Dates: 1851-1889.
Originals are restricted; reference photocopies must be used instead.

Biography:

Jefferson Finis Davis

Jefferson Finis Davis was born on June 3, 1808. He was the tenth and last child of Samuel and Jane Cook Davis of Christian County (now Todd County), Kentucky. The family moved to Wilkinson County, Mississippi Territory, in 1812. Davis entered the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, in 1824, and he graduated in 1828. From West Point, Davis went on to serve as a second lieutenant in the United States Army at Fort Crawford, Wisconsin; Fort Winnebago, Wisconsin; and Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, during which time he participated in the Black Hawk War.

Davis married Sarah Knox Taylor, daughter of Colonel Zachary Taylor, in June of 1835, and later that month, Davis resigned from the army. The couple traveled to Hurricane, the Warren County, Mississippi, plantation of Joseph Davis, the elder brother of Jefferson Davis, who gave the couple Brierfield, an eight-hundred-acre plantation adjacent to Hurricane. Shortly after their arrival in Mississippi, both Davis and his wife contracted malaria, and on September 15, 1835, she succumbed to the disease. Davis recovered and became a cotton planter in Warren County.

In February of 1845, Jefferson Davis married Varina Howell (1826-1906) at the Briars in Natchez, Mississippi. The couple had six children: Samuel Emory (1852-1854), Margaret Howell (1855-1909), Jefferson, Jr. (1857-1878), Joseph Evan (1859-1864), William Howell (1861-1872), and Varina Anne (1864-1898). Margaret Howell Davis married banker Joel Addison Hayes, Jr. (1848-1919) of Memphis. They would later relocate to Colorado Springs, Colorado, for health reasons. The couple had five children: Jefferson Davis Hayes (b. & d. 1877); Varina Howell Davis Hayes Webb (b. 1879); Lucy Hayes White (b. 1882); William Davis Hayes (b. 1889), and Jefferson Hayes-Davis.

Davis was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1845, a position from which he resigned after less than a year, to command the Mississippi Rifles in the Mexican War. He was wounded at Buena Vista, Mexico, in February of 1847. Later that year, Davis was appointed to fill a vacant seat in the United States Senate. In 1851, Davis resigned from the senate to run as governor of Mississippi, but he was defeated by Senator Henry Stuart Foote. The following year, he campaigned for presidential candidate Franklin Pierce, and Davis was eventually appointed secretary of war under President Pierce. In 1857, Mississippi reelected Davis to the United States Senate. Four years later, in a farewell speech to the senate, Davis announced the secession of Mississippi and resigned his seat. In February of 1861, Davis was elected provisional president of the newly formed Confederate States of America, and in October of that year, he was elected president of the Confederacy.

When Lee's surrender at Appomattox ended the Confederacy in April of 1865, Davis fled with his family and advisors. He was captured one month later at Irwinville, Georgia, and imprisoned at Fort Monroe, Virginia. Davis was released from prison on bail in 1867, and in 1869, the United States government dropped all charges against him. In that same year, Davis became president of the Carolina Insurance Company in Memphis, Tennessee. The company failed four years later, forcing Davis to attempt to regain legal control of his plantation, Brierfield. Davis eventually succeeded but was unable to make very much money from the plantation. In 1877, Davis moved to Beauvoir, the estate of Sarah Anne Dorsey in Harrison County, Mississippi. Dorsey eventually sold Beauvoir to Davis and later willed her entire estate to him. While living at Beauvoir, Davis completed two books: The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government in 1881 and A Short History of the Confederate States in 1889. Davis contracted bronchitis on a trip to Brierfield in 1889. He returned to New Orleans where he died on December 9, 1889. Davis was buried in Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans, but his remains were reinterred in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, four years later.

 

Scope and Content Note:

This collection consists of personal correspondence, legal records, and miscellaneous papers of Confederate president Jefferson Davis and members of his immediate family from 1851 to 1889. The papers provide rare glimpses into the private lives and thoughts of Jefferson Davis and his family. Included are letters to or from Jefferson Davis; Varina Howell Davis; Jefferson Davis, Jr.; Margaret Howell Davis Hayes; Joel Addison Hayes, Jr.; Joseph Emory Davis; and William Burr Howell. Jefferson Davis received additional letters from former Confederate general Stephen D. Lee of Columbus, Mississippi, and Bishop Ignatius Persie of Savannah, Georgia.

The correspondence of Jefferson Davis with his wife includes a May 8, 1851, letter mentioning that he had been pressed into serving in the Southern Rights Democratic Party; a May 27, 1853, letter written while Davis was United States Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce; an October 30, 1874, letter containing information about Brierfield Plantation and former slaves; and a March 30, 1878, letter discussing Daviss lawsuit to obtain legal title to Brierfield Plantation.

