Beauvoir The Jefferson Davis Home and Presidential Library, Mississippi
The Hubster and I followed the gulf coast straight through Alabama to Biloxi, Mississippi. Perhaps another trip will allow us time to explore Alabama.
We thought a scenic drive along the gulf coast would be fun, but the stretch that we drove had many hotels and amusement parks and other businesses, making it difficult to actually see the beaches, much less the water. I guess we should’ve planned that better (not that we plan much of anything when we vacation…we are more of an ‘in the moment’ type of couple).
We did, however, plan on visiting Beauvoir and The Jefferson Davis Presidential Library, thus the purpose for driving from Florida to Mississippi.
We had it on our minds to visit here because on our last cross country trip we randomly discovered a monument to Jefferson Davis at his birthplace in Kentucky.
Now this is a beautiful unobstructed view of the gulf!
Beauvoir was the seaside retirement estate of Jefferson Davis, the one and only president of the Confederate States of America. Beauvoir was also the site of the Mississippi Confederate Soldiers Home from 1903 to 1957. The restored antebellum home sits on a 51 acre complex that includes outbuildings, the Confederate Museum, a historic cemetery, the Tomb of the Unknown Confederate Soldier, a nature trail, and a gift shop. The Jefferson Davis Presidential Library contains a biographical exhibit on Jefferson Davis in addition to the research library’s collection on nineteenth-century Southern history.
Hurricanes, including Camille in 1969 and Katrina in 2005, have repeatedly devastated Beauvoir. There has not only been extensive damage to the house, but to paintings, artifacts, the annihilation of the Library Cottage, the Hayes Cottage, the Brick Hospital Confederate Soldiers Museum, the director’s house, and the replica veterans’ barracks, the first floor of the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library and Museum and the beautiful gardens. Restoration is ongoing.
The harp at Beauvoir is in the Grecian style, which was one of the most popular styles of the era. Over 3,000 of this style were sold in London between 1811-1820. Sarah Anne Ellis Dorsey, who owned Beauvoir and bequeathed it to Davis, probably acquired the instrument sometime between then, before she gave it to the Davis Family. The decorations on the front column of the harp are plastered and then gilded in gold leaf.
The beautiful grandfather clock, hand crafted in 1778, by John Turnbull in George Town, Maryland, (present day Washington D.C.) was a gift to Revolutionary War veteran Samuel Emory Davis, Jefferson Davis’s father. Samuel Davis was born c.1755-58 in Georgia where he enlisted with the American forces.
The clock survived Union raids during the Civil War. The weights inside the clock are cast iron coated concrete weights. Most cast iron weights from clocks and other family trinkets of that period were melted down and used as ammunition. The clock has remained in the Davis family since Samuel received it, and endured Union troop raids that destroyed much of Samuel’s correspondences after the war. Although sources cannot confirm, it may have been passed to Jefferson Davis as a wedding gift to him and his first wife, Sarah Knox Taylor. The clock remained with Jefferson Davis through his life, ending up here in 1879 and now sits in the main entry hall of the last home of Jefferson Davis. It is the oldest piece of furniture at Beauvoir.
There were workers under the house painstakingly sanding off the whitewash off of the brick by hand and repairing the mortar between the bricks. Then applying new whitewashing.
Jefferson Davis graduated from West Point in 1824 before beginning his military career. He was a colonel in the Mexican-American War. He was appointed to the United States Senate in 1847. In 1853, President Franklin Pierce appointed him Secretary of War. Davis oversaw the construction of the new House and Senate wings of the US Capitol. After Pierce’s administration ended in 1857, Davis returned to the Senate. He resigned in 1861 when Mississippi seceded from the United States. Davis called it “the saddest day of my life”.
On May 22, 1865, Davis was imprisoned in Fort Monroe, Virginia. After two years of imprisonment, he was released at Richmond on May 13, 1867.
In 1877, Jefferson Davis was looking for a quiet retreat to write his books and papers. He fell in love with Beauvoir and, in 1879, bought it from Sarah Anne Ellis Dorsey for $5,500, to be paid in three payments. Davis made the first payment and six months later, she died. He was her sole heir and inherited the house along with other property.
Davis lived in the Library Pavilion, to the east of the big house, for 2 years before purchasing the property, and wrote his book, ‘The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government’, “an historical sketch of the events which preceded and attended the struggle of the Southern states to maintain their existence and their rights as sovereign communities.” – Jefferson Davis.
The Hayes Cottage, to the west of the big house, is a replica of the original Margaret Davis Hayes Cottage that was used as a guest cottage. Margaret Davis Hayes is the eldest daughter of Jefferson and Varina Davis. Margaret and her family were regular visitors to Beauvoir while Jefferson and Varina resided here.
Both the Library Pavilion and the Hayes Cottages are replicas of the original structures, which were destroyed by Katrina.
Beauvoir’s Confederate Memorial Cemetery is a plot of land on the back half of the property. The cemetery is the final resting place for 784 graves made up of Confederate veterans, wives, widows, civilians, and the Tomb of the Unknown Confederate Soldier. It is also the final resting place for Samuel Emory Davis, father of President Jefferson Davis.
Documents and letters in the Beauvoir archives reveal that the Beauvoir Memorial Cemetery had hand-painted wooden boards as grave markers before more permanent stones were obtained. One of the inmates, Van Buren Mass, was a sign painter, from Biloxi, paid to inscribe these wooden markers. Later, private funds were used to obtain permanent headstones.
Dec. 1, 1979, Rick Forte of Hattiesburg made the discovery of his life.
Relic hunting with a metal detector in the vicinity of Vicksburg, he found parts of a Confederate soldier’s cartridge box and canteen. Then, nearby, he found what remained of the soldier’s body 117 years after he was killed in the Vicksburg campaign of the War Between the States.
The discovery led to the establishment of the Tomb of the Unknown Confederate Soldier in the Confederate Veterans Cemetery at Beauvoir.
The Jefferson Davis Presidential Library has numerous exhibits, as well as an informative video to be viewed in the auditorium. There is a gift shop and a very large library, including an extensive military history section with information dating back to the American Revolution.
“He was a man of great labor, of great learning, of great integrity, of great purity.” – Senator Reagan of Texas, Postmaster General of the Confederate Government
“Eloquent among the most eloquent in debate, wise among the wisest in council, and brave among the bravest in battle.” -Caleb Cushing
“Reared on the soil of Mississippi, the ambition of my boyhood was to do something which would redound to the honor and welfare of the state. The weight of many years admonishes me that my day of actual services has passed. Yet the desire remains undiminished to see the people of Mississippi prosperous and happy, and her fame not unlike the past, but gradually growing wider and brighter as the years roll away.” -Jefferson Davis
This is a pecan cracker. It was manufactured so that the owner could put it on a base and make it a stationary appliance in the home.
An Ordinance
To dissolve the Union between the State of Mississippi, and other States, united with her, under the compact, entitled the Constitution of the United States.
All types of uniforms and weaponry are on display.
Jefferson Davis with his dog, Traveler, in the library at Beauvoir. -Jerry McWilliams, Artist
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