Winnie Davis
Winnie Davis
Daughter of the Lost Cause
HEATH HARDAGE LEE
Foreword by J.E.B. Stuart IV
Epilogue coauthored by Bertram Hayes-Davis
© 2014 by Heath Hardage Lee. All rights reserved.
Potomac Books is an imprint of the University of
Nebraska Press. Manufactured in the United States
of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lee, Heath Hardage.
Winnie Davis: daughter of the lost cause / Heath
Hardage Lee; foreword by J.E.B. Stuart IV;
epilogue coauthored by Bertram Hayes-Davis.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61234-637-3 (cloth: alk. paper)—
ISBN 978-1-61234-638-0 (ebook) 1. Davis, Varina
Anne, 1864–1898. 2. Children of presidents—
Confederate States of America—Biography.
3. Davis, Jefferson, 1808–1889—Family.
4. Confederate States of America—Biography.
I. Title.
E467.1.D28144 2014
973.713092—DC23
[B] 2014001161
Set in Adobe Caslon Pro by L. Auten.
Designed by A. Shahan.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Foreword
by J.E.B. Stuart
Preface
Introduction
1. A Tragic Fall
2. My Name Is a Heritage of Woe
3. Escape, Capture, and Fort Monroe
4. A Fatal Romance
5. Scandal and Sickness
6. Boarding School Blues and the Dorsey Dilemma
7. Yellow Fever
8. Portrait of a Lady
9. Daughter of the Confederacy
10. Life in a Fishbowl
11. I Will Never Consent!
12. Engagement Issues
13. Italian Idyll
14. Dear Diary
15. A World on Fire
16. Queen of a Mystic Court
17. New York, New Woman
18. The Last Casualty of the Lost Cause
19. Death and Maiden
Epilogue: The Great-Great-Grandson of the Confederacy and the Daughter of New York
coauthored by Bertram Hayes-Davis
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Illustrations
Jefferson F. Davis Family Tree
Following page 86
1. Jefferson and Varina
2. William H. Mumler political cartoon
3. Joseph Evan “Little Joe” Davis
4. The balcony at the White House of the Confederacy
5. Winnie as a baby with her mother, Varina
6. The Davis children in Montreal, circa 1866
7. Winnie as a little girl in fancy dress
8. Margaret “Maggie” Davis on her wedding day
9. Winnie at sixteen
10. Sarah Dorsey
11. Winnie as the “Daughter of the Confederacy”
12. Newspaper baron Joseph Pulitzer
13. Kate Pulitzer
14. A miniature of Winnie, 1880s
15. Alfred “Fred” Wilkinson
16. Samuel May’s home
17. Winnie as the 1892 Queen of Comus
18. Margaret and Winnie
19. Winnie, 1890s
20. Winnie with Margaret and her family, 1894
21. The Angel of Grief statue
Foreword
Poor Jeb Stuart was shot through the kidneys and his liver grazed also. He lay in the bloom of youth and apparently in high health strong in voice and patience and resigned to his fate at eleven o’clock in the morning, at five that evening was dead without seeing his wife who was traveling to get to him. Poor young man the city he did so much to save mourned him sincerely.
Confederate first lady Varina Howell Davis to her mother, Margaret Kempe Howell, May 22, 1864
Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, so memorable for his twinkling blue eyes, his roguish sense of humor, his famous plumed hat, and his remarkable leadership skills as the commander of the Cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia, was only thirty-one when he died. Stuart, like so many others who fought in that war, could not escape feeling a sense of mortality. Several lines from a letter dated March 2, 1862, that he wrote to his wife, Flora, speak to his dedication as a soldier and to the uncertainty of the future. “I, for one, though I stood alone in the Confederacy, without countenance or aid, would uphold the banner of Southern Independence as long as I had a hand left to grasp the staff, and then die before submitting . . . Tell my boy when I am gone how I felt and wrote and tell him . . . never to forget the principles for which his father struggled.”1
The young general was fatally wounded at the Battle of Yellow Tavern, north of Richmond, in May 1864, joining thousands of others as martyrs of the South. Stuart was thus transformed into a representative of all the proud, resourceful young men of the South who had died in battle. Confederate president Jefferson Davis visited J.E.B. on his deathbed in Richmond on May 12, 1864. Davis realized that he was losing one of his most accomplished commanders, and he wanted to express his personal appreciation for Stuart’s dedicated service to the Confederacy.
After Stuart’s death, Confederate troops’ morale was crushed. How would this devastating war end? There seemed to be little hope left. Ironically, however, the death of this beloved general became a defining moment in the life of Varina Anne “Winnie” Davis, the daughter of Jefferson and Varina Davis. When Winnie was born in the White House of the Confederacy on June 27, 1864, she became the bright spot that Stuart had been.
The human condition compels us to search for the positive in the midst of the negative, for a light in the darkness. Confederate troops, grasping for something to be optimistic about, considered Winnie’s birth a good omen. The baton had passed from one youthful figure to another. In their time of desperation southern troops needed someone to believe in. A transfer of affection occurred, from a young popular general to a little baby. In the middle of the hell of war, there was a new reason to keep fighting, someone worth saving.
