Who was Jefferson Davis Really? (Jerry Skinner Documentary)

this is Jefferson Davis president of the Confederate States of America the life of Jefferson finis Davis is one of sadness and regret he had not only lost the hope of a new nation but during his lifetime he buried four of his six children Jeff Davis was born in Kentucky On June the 3rd 1808 his family moved to Woodville Mississippi when Jeff was 2 now this is Rosemont plantation where Jeff was raised as the youngest of 10 children born to Samuel and Georgia Davis when Jeff was 16 Samuel his dad died and Jeff's much older brother Joseph sorter took their dad's place Joseph had already become quite prominent and owned an 1800 acre plantation just south of Vicksburg that he called hurricane now Joseph wanted Jeff to have a military career and used his influence to get him appointed to the West Point Military Academy although Jeff wasn't interested in the military he could not disappoint his older brother four years later in 18 and 28 Jefferson Davis graduated from West Point he was assigned of Fort Crawford Wisconsin while he was assigned to Fort Crawford he met and fell in love with Sarah Knox Taylor she was the daughter of the fort commander Carl Zachary Taylor yes the same Zachary Taylor that years later would become President of the United States Carl Taylor did not approve of the romance he didn't want his daughter to be married to a military man to try to separate the two he had Davis transferred however Davis refused to leave and resigned his military commission instead in 1835 Jefferson Davis and Sarah Knox Taylor were married against the wishes of her family after their marriage Jeff convinced Sarah that it would be okay for them to travel south although summertime and the South was the malarial fever season he was wrong shortly after they arrived they both became deathly ill with the fever and on September the 15th 18 and 35 Sarah died Jeff and Sarah had only been married for three months she was 21 years old Carl Taylor blamed Davis for her death after Sarah's death Jeff became withdrawn and spent the next eight years or so clearing land that his brother Joseph had gave him he called it Briarfield and it was connected to Joseph's hurricane plantation now during this time Davis with the help of his only slave being Montgomery built Breyer fell into a prosperous plantation over the Egyptians of other plantation owners Joseph in Tift place being Montgomery overseer over both plantations hurricane and Briarfield a position that was usually held for white men only after the Civil War Briarfield was actually sold to being Montgomery the Davis's ex-slave at which was said to be at a very reasonable price now eight years after Sarah's death in 1843 Davis ran for a seat in the Mississippi House of Representatives he lost this was his first taste of politics that year at Christmastime Jeff was visiting his brother Joseph when he met marina banks how the daughter of a family friend although she was only 17 and he was 35 permission was given by her family to me marina was a granddaughter of New Jersey Governor Richard Hale but her mother's family were from Mississippi Jefferson Davis and Verina Hal were married February the 26th 18 and 45 that same time in 1845 Jefferson Davis's mother Georgia passes away after his mother's death Jeff run for and was elected to Mississippi represented at-large to the US Congress the next year in 1846 Jeff gave up his seat in Congress to enlist in the Mexican War he was given a command under his former father-in-law now general Zachary Taylor during the war Davis's regiment distinguished itself making Davis a hero he was also wounded during a battle the Battle of gwenna Vista after the battle general Taylor wrote Davis saying my daughter sir was a better judge of character than I was one year later in 1847 after resigning from the military davis was appointed to the US Senate by Mississippi Governor Brown and in 1840 man Zachary Taylor was elected president of the United States and remained president and 50 when his death occurred in 1852 the first of six children were born - Jeff and Verina Samuel Emery Davis was born July the 30th 18 and 52 that same year President Pierce appointed Jefferson Davis Secretary of War he remained Secretary of War until 18 and 56 when President Pierce went out of office as Secretary of War Davis built up the military the same military that he would later fight as president of the Confederacy he confided in his wife that the South could never win against a much stronger north but maybe the south could make it so costly for the north that they would eventually let the south secede while Davis was still Secretary of War in June of 18 and 54 their son Emery less than two years old died of an undiagnosed disease the next year On February the 25th 18 and 55 their second child Margaret Howell