Friday, November 19, 2010

The Later Years for President Davis

As you know if you have been reading our blog, Jefferson Davis, the only President of the Confederate States of America, lived in Montgomery at what we now call "the First White House of the Confederacy" for a brief period of time during the spring of 1861. 

 Yesterday I wrote about his imprisonment at Fortress Monroe. He was released on May 13, 1867 on a $ 100,000 bail bond signed by twenty prominent men (mostly northern) including Horace Greeley, Cornelius Vanderbilt and Augustus Schell, each posting $ 5,000.00, a princely sum for that day.

Upon his release he traveled abroad, to Canada, England, Wales, Scotland and continental Europe. For a time he lived in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1877 he moved to Beauvoir on the Mississippi Gulf Coast where he wrote The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government.

He died in New Orleans, Louisiana while on a business trip, on December 6, 1889 and was buried temporarily in Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans, following the largest funeral procession ever held in the south.

May 31, 1893 marked the date of his final burial in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia, a very peaceful place overlooking the James River. Mich of his family and many other famous people are also buried there, including Presidents James Monroe and John Tyler, and Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart.

On October 17, 1978 President Carter signed a bill to restore citizenship to Jefferson Davis which passed the US Congress without a dissenting vote.

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