The Perfect Man: The Rise and Fall of Jefferson Davis

Davis really is the perfect man in a in a time and in a place where there's a serious shortage of real quality [Music] leadership he really represented every that the the plantation South was about right he really believed in patriarchy he believed in [Music] hierarchy of course Davis was in the US Congress US Senate he was in the Mexican War he's a military hero he's tall goodlooking looks great on a horse so in many ways he's perfect Jefferson Davis the future president of the Confederacy was born on June 3rd 188 in Christian County Kentucky yeah when he was a child that his father Samuel Davis moved the family to the vicinity of Woodville Mississippi where Davis grew to Young manhood when he wasn't away attending school Jefferson Davis's older brother who was really a mentor and a father figure to him Joseph Davis managed to secure for Jefferson Davis an appointment to the military academy at West Point in I believe 1824 and Davis as he was about a lot of things throughout his life was amb ambivalent about going to West Point at first he wanted to go then he didn't want to go he was going to West Point because his brother wanted him to go and he wanted to please his brother despite his indecisiveness Davis would eventually decide to attend West Point there's not a stellar student at West Point he wasn't at the bottom of his class but he was nowhere near the top he was something of a party boy number of the West Point Cadets when they could of course for Generations would leave the post after hours when they weren't supposed to and go to a local tabern called Benny Havens where they would drink and the the the accommodating Mr Havens would serve these young men whatever they asked for he got caught out a couple of times and a matter of fact he was brought before a court Marshal and dismissed once then allowed back in on application in 1828 Davis graduated from the military academy at West Point and became a second lieutenant in the United States Army 1931 Davis was assigned to Fort Crawford with Prairie toen Wisconsin at Fort Crawford Davis met Sarah Knox Taylor the daughter of the fort's Commanding Officer Colonel Zachary Taylor noxy Taylor as she was known was the one true love of Davis's [Music] life Colonel Taylor did not approve of the relationship ship between Davis and his daughter he arranged for the young Lieutenant to be transferred to another assignment rather than accept his transfer Davis resigned his commission and remained at Prairie desan he finally persuaded her family to allow her to marry him they were married in Kentucky and he then persuaded her that it was safe to go back to the plantation his brother had set up for him in um in in Mississippi not far from Vicksburg even though this is the summer in the South even though Davis himself knew from experience that the summer in the South was the fever season and he would himself managed to be away from that Plantation in the summertime uh she went South with him and within a matter of 3 months they'd both been infected with malaria she died he survived Sarah's death devastated Davis many years later the sight of her slipper was enough to cause him to pass out from grief her death altered his personality forever the funloving joyful uh somewhat irreverent young man of his West Point days disappeared forever and he became the sober serious taciturn Jefferson Davis that history really [Music] knows for the next eight years Davis lived in what he would later describe as great seclusion on his Plantation in Mississippi gradually Davis would begin to emerge from his shell in 1843 he would run for a seat in the Mississippi House of Representatives he lost this election but at Christmas time visited his brother Joseph in NES and met Verina Banks how the daughter of a family friend major William how Reena was in many ways a 20th century woman she was bright she was alert she was accustomed to being involved with the men in political discussions of the day though he was 18 years older than she was Davis was intrigued by her intelligence and personality less than a month after meeting her he proposed marriage and she accepted a year later they were married relationship was very interesting from a 21st century perspective had very specific specific ideas about Womanhood he really represented everything that the the plantation South was about right he really believed in patriarchy he believed in hierarchy and this was a hierarchy that was not only based on race but based on sex right so that that women were ultimately dependent on and subservient to men right he was the authority in his household and Vina how Davis was not particularly interested in submitting to her husband so they had quite a rocky marriage they separated twice Davis left her at home in Mississippi once he's serving in Congress and went to Washington rather than take her with him because she was as he put it so querulous after the second separation I think Verina Davis came to the conscious decision to save the marriage by playing the game and thereafter she spent years and years being the uh subservient obsequious uh uh wife in 1846 a year after they were married Davis reenlisted in the Army the United States was at war with Mexico and by fighting in this war Davis hoped to win honor and glory for himself Davis was giv command of a regiment of volunteers and assigned to the army of his former father-in-law General Zachary Taylor Taylor blam Davis for the death of his daughter Davis's regiment would distinguish itself at the Battle of Bueno Vista on February 22nd 1846 Davis's regiment was where the fighting was the hottest and they defeated first one column of Mexican attackers and then a second Davis himself was wounded on in the foot and had to be carried off the battlefield when General Zachary Taylor learned of his performance in the battle he wrote to Davis my daughter sir was a better judge of character than I was he was lucky because what he did on the battlefield was stupid but the Mexican Commander facing him did something even dumber and Davis lucked out and had a signal role in this in this great Victory based on his status as a war hero in 1847 Davis was appointed to the senate in the Senate he served as a member of the Armed Forces Committee in 1853 President Franklin Pierce appointed Davis Secretary of War was