I am so grateful to those who supported me through this lengthy journey and believed in the power of Winnie’s story. One of my Davidson College history professors, Dr. Sally McMillen, was the teacher who instilled in me a passion for women’s history. Dr. McMillen’s lectures about strong nineteenth-century southern women made a deep and lasting impression on me.
Dr. Lynda Lasswell Crist, editor of the Papers of Jefferson Davis at Rice University, has been an immensely valuable resource to me since my college days, when I first worked on Winnie for my undergraduate senior history thesis. The letters and newspaper and magazine snippets she sent me regarding Winnie and the Davis family kept me intrigued. I cannot thank her enough for her help and long-term involvement in this work.
I want to thank my good friend J.E.B. Stuart IV for his unending support and encouragement even when challenging obstacles appeared. His grace and diplomacy are things I will always admire. J.E.B. also introduced me to Bertram and Carol Hayes-Davis, both of whom could not have been more supportive of my work. They hosted me at Beauvoir multiple times, allowed me to look through their family papers, and gave me personal thoughts and insights on their family that made the story sing. Their clear vision for Beauvoir’s museum and library, and for their family legacy, has been inspirational to me.
Bertram introduced me to another friend and museum colleague, Leah Witherow at the Pioneers Museum in Colorado Springs, the town where Margaret Davis and her family lived for many years. Leah is an amazing and dedicated curator who spent hours with me going through Hayes-Davis family scrapbooks until we found photographic evidence that Winnie had indeed visited her sister in Colorado in 1894.
Through Leah and Bertram I also was able to meet and talk to other descendants and relatives of the Davis family: energetic and enthusiastic Kathleen Fox-Collins, who drove me all over Colorado Springs and took me to the best used bookstore in town; and the lovely Marka Moser, who spent some time in Vail talking with me about the dynamics of her famous family. The insights that all these family members so graciously shared with me informed Winnie’s story—which is also the story of the Davis family—in a rich and meaningful way.
A million thanks to my friends at Biographers International Organization (BIO): David Smith, “Librarian to the Stars,” who in the blink of an eye found me all kinds of archival materials and sources in the northeastern United States and Midwest. Particular thanks go to David for locating Mary Craig Sinclair’s unpublished “biography” of Winnie at the Lilly Library in Indiana. Thanks also to BIO president and founder Jamie Morris, author of Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power, who helped me find sources on Winnie’s relationship with Joseph and Kate Pulitzer. And tremendous thanks to Marmee and Louisa author Eve LaPlante, who shared a family memoir with information about her relative and Winnie’s fiancé, Alfred Wilkinson—known in Eve’s family as “Uncle Fred.” This information was a rare find and helped me flesh out Fred’s side of the story.
Thanks also to Guy Gugliotta, author of the excellent book Freedom’s Cap: The United States Capitol and the Coming of the Civil War, for his insightful comments and help regarding Jefferson Davis, his first marriage, and Jefferson’s relationship with his father-in-law Zachary Taylor.
Many thanks to John Coski, Teresa Roane, and Drury Wellford at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia, for their support, opinions, and excellent help with archival sources and photographs. Great thanks also go out to Erin Barnett and Claartje Van Dijk at the International Center of Photography in New York, who were both so gracious and helpful and met with me on short notice to discuss their 2012 exhibit on Jefferson Davis.
Thanks also to my friends at the United Daughters of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia: Lucy Steele and librarian Betty Luck, who helped me immensely with my research in the UDC files; and UDC president Jaime Likins for her support and interest in the Winnie project.
Thanks to my dear friend Diane Kiesel, also a Potomac author whose humor, advice, and support kept me from jumping off a cliff countless times during the writing process! Similar thanks go to Kay Smith, also a dear friend and an Iowa author, for reading various drafts of the Winnie chapters and offering excellent feedback. Also to authors Elizabeth Smartt, Ellen Brown, Jennifer Lyne, Kathleen Reid, Jane Hodges, and Betsy Connor Bowen whose help and advice set me on the right path. I cannot thank Richmond genealogist and my good friend Macon Will-ingham enough for her long-term help finding research bits for me from my original thesis that had fallen through the cracks as well for as helping me find new juicy tidbits on Winnie.
