Okla-homey
2/10/2007, 09:16 AM
Feb 10, 1861: Jeff Davis learns he is president
http://aycu05.webshots.com/image/8804/2005942639544926711_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005942639544926711)
146 years ago today, Jefferson Davis receives word that he has been selected president of the new Confederate States of America by the provisional Congress meeting in Montgomery, AL. A West Point graduate, (class of 1828,) Davis was a Mexican War veteran and had served as US Secretary of War. Davis was a US senator from Mississippi from 1835 to 1845 He withdrew from the Senate in 1861 when Mississippi seceded.
http://aycu25.webshots.com/image/11504/2005951164841465449_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005951164841465449)
Brierfield as it appeared when Davis learned he was the new president of the infant CSA. Subsequently destroyed by hurricanes
Davis was at his Mississippi plantation, Brierfield, pruning rose bushes with his wife Varina when a messenger arrived from Vicksburg. It was not a job Davis wanted, but he accepted it out of a sense of duty to his new country.
http://aycu23.webshots.com/image/10662/2005989699738921630_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005989699738921630)
Jeff and Varina photographed on their wedding day
Varina Davis later wrote that she saw her husband's face grow pale and she recalled,
"Reading that telegram he looked so grieved that I feared some evil had befallen our family. After a few minutes he told me like a man might speak of a sentence of death."
Davis said of the job: "I have no confidence in my ability to meet its requirement. I think I could perform the function of a general." He could see the difficulties involved in launching the new nation.
"Upon my weary heart was showered smiles, plaudits, and flowers, but beyond them I saw troubles innumerable. We are without machinery, without means, and threatened by powerful opposition but I do not despond and will not shrink from the task before me."
http://aycu20.webshots.com/image/9779/2005994285877324876_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005994285877324876)
The Davis children
Davis was prescient in his concerns. He drew sharp criticism during the war--Alexander Stephens, the vice president, said Davis was "weak and vacillating, timid, petulant, peevish, obstinate." Stephens, the diminuitive man from Georgia with the very big brain, declared that he held "no more feeling of resentment toward him" than he did toward his "poor old blind and deaf dog."
http://aycu30.webshots.com/image/8989/2005382100827811106_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005382100827811106)
CSA VP Alexander Stephens. He never enjoyed a good relationship with Mr Davis
http://aycu23.webshots.com/image/10662/2005962515321991523_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005962515321991523)
Perhaps ironically, Davis, like his opposite Abraham Lincoln, was born in Kentucky. A monument stands near his Fairview, KY birthplace.
http://aycu10.webshots.com/image/8609/2002546685876095979_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002546685876095979)
Davis' retirement Mississippi plantation survived the Civil War, but took a major hit from hurricane Katrina. Committed historic preservationists are working hard to repair the damage and restore the home to its former glory.
It is fair to say that Davis is remembered far more fondly by his people than he was treated while serving as President of the Confederacy. He simply never won their hearts, probably because while he was a competent administrator, he found it very difficult to delegate tasks to subordinates and tried to do too much himself. Additionally, he lacked an engaging personality, which is usually necessary to ensure political popularity. In truth, his reputation was recast far more postively in the years after the war by those who pined for the "old times [not] forgotten."
http://aycu02.webshots.com/image/10521/2005358012885821159_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005358012885821159)
Davis in 1885
Interestingly, he was re-elected to the US Senate from Mississippi in the post-war years, but was denied the seat by the XIV Amendment which barred high Confederate officials from federal office. Davis was asked, but turned down the offer of the first presidency of aTm where collie dogs are now worshipped with cultlike dedication
Davis died in New Orleans at the age of eighty-one in Dec. 1889. His funeral was one of the largest ever staged in the South and ran a continuous march from New Orleans to Richmond, Virginia, day and night. He is buried at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.
http://aycu14.webshots.com/image/11373/2005901763126052092_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005901763126052092)
In a strange coincidence, a US general in the Civil War was also named Jefferson Davis. His name caused him no small amount of grief. At the start of the American Civil War, Davis had attained the rank of first lieutenant and was serving in the Fort Sumter garrison when it was bombarded by Confederate forces in 1861. Later, in 1862, Davis got into an argument with his superior officer, Maj. Gen. William "Bull" Nelson, in the Galt House in Louisville, Kentucky. Davis had been offended by insults on prior occasions and when his face was slapped by Nelson, Davis shot and killed him. He was arrested and imprisoned, but Maj. Gen. Horatio G. Wright came to his aid and was able to get him released from prison. He avoided conviction for the murder because there was a need for experienced field commanders in the Union Army.