Davis was born she would be the only Davis child to marry and have children the next year in 1856 Jeff Davis left Secretary of War and went back to the Senate in 18 and 57 January the 16th the davis's third child was born Jefferson Davis jr. in 1858 Davis argued in the Senate against secession the next year their fourth child Joseph Evans was born on April 18th to 18 and 59 in January of 1861 Mississippi secede from the union Davis makes a speech at the Senate stating that it was a saddest day of his life he had fought secession but he felt honor bound to support Mississippi after resigning from the Senate the Davis family returned to Briarfield a month later in February of 1861 Jefferson Davis was elected temporary president of the Confederacy at the State Capitol in Montgomery an elected permanent president of a six-year term and November of that year the year 1861 was a busy time for the Davis's deaf have been elected president and the Confederate capital in Montgomery was moved from Alabama to Richmond Virginia Verena was 35 years old when she became the first lady of the Confederacy Jeff Davis was 52 she was also pregnant with her fifth child William Howell Davis born 6 December 1861 as president of the Confederacy Davis's first act sent a peace delegation to Washington hoping to prevent war and President Lincoln trying to hold the Union together refused to receive the delegation a few months later at Fort Sumner war began on April the 30th 1864 tragedy struck the Confederate mansion in Richmond when the davis's forced child five-year-old Joseph Evans Davies while climbing over a banister at the executive mansion and fall in on the brick floor below and dying in a few minutes later in his mother's arms two months after Joseph's death the Davis's six child Winnie was born on June the 27th during this time mrs. Davis had the occasion to witness a young black boy by the name of Jim limber being beaten up by a grown black man the davises took Jim and unofficially adopted him even giving him their name Jim was with the davises when they were cramped shirt after the war Jim was taken from the Davis's crime by Union soldiers they never saw him again in March of 1865 the war was going bad for the south Jefferson Davis ask marina to take the children and leave Richmond for their protection she heads to Charlotte North Carolina and rents a house and waits for word from her husband by April attempt Davis learns of Lee's surrender Davis heads south leaving Richmond to the advancing Union Army he was hoping to meet up with General Joseph II Johnson when he did Johnson recommended that Davis give up Davis keeps hidden south and two days later learns that general Johnson and also surrendered his only hope then was to make it to general Kirby Smith in Texas and continue the struggle from there on May the 8th Davis reunited with Verena and the children and two days later on May the 10th that Davis's party was captured by Union soldiers he was quickly charged with treason and taken back to Virginia and imprisoned at Fortress Monroe for the next two years Verena wrote everyone she could asking for help for her husband she was held under guard herself at a Savannah hotel she sent her children to Canada with their grandmother so that they'd be protected from death threats Abraham Lincoln had just been assassinated one month earlier on the 14th of April and the Union was calling for the head of Jefferson Davis Davis spent two years in prison waiting trial he actually believed that he could show the court that under the Constitution states had the right to secede now this created a dilemma for the government the government began to look for other charges such as war crimes even on one occasion offering confederate Colonels work life the night before his schedule hanging if he would state that President Davis ordered mistreatment of prisoners at Andersonville were refused stating it would be alive he was hanged the next morning after two years in prison in 1867 Jefferson Davis was released under a $100,000 bond that was put up by wealthy friends in the north Davis was in poor health from his prison stay and virtually broke for the next few years he would depend on family and friends for support after much traveling visiting ex-confederates at home and abroad he eventually settled on a job as president of an insurance company in Memphis Tennessee while living on Court Street in Memphis tragedy stroke again on the 16th of October 1872 the Davis's fifth child William Howell Davis died of diphtheria he was 10 years old sometime around 18 and 75 a very wealthy widow by the name of Sarah and Ellis Dorsey learned of Jefferson Davis's plight she had been the childhood friend of mrs. Davis and her and her late husband were stunts supporters of the Confederacy she offered Davis the use of a cottage at Bowie bar one of her homes located