Among the correspondence of Varina Howell Davis is an April 3, 1859, letter written while her husband was a United States senator from Mississippi. It includes details about the Davis children and news of friends. Of particular interest is a series of wartime letters from Varina Davis in Raleigh, North Carolina, to Jefferson Davis in Richmond, Virginia, in 1862. They express her affection and concern for Davis and provide details of life in Raleigh. The letters also contain news of the health and welfare of the Davis children who were frequently ill. Her letters include scattered references to Confederate generals Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard and Thomas Jonathan (Stonewall) Jackson and Union generals Ambrose Everett Burnside and George Brinton McClellan. An April 1, 1870, letter from Varina Davis to Jefferson Davis reveals her concern for his health and also describes some of her physical ailments.

The correspondence of Jefferson Davis, Jr., with his father includes a ca. 1872 letter that was written from a boarding school in Emmorton, Harford County, Maryland. The letter reveals how much Davis missed his brother, William Howell, who had died on October 16, 1872. There is an April 19, 1874, letter from Jefferson Davis, Jr., to his father recounting cadet-corps life at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington. There is also a July 7, 1876, letter from Jefferson Davis, Jr., to his father discussing the Centennial, the Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden presidential tickets, and the defeat of General George Armstong Custers troops by the Sioux Indians at the battle of Little Big Horn in Montana. In an undated letter to his father, Jefferson Davis, Jr., commented on contemporary politics and advised that he was attending church and seeking employment in Memphis, Tennessee.

The letters written to Margaret Howell Davis Hayes by Jefferson Davis date from 1871 to 1889, and they express his affection and concern for the health and welfare of his daughter. They often contain references to the activities of other family members, including Varina Howell Davis, Varina Anne (Winnie) Davis, and Joel Addison Hayes, Jr. Some letters describe life at Beauvoir and Brierfield Plantation.

The letters written to Joel Addison Hayes, Jr., by Jefferson Davis date from 1877 to 1889, and they reflect his affection and esteem for his son-in-law. They also reveal the extent to which the elderly Davis depended upon the assistance of Hayes in various business and legal matters. There are numerous references to Brierfield Plantation, including those discussing the persistent litigation of Davis to obtain clear title to the property; disputes with overseers; problems with day-laborers, sharecroppers, and tenants; the improvement of existing levees or the construction of new ones to prevent or mitigate Mississippi River flooding; periodic financial difficulties; and other problems resulting from being an absentee landlord. Davis often mentions family members, including Varina Howell Davis, Margaret Howell Davis Hayes, and Varina Anne (Winnie) Davis. The letters also provide details of life at Beauvoir.

Three letters from Joseph Emory Davis to his brother, Jefferson Davis, are present. The first letter was written from Fleetwood Plantation, near Bolton, Hinds County, Mississippi, on February 17, 1863, and concerns agricultural and business matters. The second letter was written from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on April 8, 1864, and concerns agricultural and business matters, the Civil War, and Davis family members. The third letter was written from Vicksburg, Mississippi, on June 30, 1867, while Jefferson Davis was living in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and contains news of Joseph Davis and his family and their desperate financial situation during Reconstruction. Joseph Davis also suggests that Jefferson Davis should write a history of the Confederacy and mentions that former Confederate general James Longstreet had joined the Republican Party.

The legal records include an April 15, 1859, deed to property of Davis in Harrison County, Mississippi; a September 18, 1879, last will and testament (fragment) of Jefferson Davis; an April 22, 1884, deed of trust for the Locust Grove Plantation of Davis in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana; a December 1, 1885, deed to the birthplace of Davis in Fairview, Kentucky; and an August 28, 1889, deed to property of Davis in Harrison County, Mississippi.

Among the miscellaneous papers are an October 10, 1855, letter from Davis to Frank Gildart of Austin, Texas, advising that no commissions in cavalry regiments were available; a July 17, 1859, letter from Davis to William Burr Howell regarding the Davis children; a January 22, 1873, letter from Bishop Ignatius Persie of Savannah, Georgia, to Davis approving of his employment of Mary Ahern; an October 30, 1874, letter from Stephen D. Lee to Davis favoring European immigration and settlement of the American frontier; and a January 6, 1887, letter from Davis to Mary Elizabeth (Lize) Mitchell Hamer, granddaughter of Joseph Emory Davis, defending the successful litigation to reclaim Brierfield Plantation. Also included are a May 10, 1865, statement of Davis regarding his capture by the Union army at Irwinville, Georgia; a September 25, 1888, management plan of Davis for Brierfield Plantation in 1888 and 1889; a December 6, 1889, telegram from E. H. Farrar to Margaret Howell Davis Hayes announcing the death of Davis in New Orleans; and an undated fragment of a political essay or speech by Davis.

For an item-level inventory of the documents in this collection, see the Jefferson Davis and Family Papers (Z/2202) Box and Folder List.

Series Identification:

Series 1: Papers. 1851-1889; n.d. 1.33 cubic ft. 
Box 1, folders 1-44 (reference photocopies) 
Box 2, folders 1-44 (reference photocopies) 
Box 3, folders 1-44 (restricted originals) 
Box 4, folders 1-44 (restricted originals)