Facts About Furnishings in The First Whie House of the Confederacy

We have a number of important pieces in the First White House. Two are especially appropriate, a historic Senate Desk, and a "gondola" armchair, in that they were used by the Confederate Senate during the period that the Alabama State Capitol was the Capitol of the Confederate States of America. These two pieces were used for copying the reproductions that are now used in the capitol building since the early 1990 restorations

 

The chair President Davis used while imprisoned after the war is in the second parlor, as is the  family Bible that was taken from Brierfield during the war and returned years later by his brother. We also have the table on which he wrote his history of the Confederacy, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government. This table was at Beauvoir and was given to the First White House by Mrs. Davis.

 

We also have in her bedroom a tester bed that had been used by General Lafayette in 1825. The President's bedroom is furnished with his custom-made bed as well.

 

Tomorrow I will tell you about some of the furniture that is original to the House or that was in the House when the Davis family lived there.

Why the First White House of the Confederacy Was Moved

I am sure if you are a regular blog reader, which we hope you are, that you know the First White House was moved from the corner of Lee and Bibb streets downtown to its present location, 644 Washington Avenue, across from the Capitol in 1921. But do you know why it was moved?

 

Simple answer: The owner of the "then-derelict boardinghouse" did not want to sell the land, so the White House Association simply bought the House, and had the structure dismantled and moved ten blocks. The iron fence that originally surrounded the house was discovered in LaGrange, GA, and returned to the house in 1946.

 

The original location is currently a skate board park, but I believe the lot has been sold to a developer, so it will possibly not remain as it is today very long. The White House Association had an historic marker placed on the grounds in April of this year, 2012.

Confederate Flag Made of Tiffany Glass - An "AHA" Moment

The Brick Church on Well's Hill in Petersburg Va known as the Historic Blandford Church has the only known Confederate flag made out of Tiffany glass in  it's transom window.

 

How did that come about? The Ladies Memorial Association was organized in 1866. Their original mission was the recovery of Confederate soldiers (30,000), who were left dead on the battlefields during the ten-month siege of Petersburg, and their internment in a Christian burial.

 

 In 1901 the LMA received the authority from the City of Petersburg to convert the Old Blandford Church into a Confederate Memorial and Chapel. The ladies commissioned fifteen windows to be created by the Tiffany Studios. Blandford Church is one of seven buildings in the country exclusively ornamented with Tiffany windows. And the Confederate Battle flag is the only known Confederate flag found in any of Tiffany's works.

 

A celebration will be held there this Sunday, September 9th, to celebrate the Centennial installation of the windows. Google the church to see pictures of the windows, especially the one with the flag. You will find them amazing and beautiful.

Jefferson Davis Wrote About The Right of the South To Secede

 I wrote recently about an article in the History of the Confederate Memorial Associations of the South. The article is called Oration on the Life and Service of Jefferson Davis by Charles E. Fenner of New Orleans. It was published in 1903.

 

Fenner writes about the right to secede: "He (Jefferson Davis) formulated the whole argument in his 'Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government'...I pronounce it one of the most powerful and masterly legal and constitutional arguments of which I have any knowledge in the English language".

 

Fenner goes on:"It has never been answered, and it is unanswerable. it was intended and it serves as a complete vindication of the right of the Southern States to withdraw from the federal union, to terminate the compact which they had made with their sister States and to reassume the powers which had been delegated to the federal government as a common agent."

 

He says it would be a service to all the people of this country if  it (the section on the right to secede)were published by itself in a small volume or pamphlet so that people could have read it and have understood the grounds and motives on which the Southern States acted when they seceded from the Union. That was in 1903. It is even more true today when people don't have a clue.

Exciting Happenings With The First Confederate White House Blog

Want to know a secret? Well, if I tell, it won't be a secret anymore...but here goes. We are making a "Blog Book". Next question - what is a blog book? Answer - its a book that we are putting together of our most interesting (we hope) and informative blogs.

Since we have written over 450 blogs since we started, this is a wee bit daunting, but I think it is going to turn out nicely, and should be lots of fun. Who knows, we might even print it and sell at the First White House Souvenir shop, aka our Gift Shop.

Would you like to have one?  I think that can be arranged (for a small fee). I will let you know when it is finished. My "sources" say that we need around 33,000 words. We have almost half of that. Right now we have around 15 topics but several of these will be consolidated as we go along.

Since its football season, there should be lots of time to work on this, and I promise it will be easy reading for all of us when the product is finished.

Jefferson Davis - What You May Not Know

Jefferson Davis was a well-known figure long before he became President of the Confederate States of America. He was a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and served as a member of Congress from Mississippi, first in the House and later in the Senate. He was a war hero in the Mexican War and was wounded in the Battle of Buena Vista.

I have read very little on the subject of the Mexican War, but one of the books sounds intriguing: The Battle of Buena Vista; With the Army of Occupation for One Month by James Henry Carleton.

Davis was appointed Secretary of War by President Franklin Pierce and is considered by some historians as the best to hold that office. After serving he returned to the Senate but resigned his seat after Miss. seceded from the Union.  He was in his rose garden when he received the telegram that he had been elected Provisional President of the Confederate States of America Provisional Government.

Another biography on the life of this famous man that you may wish to read is: "Jefferson Davis, American" by William J. Cooper.

Civil War Battles Fought in Alabama

There were seven Battles fought in Alabama, very few compared with other Southern States. Virgina, as we know had the most fought, with 122. We were most fortunate to be as far away from most major Campaigns as we were. Tennessee fought 38 and Georgia 27.  Another thing, all of ours were in 1863 and following, none during the first two years of the war.

 

The seven, in alphabetical order, were: Athens, in North Alabama, in 1864. Union victory;

Day's Gap, at Sand Mountain in Cullman County, 1863, Union victory;

Decatur, part of the Franklin-Nashville Campaign, 1864, John Bell Hood. Union victory; 

Fort Blakely in Baldwin County, Mobile Campaign, 1865, Union victory;

Mobile Bay, 1864, fall of Fort Morgan, Union victory;

Selma, Wilson's Raid, 1865, not even Forrest could prevent this from being a Union victory. Selma burned;

Spanish Fort, 1865, part of the Mobile Campaign, also a Union victory. UGH. Not looking too good for the home team here. In fact, it looks like a runaway for the bad guys.