McPherson were special sounds. Today, air conditioners and closed windows segregate the sounds of trains, owls and all the wonderful sounds of the symphony of the night. We do not hear our community's soul, we hear only it's machines.

Please share this story with your family!

Many songs have been written about the passenger trains. On Sunday, May 28,1893, in New Orleans, a story began that overshadowed all other events reported in the newspapers of the South and was heavily reported in Northern papers as well.

This was the day when the remains of Jefferson Davis, former president of the Confederate State of America, lay in state at Confederate Memorial Hall in the crescent city.

Davis died in 1889 and was buried at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans. Four years later, May 27, 1893, his body was moved from the burial site of the Army of Northern Virginia, placed in a new oak casket and taken to Confederate Memorial Hall.

At 4:30PM, May 28th,a funeral service was held for Mr. Davis and a moving memorial address was delivered by Louisiana's Governor Murphy J. Foster as thousands listened. There were no sounds of cars, planes, go-carts, sirens, cell phones, sound systems or electric guitars. They did not exist. A reverent silence fell among the people as the funeral procession made their way to the railroad station.

Train No. 69, with Engineer Frank Coffin, waited patiently as the casket was taken up a platform and passed through an open observation car window to a catafalque. The cars wall could not be seen due to the many flowers.

This was the vision of Mrs. Varina Davis when she began three years previous to secure a funeral train and military escort for a 1,200 mile funeral train trip from New Orleans to Richmond.

Train engine No. 69 of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad slowly pulled out of New Orleans Station at 7:50PM. L and N later became CSX Railroad.

Newspaper reporters from New Orleans, Richmond, Boston, New York and the Southern Associated Press were guests on the train.

The train stopped near Gulfport, Mississippi at Beauvoir which was the last home of Jefferson Davis. It was here Davis wrote his book, "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government." The Davis' beloved dog "Traveller" is buried here. Traveller was named after the famed horse of Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Uncle Bob Brown, a former Servant of the Davis family and a passenger on the train, saw the many flowers that children had laid on the side of the railroad tracks. Brown was so moved by this beautiful gesture that he wept uncontrollably.

In Mobile, Alabama the train was met by a thousand mourners and the Alabama Artillery fired a 21-gun salute. Locomotive No. 69 was retired and locomotive No. 25 was coupled to the train. The new train's Engineer was C.C. Devinney and Warren Robinson was its fireman.

Church bells rang in Montgomery, Alabama when train pulled into the city at 6:00AM on May 29th. A severe rainstorm delayed the funeral procession to about 8:30AM when a caisson carried the body of Davis to Alabama's state capitol. A procession carried the casket through the portico where Jefferson Davis, in 1861, had taken the oath of office as President of the Confederacy.

The casket was placed in front of the bench of the Alabama Supreme Court room. Above the right exit of the room was a banner with the word "Monterrey" and above the left exit was a banner with the words "Buena Vista." During the Mexican War, Jefferson Davis was a hero at Monterrey and wounded at Buena Vista.

At 12:20PM Davis' trainleft Montgomery and a brief stop was made at West Point, Georgia to pick up Georgia's Governor William J. Northen and his escort.

At 4:30PM the funeral train pulled into the Union Station at Atlanta, Georgia. It is estimated that 20,000 people lined the city streets as the funeral procession made their way to the state capitol. Among those in attendance was ex-Confederate General and former Governor John Brown Gordon.

At 7:00PM the train went North on the Richmond and Danville Railroad, which later became Southern Railway and, today, Norfolk-Southern. The train traveled through Lula, Georgia, Greenville, South Carolina and stopped at the North Carolina capitol of Raleigh. Davis' remains were taken to the capitol building to lie in state.

A brief stop was made in Danville, Virginia where a crowd of people gathered around the train and sang, "Nearer My God To Thee" as city church bells tolled.

Finally, the train reached Richmond, Virginia on Wednesday, May 31, 1893, at 3:00AM. It was Memorial Day. Mrs. Davis met the train and her husband's casket was taken to the Virginia state house.

At 3:00PM, May 31st, the casket was placed on a caisson taken to Hollywood Cemetery which overlooks the historic James River. It was reported that earlier rains kept the dust for stirring on Richmond's dirt roads.

With Mrs. Jefferson Davis were her daughters Winnie and Margaret. Six state governors acted as pallbearers. It was estimated that 75,000 persons attended this final salute to President Davis. The ceremony concluded with a 21-gun salute and "Taps."

It had been 28 years since the war ended, but they came by the thousands to pay tribute to their former president. In truth, they came to remember a hope and a dream. And all across the South hundreds of thousands heard that train.

Lest We Forget!

Sources of information: Copy of Louisville and Nashville Railroad Magazine article from 1955 by Edison H. Thomas.
History of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, 1894-1955.
Confederate Veteran Magazine of 1893.
Special thanks to Beauvoir for a copy of the L and N article. http://www.beauvoir.org

Gordon Cotton, above, addresses the audience at Vicksburg’s floodwall as the Jefferson Davis mural is unveiled Thursday. (Jon Giffin • The Vicksburg Post)
----------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------
[6/4/04]The great-granddaughter and great-great-grandson of Jefferson Davis were among about 120 people Thursday who attended the unveiling of the 10th historic Vicksburg mural.

The latest work by Louisiana artist Robert Dafford depicts Davis on the day in February 1861 when he learned that he had been elected president of the Confederate State of America. The painting shows Davis standing outside Brierfield, his home in south Warren County, between his wife and the courier who delivered the news.

To Davis’ right, a storm approaches from the same direction as the messenger.

“Robert, you have done an outstanding job,” said Jefferson Davis Webb, a great-great-grandson of Davis who was visiting from his home in Alaska. “Thank you very, very much.”