http://aycu21.webshots.com/image/11300/2005971857523278601_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005971857523278601)
http://aycu05.webshots.com/image/8804/2005942639544926711_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005942639544926711)
146 years ago today, Jefferson Davis receives word that he has been selected president of the new Confederate States of America by the provisional Congress meeting in Montgomery, AL. A West Point graduate, (class of 1828,) Davis was a Mexican War veteran and had served as US Secretary of War. Davis was a US senator from Mississippi from 1835 to 1845 He withdrew from the Senate in 1861 when Mississippi seceded.
http://aycu25.webshots.com/image/11504/2005951164841465449_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005951164841465449)
Brierfield as it appeared when Davis learned he was the new president of the infant CSA. Subsequently destroyed by hurricanes
Davis was at his Mississippi plantation, Brierfield, pruning rose bushes with his wife Varina when a messenger arrived from Vicksburg. It was not a job Davis wanted, but he accepted it out of a sense of duty to his new country.
http://aycu23.webshots.com/image/10662/2005989699738921630_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005989699738921630)
Jeff and Varina photographed on their wedding day
Varina Davis later wrote that she saw her husband's face grow pale and she recalled,
"Reading that telegram he looked so grieved that I feared some evil had befallen our family. After a few minutes he told me like a man might speak of a sentence of death."
Davis said of the job: "I have no confidence in my ability to meet its requirement. I think I could perform the function of a general." He could see the difficulties involved in launching the new nation.
"Upon my weary heart was showered smiles, plaudits, and flowers, but beyond them I saw troubles innumerable. We are without machinery, without means, and threatened by powerful opposition but I do not despond and will not shrink from the task before me."
http://aycu20.webshots.com/image/9779/2005994285877324876_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005994285877324876)
The Davis children
Davis was prescient in his concerns. He drew sharp criticism during the war--Alexander Stephens, the vice president, said Davis was "weak and vacillating, timid, petulant, peevish, obstinate." Stephens, the diminuitive man from Georgia with the very big brain, declared that he held "no more feeling of resentment toward him" than he did toward his "poor old blind and deaf dog."
http://aycu30.webshots.com/image/8989/2005382100827811106_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005382100827811106)
CSA VP Alexander Stephens. He never enjoyed a good relationship with Mr Davis
http://aycu23.webshots.com/image/10662/2005962515321991523_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005962515321991523)
Perhaps ironically, Davis, like his opposite Abraham Lincoln, was born in Kentucky. A monument stands near his Fairview, KY birthplace.
http://aycu10.webshots.com/image/8609/2002546685876095979_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002546685876095979)
Davis' retirement Mississippi plantation survived the Civil War, but took a major hit from hurricane Katrina. Committed historic preservationists are working hard to repair the damage and restore the home to its former glory.
It is fair to say that Davis is remembered far more fondly by his people than he was treated while serving as President of the Confederacy. He simply never won their hearts, probably because while he was a competent administrator, he found it very difficult to delegate tasks to subordinates and tried to do too much himself. Additionally, he lacked an engaging personality, which is usually necessary to ensure political popularity. In truth, his reputation was recast far more postively in the years after the war by those who pined for the "old times [not] forgotten."
http://aycu02.webshots.com/image/10521/2005358012885821159_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005358012885821159)
Davis in 1885
Interestingly, he was re-elected to the US Senate from Mississippi in the post-war years, but was denied the seat by the XIV Amendment which barred high Confederate officials from federal office. Davis was asked, but turned down the offer of the first presidency of aTm where collie dogs are now worshipped with cultlike dedication
Davis died in New Orleans at the age of eighty-one in Dec. 1889. His funeral was one of the largest ever staged in the South and ran a continuous march from New Orleans to Richmond, Virginia, day and night. He is buried at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.
http://aycu14.webshots.com/image/11373/2005901763126052092_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005901763126052092)
In a strange coincidence, a US general in the Civil War was also named Jefferson Davis. His name caused him no small amount of grief. At the start of the American Civil War, Davis had attained the rank of first lieutenant and was serving in the Fort Sumter garrison when it was bombarded by Confederate forces in 1861. Later, in 1862, Davis got into an argument with his superior officer, Maj. Gen. William "Bull" Nelson, in the Galt House in Louisville, Kentucky. Davis had been offended by insults on prior occasions and when his face was slapped by Nelson, Davis shot and killed him. He was arrested and imprisoned, but Maj. Gen. Horatio G. Wright came to his aid and was able to get him released from prison. He avoided conviction for the murder because there was a need for experienced field commanders in the Union Army.
http://aycu21.webshots.com/image/11300/2005971857523278601_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005971857523278601)