Jefferson Davis (with an introduction by - The Rise of the Confederate Government

J EFFERSON D AVIS

I NTRODUCTION TO THE N EW E DITION
BY B EN W YNNE

Introduction and Suggested Reading
2010 by Barnes & Noble, Inc.

This 2011 edition published by Barnes & Noble, Inc.

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ISBN: 978-1-4114-3836-1

TO

THE WOMEN OF THE CONFEDERACY

WHOSE PIOUS MINISTRATIONS TO OUR WOUNDED SOLDIERS

SOOTHED THE LAST HOURS OF THOSE

WHO DIED FAR FROM THE OBJECTS OF THEIR TENDEREST LOVE

WHOSE DOMESTIC LABORS

CONTRIBUTED MUCH TO SUPPLY THE WANTS OF OUR DEFENDERS IN THE FIELD

WHOSE ZEALOUS FAITH IN OUR CAUSE

SHONE A GUIDING STAR UNDIMMED BY THE DARKEST CLOUDS OF WAR

WHOSE FORTITUDE

SUSTAINED THEM UNDER ALL THE PRIVATIONS TO WHICH THEY WERE SUBJECTED

WHOSE ANNUAL TRIBUTE

EXPRESS THEIR ENDURING GRIEF, LOVE, AND REVERENCE

FOR OUR SACRED DEAD

AND

WHOSE PATRIOTISM

WILL TEACH THEIR CHILDREN

TO EMULATE THE DEEDS OF OUR REVOLUTIONARY SIRES

THESE PAGES ARE DEDICATED

BY THEIR COUNTRYMAN

JEFFERSON DAVIS

E DITOR ' S N OTE

T HIS 2011 B ARNES & N OBLE EDITION OF T HE R ISE OF THE C ONFEDERATE Government was originally published in 1881 as Volume I of The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government. The companion volume, The Fall of the Confederate Government (978-1-4114-3834-7) is also available.

L IST OF I LLUSTRATIONS

I NTRODUCTION TO THE N EW E DITION

I N 1877 J EFFERSON D AVIS, THE FIRST AND ONLY PRESIDENT OF THE Confederate States of America, moved into a new home on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Since his capture at the end of the Civil War twelve years earlier he had lived a transient life filled with legal troubles and financial setbacks. Hoping to finally settle down to write his memoirs, Davis accepted the offer of an old friend to come and live on the grounds of her mansion in Biloxi. The former president of the Confederacy moved into a guest cottage on the property and set to work on his version of the Confederate journey, a massive two-volume work originally published in 1881 as The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government. The first volume, reprinted here, covered the background of events leading up to secession and war, with volume two discussing the military aspects of the conflict. Davis certainly knew that he had an interesting story to tell. As the only president of the Confederacy he was a truly unique figure in American history and for years his friends had been urging him to put his thoughts on paper. He also knew that other major players in the Civil War drama, some of whom he considered friends and others enemies, were beginning to write their own remembrances. The politician in Davis knew that he should aggressively get his version of events out to the public or risk being silently subjected to the calumny of others. Davis was also desperate to rehabilitate his own image and he hoped to do so in his memoirs by vindicating the South and the principles around which he and others had formed the Confederacy. In volume one of his work Davis would defend the constitutional right of secession with the fervor of a true believer while also defending slavery and discounting it as the central catalyst of southern secession and war. In his own words, Davis sought to "show that the Southern States had rightfully the power to withdraw from the Union... and that the war waged by the Federal government against the seceding States was in disregard of the limitations of the Constitution, and destructive to the principles of the Declaration of Independence." The end results were two volumes as complicated and conflicted as the man himself. On one hand, there was probably no better authority on the rise and fall of the Confederate government than its only president. On the other, Davis' personal disposition and his unique position in history made it impossible for him to produce a balanced assessment of the subject. Though more of an apologia than a proper memoir, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government said as much about the author as it did about the Confederate experience. All of the former Confederate president's biases and personal quirks were put on display for the world to see as he desperately struggled to justify a cause that was discredited by war, and defend the foundational elements of a political entity that was barely a nation even at its height. Though not critically acclaimed or popularly accepted immediately after it was written, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government would become a bible of sorts for followers of the Lost Cause myth, and for generations of Confederate apologists who, for whatever reason, refused to accept the South's defeat.

Jefferson Finis Davis was born on June 3, 1808 in Fairview, Kentucky, the youngest of ten children. As a boy he moved with his family to Wilkinson County, Mississippi and at the age of sixteen received an appointment to the United States Military Academy. He graduated in 1828 and for the next seven years served in the United States Army where he took part in the Black Hawk War under the command of Zachary Taylor. Davis eventually married Taylor's daughter but she died of malaria less than three months after their wedding. Davis resigned his military commission and moved back to Mississippi where in 1845 he won election to the United States Congress and married again, this time to Varina Howell. With the outbreak of the Mexican War Davis again joined the army and led a regiment of Mississippi troops to great acclaim at the Battle of Buena Vista. He was wounded during the fighting and returned home a war hero. After the conflict Davis represented Mississippi in the United States Senate for four years and was appointed Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce in 1853. Davis later returned to the Senate as sectional tensions came to a head. When Mississippi left the Union he went with it and soon became president of the Confederacy.

Davis' term as Confederate president was fraught with controversy. He had difficulty delegating military authority as commander-in-chief of the Confederate armies. At times he clashed with his generals and made questionable military decisions that evoked criticism as southern casualties mounted. Politically, he had difficulty creating and maintaining the central government of a Confederacy that had the concept of state sovereignty as one of its founding principles. Prominent southern governors routinely criticized the Confederate president's administrative abilities and complained that the Confederacy's national government exercised too much authority over the states. As the Confederate government crumbled in 1865, Davis attempted to escape but was captured near Irwinville, Georgia. The Federal government indicted Davis for treason and held him for two years before dropping all charges and setting the former Confederate president free. At the time of his arrest Davis was vilified throughout the entire country. Most in the North considered Davis a traitor and there were many in the South who blamed him for the Confederacy's defeat. Ironically, a transformation of Davis' reputation began, at least among some southerners, during the two years that he was imprisoned. Federal authorities held Davis at Fort Monroe in Virginia where he was placed in a cell and temporarily made to wear leg irons. When word began to circulate in the white South that the former president of the Confederacy was languishing in a federal prison, chained like a slave, many of his former constituents began to view Davis as a martyr to the southern cause. Unfortunately, being a martyr did not generate much income for Davis and after his release he participated in a number of unsuccessful business ventures that left him perpetually strapped for funds.