Thanks to my husband, Chris Lee, for his “tech support” and also his beautiful and haunting photographs of Winnie’s grave and the White House of the Confederacy.
Thanks also to Dr. Michelle Krowl at the Library of Congress; Dr. Paul Levengood, Graham Dozier, and Nelson Lankford at the Virginia Historical Society; Sarah Kozma at the Onondaga Historical Association in Syracuse, New York; Colleen Thornton at the Town Clerk’s Office in Narragansett, Rhode Island; Henry Arneth at Trinity College’s Watkinson Library; Margaret Hrabe at the University of Virginia’s Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library; and Xaris Martinez, doctoral student at the University of North Carolina. Thanks also to John Putnam for his research on the Davis family tree and to Deena Coutant for designing a readable and usable genealogical chart for my book. And thank you to Des Moines Art Center Curator Laura Burkhalter for her wonderful art lectures within our docent program. Her talks inspired me to examine images of women in nineteenth-century art more closely.
Immense thanks go to the University of Nebraska Press and Potomac Books team for efficiently shepherding me through the publication process with grace, enthusiasm, and humor. Bridget Barry did an elegant job of editing down the manuscript to a reasonable length and encouraging me to take out repetitive quotes and let my own voice come through. Thanks to her wonderful assistant Sabrina Sergeant who answered every question I had promptly and with good humor. Thanks to Kyle Simon-sen and the art and design team for creating the most gorgeous cover for Winnie imaginable! Senior designer Annie Shahan’s aesthetics were so reflective of my vision of what the cover and overall design should be. Thanks to my wonderful PR team: Jen Richards of OTRPR and Rosemary Vestal at UNP for being creative and thinking outside the box about Winnie. And thanks also to Elizabeth Gratch for her meticulous and thoughtful copyediting.
Finally, I dedicate this book to my mother, Anne Hardage, my maternal grandmother, Anne Purnell Heath, and my sister, Morgan Hardage Engel. They supported, cajoled, pushed, and cheered me on as I worked through the research, writing, travel, and the ups and downs of authorship. My mother in particular never let me forget that I could and should write this book. It is wonderful to finally reach the finish line!
Notes
FOREWORD
1. Letter from Varina Howell Davis, to Margaret Kempe Howell, May 22, 1864, Jefferson Davis Family Papers, Eleanor S. Brockenbrough Archives.
2. Thomason, Jeb Stuart, 133.
INTRODUCTION
Epigraph: “True to the Gray,” quoted in Foster, Ghosts of the Confederacy, 30.
1. All the Executive Mansion descriptions come from Coski, White House of the Confederacy, 5, 9.
2. Coski, White House of the Confederacy, 5.
3. Coski, White House of the Confederacy, 9.
4. White House of the Confederacy tour, Richmond, April 2011.
5. Leveen, Secrets of Mary Bowser, reading group guide.
6. Johnson, Pursuit, 58.
7. Couling, Lee Girls, 116.
8. Edward M. Alfriend, “Social Life in Richmond during the War,” Cosmopolitan (December 1891): 229–33 (available at www.mdgorman.com).
9. Alfriend, “Social Life in Richmond,” 381.
10. Hendrick, Statement of the Lost Cause,” 35.
11. Harrison, Refugitta of Richmond, 49.
12. Berkin, Civil War Wives, 161.
13. Chesnut, Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, 85, 12
7.
14. Chesnut, Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, 595.
15. Coski, White House of the Confederacy, 16.
16. New York Times, October 11, 1866.
17. “Jefferson Davis, Jr.,” Papers of Jefferson Davis online, Rice University, http://jeffersondavis.rice.edu/JeffersonDavisJr.aspx.
18. New York Times, October 11, 1866.
19. New York Times, October 11, 1866.
20. White House of the Confederacy tour, Richmond, April 2011.
21. “Joseph Evan Davis,” Papers of Jefferson Davis online, Rice University, http://jeffersondavis.rice.edu/JosephEvanDavis.aspx.
22. Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy, 145–46.
1. A TRAGIC FALL
1. Couling, Lee Girls, 116.
2. Jones, Rebel War Clerk’s Diary, 194–96.
3. Johnson, Pursuit, 53.
4. “Joseph Evan Davis,” Papers of Jefferson Davis online, Rice University, http://jeffersondavis.rice.edu/JosephEvanDavis.aspx.