on the Gulf Coast in Biloxi you can see that the construction is still going on from the damage here from Hurricane Katrina now the peaceful atmosphere and beautiful view of the Gulf the perfect place for Davis to write the rise and fall of the Confederate government in 1876 daughter Margaret Mary's Joel Hayes and Memphis she will raise the only grandchildren the Davis's will have two years after Margaret's marriage to joel Hayes her brother Jeffrey Davis jr. the third child of Jeff and Verina working in a bank for his brother-in-law in Memphis was suddenly stroking with yellow fever during the Memphis yellow fever epidemic Jeff jr. dies October the 16th 18 and 78 he was 21 years old after Jefferson Davis juniors day at that same year the widow Sarah Ellis Dorsey dies in her will she had bequeathed boy bard to Davis by this time the Davis's had only two living children Margaret who was still living in Memphis and would bring the grandchildren to Biloxi to visit their grandparents and Winnie who live with her parents at Boulevard it is said that Jefferson Davis never turned away a Confederate veteran he felt that their sacrifice was more for him than it was for the Confederacy during these years Davis and his daughter Winnie would attend Confederate reunions across the country and weenie was considered a daughter of the Confederacy and much beloved in the south and in 1887 while staying with a family friend up north she formed a relationship with a New York attorney by the name of Fred Wilkinson in 1889 she announced their engagement no one expected such an outcry from ex-confederates and southerners over winning wanting to marry a Yankee it was decided that Jeff Davis himself was the only one that could come the outcry Davis supported the marriage but before he could speak to the public he became very sick while visiting friends and yours with acute bronchitis Jefferson Davis died around 1:00 a.m. on the 6th December 1889 his funeral was one of the largest ever held in New Orleans his final resting place is the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond Virginia Jefferson Davis Confederate President was 81 years old the next year in 1890 when his engagement to Fred Wilkinson ended under much public pressure she never married and neither did he in 1891 Winnie and marina moved to New York City in order to make money to live on marina wrote newspaper articles for New York newspaper and when he wrote magazines and books and continued her close relationship with Confederate organizations in 1898 when he was attending a Confederate reunion in Atlanta Georgia when she was drenched in a sudden rainstorm unable to change her wet clothes for several hours on a long train trip to meet her mother back in Rhode Island by the time she arrived at the Rockingham Hotel she was running a severe fever although the hotel was closing for the season they allowed weenie and her mother to stay she was too sick to be moved on September the 18th 1898 Winnie Davis daughter of the Confederacy died from mallero gastritis thousands attended her funeral and she was buried in the family plot at the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond when he Davis was 34 years old four years after win his death her mother sold Bulevar to a Mississippi Confederate organization with a stipulation that it would be used as a Confederate Veterans Home for ex-confederates also after the last Confederate died it was to be turned into a monument for the Confederate President Jefferson Davis now this is the back side of the Davis home and not far from the back is the Confederate cemetery and in the Confederate cemetery is also the Tomb of the Unknown Confederate soldier in the 1940s Jefferson Davis is dead Samuel Davis was moved from the hurricane plantation where he was buried to the Confederate cemetery at Boulevard four years later on the 16th of October 1906 Verena first lady of the Confederacy passed away from new motor her only living child Margaret was by her side Farina was honored with a military escort and she's buried next to her husband and fame at Richmond marina was 80 years old three years later after her mother's death Margaret passed away 18 July 1909 a few years earlier Margaret and her family had moved from Memphis to Colorado Springs Colorado but Margaret was also buried in the Davis plot in Richmond Margaret Davis was 54 years old her descendants are still living in Colorado Springs in nineteen and seventy eight on a 17th of October President Jimmy Carter a southern president from Georgia posthumously restored u.s. citizenship to Jefferson Davis you

Channel: Jerry Skinner

Views: 642,733

Keywords: Jefferson Davis (U.S. Congressperson), Civil War (Literature Subject), Confederate States Army (Armed Force)

Id: gHPaAnKK6Kw

Length: 24min 12sec (1452 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 16 2015