A magazine article from the 1940s imagined what life would have been like for Stuart had he survived the war. The fanciful story woven by the author was that Stuart would have become ambassador to Cuba, riding rough there with Teddy Roosevelt.2 This perhaps is a stretch. Yet I do think he would have cautioned us not to forget the past or try to expunge parts of our southern history. He would have been intensely supportive of preserving our past so that we all may learn from it.
In this respect he and Winnie would have been on the same page. The two came from similar backgrounds. Both made great sacrifices at tremendous personal cost. Both were ultimately casualties of the war. I feel sure they would have understood each other well had they met as adults.
Kudos to the author, Heath Lee, for opening the doors to fully understanding the last child of Confederate president Jefferson Davis.
J.E.B. Stuart IV
Colonel, U.S. Army, Retired
October 21, 2012
Preface
What is it about Varina Anne “Winnie” Davis, youngest daughter of Confederate president Jefferson Davis and Varina Howell Davis and appointed “Daughter of the Confederacy,” that has had such a hold on me for the past twenty-odd years? Even in Richmond, Virginia, where Winnie and I were both born, she is a half-forgotten symbol of the Lost Cause known primarily for her scandalous romance with the northern grandson of a famous abolitionist following the Civil War.
Winni
e’s 1897 portrait by Virginia artist John P. Walker has hung in various clubs and museums in Richmond for many years. I remember seeing this image as a teenager and wondering about this beautiful lady: who was she, and why was her expression so melancholy? In the painting Winnie is dressed in a white lace gown that drapes beautifully over her slim figure. She is portrayed with dark hair and deep blue eyes with a diamond tiara in her hair and a red ribbon badge pinned to her bodice. Her regal bearing suggested to me that she was nineteenth-century royalty of some sort. I wondered for a number of years about her in an offhand way, not bothering to do any research on her until college.
By my senior year at Davidson College in 1991, I began to outgrow the confines of the academic cage. Having spent the spring of my junior year abroad in France, taken all the required classes, had my share of failed romances, and exhausted the limited shopping options in downtown Davidson, North Carolina, I decided to devote myself entirely to my thesis on Winnie Davis. As I began to delve into Winnie’s background through personal letters, diaries, newspaper accounts, and brief references to her in southern history books, I became fascinated with her tragic story. As part of my thesis work, I convinced my professors to send me to an academic conference being held at her family home, Beauvoir, in Mississippi. I do not remember much about the conference I attended there, but I do remember the dresses.
Beauvoir had a collection of Winnie’s dresses—elaborate nineteenth-century gowns for both day and evening. The docent leading the tour that day picked me out of the crowd and said, “Now you could wear her clothes easily—you are just her exact same size!” Of course, nothing would have pleased me more that day than to be able to try on all her clothes, just to see how they fit. In a sense that is exactly what I have been doing the past twenty years.
Trying on Winnie’s metaphorical clothes through researching her life, motivations, and passions has made me realize why I am so drawn to her. We are both Richmonders from similar social backgrounds. We both grew up perhaps a bit overprotected by well-meaning parents. We were both partially educated in Europe, both schooled in all-female environments. We both have a deep-rooted relationship with Richmond. Working on Winnie’s life story was like seeing what my life could have been if I had been raised in the late-nineteenth-century South.
Richmond itself is not so very different now than it was during Winnie’s day. It is a still a small village, with its provincial, gossipy side and its highly cultured sophisticated side. It has an infinitely strong hold on those who are born here, even if they later live far away. The White House of the Confederacy, where Winnie was born, still stands on Clay Street. Gracious homes from the Civil War and Reconstruction periods still line the streets. The ghosts of the Confederacy, including those of the Davis family, still flit through Hollywood Cemetery.
If you visit the Davis family graves at Hollywood, you will find the entire clan there. You will see the graves of Jefferson and Varina, the patriarch and matriarch; oldest daughter Margaret “Maggie” Hayes, her husband, Addison, and some of their children; and the four Davis sons: Samuel, little Joe, Billy, and Jeff Jr. Moss covers all tombs, and you can barely make out the names of the younger Davis boys, with their tiny crumbling grave markers.
Winnie’s grave, however, stands out. Well-tended, with blooming red geraniums at its base, her tomb is guarded by a sculpture of a beautiful granite angel, sculpted by Hungarian artist George Julian Zolnay, with an appropriately melancholy expression. She clearly represents the public’s image of the former Daughter of the Confederacy. The angel is tendering a wreath—perhaps attempting to heal the breach between North and South caused by the Civil War. In my mind, though, the angel, Winnie herself, is trying to reconcile her private life with her public image. The contrast between the two, as illustrated by her life story, is striking.
Most telling of all is the dedication marker next to the grave. Erected in 1899, one year after Winnie’s death, one might expect it would have been placed there by Richmonders. Instead, the marker on the grave reads, UNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY: NEW YORK CHAPTER. Only in death was Winnie able to help reconcile the breach between North and the South, a wound that festered and refused to heal during her short lifetime.