5. Richmond Sentinel, May 31, 1864, courtesy of Papers of Jefferson Davis, Rice University.
6. Richmond Daily Dispatch, May 2, 1864.
7. Richmond Sentinel, May 31, 1864.
8. Richmond Sentinel, May 31, 1864.
9. V. H. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 2:497.
10. Chesnut, Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, 601.
11. Chesnut, Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, 601.
12. Johnson, Pursuit, 57.
13. Harrison, Refugitta of Richmond, 123.
14. Strode, Jefferson Davis, 137.
15. Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy, 68.
16. Berkin, Civil War Wives, 145–46.
17. Chesnut, Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, 602.
18. Chesnut, Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, 609.
19. Chesnut, Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, 609.
2. MY NAME IS A HERITAGE OF WOE
1. Walter S. Griggs Jr., “James Ewell Brown Stuart: The General Who Sacrificed His Life to Save Richmond,” Richmond Guide (Summer 2004).
2. Harrison, Refugitta of Richmond, 119.
3. Davis, Jeb Stuart, 409.
4. Thomason, Jeb Stuart, 500.
5. Jones, Rebel War Clerk’s Diary, 206.
6. Jones, Rebel War Clerk’s Diary, 206.
7. Thomason, Jeb Stuart, 501.
8. Davis, 412–13; Smith, Life after J.E.B. Stuart, 24–25.
9. Davis, 414.
10. Letter from Varina Howell Davis letter to Margaret Louisa Kempe, May 22, 1864, Jefferson Davis Family Papers, Eleanor Brockenbrough Archives.
11. Davis,.
12. Coski, White House Pictorial Tour, 31.
13. Rowland, Varina Howell, 367.
14. Rowland, Varina Howell, 506.
15. Letter from Varina Anne Davis to R. L. Hanes, April 22, 1895, Jefferson Davis Association, Rice University.
16. Chesnut, Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, 786.
17. Chesnut, Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, 663.
18. Catherine Lavender, “The Cult of Domesticity and True Womanhood,” history class website, CUNY www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/386/truewoman.html.
19. Crist et al., Papers of Jefferson Davis, 12:25.
20. Crist et al., Papers of Jefferson Davis, 12:197.
21. Swanson, Bloody Crimes, 3.
22. Swanson, Bloody Crimes, 5.
23. Jones, Rebel War Clerk’s Diary, 465.
24. Lee, Wartime Papers of Robert E. Lee, 924.
25. Johnson, Pursuit, 43.
26. V. H. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 2:577.
27. V. H. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 2:577; Swanson, Bloody Crimes, 12.
28. Johnson, Pursuit, 19.
29. Johnson, Pursuit, 58.
30. Swanson, Bloody Crimes, 267.
31. Crist et al., intro. to Papers of Jefferson Davis, 12:vii.
3. ESCAPE, CAPTURE, AND FORT MONROE
Epigraph: Crist et al., Papers of Jefferson Davis, 12: 429–30.
1. Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy, 157.
2. “The Evacuation and Burning of Richmond, Virginia,” letter by Oscar F. Weisiger, May 29, 1865, relating to events of April 1865, Virginia Military Institute Archives, Civil War Collection, MS no. 00285.
3. Swanson, Bloody Crimes, 3.
4. Lankford, Richmond Burning, 242.
5. “The Fall of Richmond,” National Tribune, October 4, 1890, www.mdgorman.com.
6. O’Reilly and Dugard, Killing Lincoln, 41.
7. Lankford, Richmond Burning, 164.
8. Tindal, “Confederate Treasure Train,” 8.
9. Tindal, “Confederate Treasure Train.”
10. Tindal, “Confederate Treasure Train,” 10.
11. Chris James, “John Brown’s Body,” “. . . A Sour Apple Tree” blog, October 2, 2007, http://sourappletree.blogspot.com/2007/10/john-browns-body.html.
12. Swanson, Bloody Crimes, 95–100.
13. V. H. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 2:614–15.
14. Harrison, Refugitta of Richmond, 164.
15. Chesnut, Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, 800.
16. Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy, 161.
