According to an article in the Civil War Times, Sept/Oct 1994, Jefferson Davis never seemed more alive than he does today. This was after a visit to Beauvoir where the writer, Brad Austin, was introduced to a Jeff Davis he did not expect to meet.
It seems Davis was not the serious, somber soul one had read about. Austin recollects being told that the President filled the pockets of his dressing gown with ears of corn to feed his peacocks! One of these stately birds learned to mimic Davis when the President took his daily exercise on the veranda of the library where he wrote his memoirs.
Can't you just see him now, gazing out to sea as he wrote? I am so glad Beauvoir survived the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, aren't you? I hope to get down there this spring. As Austin writes, "history can be very much alive when you find out where it lives".
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