indeed a micromanager he he had the instincts of a bureaucrat which made him an excellent secretary of war after Pierce's term concluded in 1856 Davis returned to the Senate he was still serving in the Senate when he learned of the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 December 1860 South Carolina seceded from the United States so in January five other states seceded from the Union one of those five seceding States was Davis's home state of Mississippi Davis would later recall that the day he learned of Mississippi secession was the saddest of his life life nevertheless he wrote a letter to the governor stating judge best where Mississippi needs me and place me accordingly this was resigning from the Senate delegates from the six newly independent states were meeting in Montgomery Alabama they created the confederate government uh and the Confederate States of America and Montgomery sort of became uh by default almost the capital of the Confederacy because that's where those men convened there wasn't a lot of talk about Davis in Montgomery Alabama most people apparently thought that the president would come from Georgia because Georgia was the biggest state and Georgians mostly seem to think the president would be former Senator Robert Toms who fit this kind of mid 19th century ideal of the Larger than Life man boastful outgoing the master of the balmo life of the party you know a great backs slapper and a great campaigner tombs had a problem with with drink he couldn't handle it and the day or a day or two before the president was to be chosen by this small convention he got drunk at a party and made a fool of himself so tombs almost virtually drank himself out of the presidency the end of this vacuum that a man from Mississippi comes writing up with a letter Davis has written to him in response to some questions and the letter says among other things would have preferred to be a general in the field rather than to be president uh because he felt that's where his his inclinations and his skills were but if my country calls I can't say no and Davis really is the perfect man in a in a time and in a place where there's a serious shortage of real quality leadership he's a plantation owner and a slave owner so he's part of the group who are bringing about this this new experiment he's a military hero he's tall good-looking so in many ways he's perfect and when his name is put in nomination it almost immediately carries the day so on February 18th 1861 which was George Washington's birthday Jefferson Davis was sworn in as president of the Confederacy in his inaugural address Davis stated that the South wished to leaveing in peace with all the nations of the world but would fight for its independence if it had to but the cheers quickly turned to sorrow the shelling of fort suer on April 14th 1861 marked the beginning of the Civil War by April of 1865 it is clear that the south is going to lose the Civil War the Union Army of the PTO is Advanced to the gates of the Confederate Capital at Richmond they slowly but surely stretched out the union line the objective was to seize the various railroads that led into either pet Petersburg or Richmond cutting off supplies and forcing the Confederate Army Lee's army to abandon the trenches there and flee by April 2nd the Union Army had cut all the railroads into Richmond at dawn General ulyses srant ordered a general assault on the morning of April 2nd Jefferson Davis was attending church at St Paul's Episcopal [Music] where he received a telegram from General Robert E Lee informing him that Petersburg and Richmond had to be evacuated I he knew what was coming uh he he had been planning for this even though when it actually came he uh delayed accepting it uh he sent Lee a telegram asking Lee for more time met with his cabinet he met with the Mayor of Richmond he met with the governor of Virginia he met with military men including uh General dick F uh and then went to the railroad station and spent some more time at the railroad uh spending some time in the railroad president's office and then didn't actually leave Richmond until about 11:00 p.m. his goal was to keep the Confederacy alive even if there's you know a corporal's guard still out in the field somewhere that's independent standing guard over a few square feet of soil that's still Confederate then the Confederacy is still alive so Davis's train reached Danville at about 5:00 p.m. the next day he was met in Danville by a committee of citizens including the mayor J James M Walker mayor and this Committee of citizens LED Davis to the home of danville's richest citizen major William suland suland provided Davis with a room and the use of his office Davis spent the next seven days trying to Rally the citizens of the Confederacy to continue the fight to this end he published a proclamation declaring that if we but will it we are free but Davis was not in a comfortable position it had been several days since he heard from General Robert El on April 7th he convened a cabinet meeting in the souland house to discuss the situation while they were meeting a young Sergeant John Sergeant W the son of a former governor was led into the house and presented to Davis a report on the condition of Lee's army Sergeant wise told Davis that after the fall of Petersburg Lee had attempted to move South to link up with him at Danville however General ulyses srant has blocked Lee's path to the South Lee therefore had moved to the West toward aamad Courthouse by the morning of April 9th 1865 Lee's army was surrounded at atics in an attempt to break this encirclement Lee launched a desperate assault Le's tired hungry troops were unable to defeat Grant's Superior forces and when the attack failed Lee had no choice but to meet with Grant and negotiate the terms for the surrender of the army of Northern Virginia essentially the loss of Lee's army is the end of the war for the Confederacy Le's Army had become in the minds of southern people in the minds of I should say in the the minds of Confederate people to to be uh you know the it was the symbol of Confederate sustainability the revolution survivability and once Lee's army was defeated the cause was lost Davis learned of Lee surrender on April 10th still determined to continue the Civil War Davis headed south hoping to meet with General Joseph E Johnson was the commander of