17. Johnson, Pursuit, 196.
18. Johnson, Pursuit, 202.
19. W. C. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 636; Johnson, Pursuit, 202.
20. Erin Barnett, assistant curator at the International Center of Photography (ICP), interview per email on February 28, 2013, regarding the ICP’s exhibition President in Petticoats! Civil War Propaganda in Photographs, May 18–September 2, 2012.
21. Nina Silber, The Romance of Reunion: Northerners and the South, 1835–1900 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993), 34.
22. W. C. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 645.
23. W. C. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 645.
24. Silber, “Intemperate Men,” 299.
25. Ferrell, “Daughter of the Confederacy,” 72.
26. LaCavera, Varina Anne “Winnie” Davis, 10.
27. Appleton and Boswell, Searching for Their Places, 146.
28. V. H. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 2:312.
29. Crist et al., Papers of Jefferson Davis, 12:17.
4. A FATAL ROMANCE
1. W. C. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 4–72; Strode, Jefferson Davis, 5–14; Beacroft, Jefferson Davis; Bleser, “Marriage of Varina Howell Davis and Jefferson Davis,” 5–6; Rutherford, Jefferson Davis.
2. Rutherford, Jefferson Davis, 19.
3. Quoted in Rutherford, Jefferson Davis, 19.
4. W. C. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 84.
5. Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy, 33–34; Gugliotta, Freedom’s Cap, 42.
6. W. C. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 84.
7. Davis, Cause Lost, 11.
8. Hendrick, Statesmen of the Lost Cause, 23.
9. Kelly, with Smyer, Best Little Stories, 267.; De Leon, Belles, Beaux and Brains of the 60’s, 68.
10. Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy, 18–19.
11. Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy, 11.
12. Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy, 36.
13. Kelly, with Smyer, Best Little Stories, 268.
14. Bleser, “Marriage of Varina Howell Davis and Jefferson Davis,” 7; Davis, Man and His Hour, 107.
15. Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy, 38.
16. Scott, Southern Lady, 18.
17. Davis, Cause Lost, 9.
18. Gugliotta, Freedom’s Cap, 44.
19. Gugliotta, Freedom’s Cap, 45–47.
20. Davis, Cause Lost, 10.
21. Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy, 55.
22. Tindall, “Jefferson Davis,” 9.
23. Clay-Clopton and Sterling, Belle of the Fifties, 101.
24. Tindall, “Jefferson Davis,” 10.
25. Tindall, “Jefferson Davis,” 10; Beacroft, Jefferson Davis.
26. Johnson, Pursuit, 42.
27. W. C. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 303.
28. Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy, 4.
5. SCANDAL AND SICKNESS
2. Berkin, Civil War Wives, 195.
3. Berkin, Civil War Wives, 195.
4. Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy, 171.
5. Wyatt-Brown, House of Percy, 169.
6. www.xroads.virginia.edu.
7. www.history.com/this-day-in-history/freedman’s-bureau-created.
8. www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reconstruction.
9. V. H. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 2:805.
10. V. H. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 2:809–10.
11. Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy, 172, 184–85.
12. Bleser, “Marriage of Varina Howell and Jefferson Davis,” 25.
13. Strode, Jefferson Davis, 324.
14. Strode, Jefferson Davis, 328.
15. Bleser and Heath, “Clays of Alabama,” 136.
16. Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy, 191.
17. Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy, 201.
18. Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy, 201.
19. Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy, 204.
20. Crist et al., Papers of Jefferson Davis, 12:xv.
21. Clay-Clopton and Sterling, Belle of the Fifties, 257–68; Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy, 204.
22. V. H. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 814.
23. Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy, 208.
24. Crist and Gibbs, Papers of Jefferson Davis, 13:110, 152.
25. Sarah Wollfolk Wiggins, “A Victorian Father: Josiah Gorgas and His Family,” in Bleser, In Joy and Sorrow, 233.
26. Ferrell, “Daughter of the Confederacy,” 70–71.
6. BOARDING SCHOOL BLUES AND THE DORSEY DILEMMA
Epigraph: Rev. Romulus Morris Tuttle, “Miss Winnie Davis, a Tribute,” Tuttle’s Poems (Dallas: W. M. Warlick, 1905), 4.
1. Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy, 224–25.
Winnie Davis Page 22