The day of the mural unveiling was picked because June 3 was Davis’ birthday.

The mural was sponsored by the Vicksburg and Warren County Historical Society and friends of the Old Court House Museum. Gordon Cotton, curator of the museum, said the depiction captured the event exactly as it was later described by Davis’ wife, Varina Howell Davis.

“(Davis) was a man who always responded to the call of duty and he heard the call that day,” Cotton said.

Davis had lived on his plantation southwest of LeTourneau at present day Davis Island. His home there burned in 1931, and the land was cut off from Warren County when the river changed course a century ago.

“He made his first public speech as president-elect right down the street from here around the foot of Jackson Street,” Cotton said. After the courier left, Davis boarded a steamer headed upriver to Vicksburg and headed to the Confederate capital.

After the war, Davis lived out the rest of his life on the Mississippi Coast at Beauvoir. He died in 1889 in New Orleans.

The floodwall mural is part of a series depicting events in and around Vicksburg. Others in the series illustrate railroad traffic in the 1800s, downtown Vicksburg and river traffic.

Others planned for the wall include, “The Early Beginning,” “The Sultana,” “The Civil War” and “The National Military Park.”

Not everyone there Thursday was pleased with the mural unveiling. Outspoken city resident John Shorter said he was disappointed that a quote suggested for the mural was cut short. He had complained that the mural depicted Davis in too positive a manner. The quote by Davis after the Civil War he had asked be added is, “The past is dead. Let it bury its dead, its hopes and its aspirations. Before you lies the future. A future of golden promises. A future of expanding national glory before which all the world will stand amazed.”

The last two sentences of the quote were included on a plaque placed at the foot of the mural.

“It changes the whole meaning,” Shorter said.

He also said that the quote should have been placed on the mural instead of on the plaque. Mural committee chairman Nellie Caldwell said that would not have been possible.

The only other murals with writing on them are one on the river side of the wall welcoming people to Vicksburg and a second mural showing the early development of the city.

Cotton spoke at the dedication, reading from the obituary written about Davis by John G. Cashman the day after Davis died in New Orleans in 1889. He also thanked private donors who provided the $15,000 for the mural plus other costs.

The Cashman obituary said, in part, that no telling of the story of America would be complete without including the role of Jefferson Davis.

Statement on Signing S. J. Res. 16, Public Law 95-466 into Law.
October 17, 1978

Public Papers of the Presidents, Carter, 1978, p.1786

In posthumously restoring the full rights of citizenship to Jefferson Davis, the Congress officially completes the long process of reconciliation that has reunited our people following the tragic conflict between the States. Earlier, he was specifically exempted form resolutions restoring the rights of other officials in the Confederacy.

He had served the United States long and honorably as a soldier, Member of the U.S. House and Senate, and as Secretary of War. General Robert E. Lee's citizenship was restored in 1976. It is fitting that Jefferson Davis should no longer be singled out for punishment.

Our Nation needs to clear away the guilts and enmities and recriminations of the past, to finally set at rest the divisions that threatened to destroy our Nation and to discredit the principles on which it was founded. Our people need to turn their attention to the important tasks that still lie before us in establishing those principles for all people.

Public Papers of the Presidents, Carter, 1978, p.1786
NOTE: As enacted S.J. Res. 16 is Public Law 95-466, approved October 17, 1978.

Beauvoir House selected as one of the latest Save America’s Treasures Grant recipients

Biloxi, MS - Beauvoir, The Jefferson Davis Home and Presidential Library joined a distinguished group of American treasures when it was announced on October 11, 2004 that Beauvoir House would be awarded a matching grant of $300,000 from the Save America’s Treasures public-private partnership. This grant will allow Beauvoir to complete exterior restoration and replace the antiquated climate control and fire suppression systems at Beauvoir House. On March 29, 2005 at 11:00 am Beauvoir will be officially kicking off the fundraising campaign to meet the match set by the Save America’s Treasures grant. The media and public are invited to learn more about the project and fundraising opportunities. As a special treat, guests will be able to view the portrait of Winnie Davis newly installed after cleaning and restoration due to the fire on June 5, 2004. This is the final piece of artwork to return to Beauvoir.

Save America’s Treasures is a national effort started by President Clinton in 1998. The newly formed White House Millennium Council teamed with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the National Park Service with the goal to protect “America’s threatened cultural treasures, including historic structures, collections, works of art, maps and journals that document and illuminate the history and culture of the United States.” Honorary chair First Lady Laura Bush leads the effort with co-chairs, Richard Moe, President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Susan Eisenhower, noted author and granddaughter of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The media and public are invited to join us at 11:00 am on the front lawn of Beauvoir House on Tuesday, March 29, 2005 to learn more about the Save America’s Treasures program. Beauvoir House joins only four other sites in Mississippi that have been awarded this grant.

^[S520] ^[S521]

[82539]
what was then Davisburg in Christian County.

My Southern Family

Mary ALVIS

ABT 1834 - ____

ID Number: I9290

Sources

Francis CREWS

ABT 1620 - BEF 1680

ID Number: I93088

Sources

PRES. Jefferson Finis DAVIS of The Confederate States

3 Jun 1808 - 6 Dec 1889

ID Number: I16584

Notes

Sources

Thomas PALMER

ABT 1680 - ____

ID Number: I77167

Sources

Margaret SPENCER

ABT 1660 - ABT 1716

ID Number: I41788

Sources

Roseanna Graves SPENCER

ABT 1778 - ABT 1811

ID Number: I64563

Notes

Sources

Thomas TAYLOR

ABT 1513 - ____

ID Number: I29188

Notes

Sources

John WEAVER

5 Aug 1880 - 28 Aug 1880

ID Number: I14214

Sources