Winnie Davis
Jefferson F. Davis Family Tree
Source: Papers of Jefferson Davis online, Rice University, https://jeffersondavis.rice.edu/. Additional research provided by John Putnam. Chart design by Deena Coutant.
Introduction
The girls who loved the boys in gray,
The girls to country true,
Can ne’er in wedlock give their hands,
To those who wore the blue.
Fragment from a southern poem, “True
to the Gray,” late 1860s–1870s
It was April 1864 in Richmond, Virginia. The northern and southern United States were locked in an epic battle for dominance over states’ rights and slavery. Thousands were being slaughtered every day, and Richmond was literally surrounded by rivers of blood. Depressed and downtrodden, Confederate troops prayed for deliverance, for a sign that something good was to come out of all this bitter warfare.
Confederate president Jefferson Davis was struggling to salvage the remnants of his army, beat the odds, and win the war. A workaholic who could not separate his home life from his political and work obligations, Jefferson used the home’s gorgeous dining room as a conference room. George Washington’s portrait watched over the president of the Confederacy and his generals, such as Robert E. Lee, while they planned strategy and held their councils.1
The Confederate first lady, Varina, was heavily pregnant with their sixth child and worried about her husband, whose delicate constitution was not bearing up well under his enormous responsibilities. She noticed his angular, sharp features becoming more prominent by the day. The stress had begun to take a severe toll on the Confederacy’s anxious president, who had recently begun to look much older than his fifty-six years.
Varina watched carefully over their four young children: Margaret (“Maggie,” also known in the family as “Pollie”), Jefferson Davis Jr. (“Jeff”), William Howell (“Billy”), and the youngest, Joseph Emory (“Joe”). Although she could hear gunfire in the distance, Varina fervently wished that she could keep her children safe at the Executive Mansion, which had been her one oasis of peace since they moved into the residence in August 1861.
The mansion was a stately and gracious home originally built in 1818 for John Brockenbrough, an aristocratic Virginian who was president of the Bank of Virginia, and his wife, Gabriella. Lewis Crenshaw, a wealthy flour merchant and the second owner of the house, had just added a third floor to the mansion and redecorated it entirely. He sold the house to the city of Richmond for forty-three thousand dollars so it might serve as the Executive Mansion for the Confederate president. The city then rented the house to Jefferson and his family.2
Crenshaw had outfitted the house with luxury items such as gas lighting and a water closet. One of the Richmond newspapers declared that the Confederate “First Family was getting a residence with ‘all the modern conveniences.’” The home also boasted the very latest fabrics and carpets from England to show off the previous owner’s fine taste and sophistication. The grand front entrance hall boasted faux-marble wallpaper and custom-made floor cloths. Two imposing plaster statues representing the Greek figures Comedy and Tragedy flanked both sides of the entry hall and served as gas lamps.3
By all reports the Davis family enjoyed living at the Executive Mansion, spending much of their time in a small library known within the household as the “Snuggery,” which was the warmest room in the house. Another popular gathering spot for the family was the imposing drawing room featuring an Italian Carrera marble fireplace with two beautiful mythological women on either side, which the Davises’ two little boys often kissed good night.4 Richmonders called the striking home both the “Brockenbrough Mansion” and the “Gray House,” due to the home’s gray stucco facade.5
Although in public Jefferson was known to be reserved, he was a far different person at home with his family. He adored all his children and was attentive and affectionate with them. He always set aside time to play with his brood, and he made sure to engage with them on their level. Varina was constantly scolding him for ruining his fine clothes rolling around with Maggie, Jeff Jr., and Joe. “He had worn out many pairs of expensive dress pants crawling around on all fours playing with the children.”6
While Jefferson preferred to be with his family and was not fond of socializing, Varina loved a good party. She was well known for her soirees, playing the piano in the drawing room to entertain her guests and serving “coffee made from chestnuts and chicory along with cakes baked with molasses.” In the early days of the war, glittering balls and parties still flourished, but by 1863 “starvation parties” were all the rage, and wartime food deprivations necessitated such substitutions.
Music and dancing continued on these occasions, but no food was served.7 The young ladies of Richmond would often wear old gowns that had previously belonged to their mothers or grandmothers. They would rarely wear jewelry, as they had given it all to support the Confederate cause.8
Jefferson and Varina held weekly receptions at the Executive Mansion that continued for almost the entire duration of the war. The public was admitted, but frequent esteemed guests included Confederate Cabinet member Judah P. Benjamin; vice president of the Confederacy Alexander Stephens; former president of Virginia John Tyler; and General J.E.B. Stuart. Jefferson was said to have a cordial and unpretentious manner, welcoming all who came to his door.
These presidential receptions, starvation parties, and even amateur theatricals contributed to a lively and flourishing social life in Richmond during the war. Although Richmonders might have had barely enough to eat, they adhered to these amusements as a bulwark against the horrors of war. Rome might soon be burning, but parties in the southern capital would continue until the bitter end.9
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