the South's largest surviving Army at the beginning of the Civil War Davis and Johnson had had a strong relationship they had known each other during the old army days and Davis had appointed Johnson commander of one of the south field armies however in the winter of 1861 a series of misunderstandings and miscommunications between the two men had significantly undermined their relationship by 1864 5 Davis and Johnson were at each other's throats their meeting on April 10th 1865 would prove just as contentious with previous engagements Johnson urged Davis to negotiate terms of surrender with the Union where DAV which Davis refused to consider I think he was constitutionally incapable of giving up part of the reason being that he viewed the Confederacy as his creation the Confederacy was his child just like one of his sons and Davis is a man who will have four sons and will see all of them die and I think to him it was no more conceivable that he could oversee the death of the Confederacy than that he could willingly give up one of his sons to die this eventually agreed to allow Johnson to meet with William tumer Sherman the commander of a Union Army Davis remained at Johnson's headquarters in Greensboro for a few days and then headed south on April 15th 186 65 in Washington DC President Abraham Lincoln was taking in a night at the theater to celebrate his victory during the third act a young actor named John wils Booth ascended the staircase to the president's box and shot the president in the back of the head Lincoln died the next morning Lincoln's assassination would greatly intensify The Manhunt for Jefferson Davis many Northerners believed that Davis was The Mastermind behind Booth's plot to assassinate the president but Davis would only learn of Lincoln's assassination on April 20th Davis's reaction to this assassination was somewhat mixed he believed that Andrew Johnson Lincoln's successor was a beast of a man but that he would ultimately have less influence on the government than Lincoln did Davis also hoped that Lincoln's assassination would Inspire the South to rise up and continue the fight fight hope would prove vain however on April 26th General Johnson had met with William tumer Sherman at Bennett Place North Carolina and surrendered his army when Davis learned of this he headed south into Georgia who becomes really after February or March 1865 intermittently I think delusional we'll start talking about riding across Georgia and Al abama and Mississippi and that Phantom Legions of Confederate men who had deserted or who had been sent home sick or fured ill or men who' avoided the draft because they were unionist would suddenly take heart and come out of the hills to form a new Army with him as its nucleus that's just a pipe dream May 4th Davis reached the small town of Washington Georgia there he convened a meeting of his cabinet in the courthouse he tried to convince his cabinet to cross the Mississippi with him and continue the Civil War all saying the game is over it's time to give up it's time to get you out of the country and time to surrender our forces everywhere they tried to convince him to take a ship to Havana Cuba David when Davis left Washington that same day he seemed to be following their advice it's pretty evident that in fact he's talking about using that boat to get across the Gulf of Mexico to Texas where there is still he believes a a large Confederate Army under General Kirby [Music] Smith on the morning of May 9th Davis who had met Verina 2 days earlier arrived at a clearing a mile north of irwinville Georgia tired from a long day of marching they encamped along the banks of a small stream un benounced to the Confederate president for several days he had been pursued by two regiments of Union Calvary sensing an opportunity to capture him the two regiments took up positions on opposite sides of the camp at dawn they attacked poor communication between the regiments however caused them to open fire at each other taking advantage of this confusion Davis attempted to flee the camp but a Union soldier spotted him and commanded him to stop Davis rushed toward the man in an attempt to overpower him but Verina intervened by throwing herself between the two men Davis therefore had no choice but to surrender of course been the long-standing notion that Jefferson Davis on May 10th 1865 at irwinville Georgia attempted to escape capture by wearing one of his wife's dresses this is of course nonsense it's always been nonsense and even the union cavalryman whose name I believe was Munger muu n g r who captured him they have said Davis was not wearing a dress he was wearing a coat called a Raglin r a l and named after the famous Lord Raglin who commanded the charge of the life Brigade and what better way to tarnish a man's ability to be a hero than to say that at the end he was a coward who tried to escape in a woman's dress that's a myth that really played into the the needs of the Union war department after his capture on May 10th Davis was taken to Fortress Monroe at the tip of the Virginia Peninsula he spent the next two years confined in a small cell inside the fort you can't execute Jefferson Davis Lincoln wanted Davis to escape he didn't want to have to try him because if he tried him for treason and Davis was convicted he might have to execute him which made Davis a martyr ultimately uh Jefferson Davis is charged with treason but he's never actually tried he's released on bail and nothing ever nothing ever comes of the charges after the years in prison after his release Davis and Verina spent several years traveling in Europe after his return to the United States Davis became the president of an insurance company the insurance company went bankrupt however and in order to make some money Davis published his Memoirs the rise and fall of the confederate government the book was not a success however the wealthy Widow Sarah dorsy left Davis her Plantation so so he lived out the final years of his life in relative Comfort Davis died in 1889 and was buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond Virginia [Music] h say you do what I don't

Channel: Chris Oxenford

Views: 64,563

Keywords: Thesis, Final, Cut, Jefferson Davis, Documentary, Civil War, President, Confederacy

Id: fW1lHY7P9qo

Length: 24min 45sec (1485 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 13 2013