Author discusses the life of any davis. The daughter of confederate president Jefferson Davis. Up. Describes growing her postwar rise to popularity. Her writing career. Museum of the confederacy hosted this event. Good afternoon. Thank you for coming. I am so pleased to be here. Today is june 28. The date after winnie daviss birthday. I am so thrilled to be here. After her birthday, to tell you her story. Before i began, i would like to thank the staff here at the museum of the confederacy. All of the staff here. And at the american war center. For all their help and support of this program. I especially want to thank my two friends penelope and sam for the wonderful work on publicity. My eternal gratitude and thanks go to the staff historian at museum of the confederacy. This book would not have been possible without the expertise and assistance. Since we are here on site, i want to set the scene at the white house of the confederacy next door. I want to make sure that you know the setting before we get started. Can everyone hear me . Is that good . Ok. Im going to read from my book. This is from the introduction. The girls who love the boys and gray, they cannot in wedlock give your hands to those who wore the blue. This is a fragment from a southern poem it is from the late 1860s to 1870s. It was april, 1864, in virginia, the northern and southern were locked in a battle. Thousands were being slaughtered every day. Richmond was being surrounded by rivers of blood. Depressed and downtrodden, confederate troops prayed for deliverance from 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, the odds, and when the war. A workaholic who could not separate his own life from his obligations, jefferson uses signing them as a conference room. George washington watched over the president of the confederacy and his generals, robert e lee, while they planned strategy and held the council. The confederate first lady was heavily pregnant with their sixth child. She noticed his angular sharp features becoming more prominent by the day. The stress and begun to take a severe toll on the confederacys anxious president. He had recently begun to look older than his 56 years. She watched over there for young children, margaret, Jefferson Davis junior, william, and the youngest, joseph. Although she could hear gunfire in the distance, she fervently wished that she could give our children safe at the executive mansion. It had been her one oasis of peace as they moved into the residence in august 1861. The mansion was a stately and gracious home, originally built in 1818 for john, an aristocratic virginian who was president of the bank of virginia. Lewis crenshaw, a wealthy flour merchant, and second own of the house, had just added a third floor to the mansion and redecorated it. He sold the house of the city of richmond for 43,000 so that it might serve as the executive mansion for the confederate president. The city then rented the house to jefferson and his family. He outfitted the house with luxury items such as lighting and a water closet. One newspaper declared that the confederate first family was getting a residence with all the modern conveniences. He also boasted the latest fabrics and carpets from england to show off the previous owners fine taste and sophistication. The grand front entrance all had marble wallpaper and custommade floors. Two imposing plaster statues, representing two greek figures, flanked both sides of the entry hall. By all reports, the davis family enjoyed living in the executive mansion. They spent much of their time in a small library. It was the warmest room in the house. Another popular Gathering Spot was the drawing room. It featured an italian marble fireplace with two beautiful women on either side. The daviss two little boys often kissed these women good night. Richmonders called the striking home the gray house. I just wanted to give you that picture. Many of you may have been on the to her. It is fabulous. This gives you a visual of the place where winnie davis was born in 1864. I will take this out. We will go through a presentation with some wonderful photographs. These are from collections at the museum of the confederacy the historical association, and icp. The first thing i want to talk about is the cover of the book. If any of you have seen, here is the book, the cover itself is in 1897 portrait by john the walker. John p walker. She looks great. Good job. John p walker did an excellent job. She was very beautiful. This is somewhat of an idealized portrait. There is a lot of confederate symbolism. I bet some of you could even figure some of it out, but i will give you a roadmap. The first thing is that winnie davis becomes known as the daughter of the confederacy. She is the symbol of the lost cause and all that that symbolized. She has a white dress. She is a Vestal Virgin of the confederacy. It almost looks like a wedding dress. She is married to the confederacy. She has a red confederate badge. It shows that she is one of the confederates. In this corner here, you have the broken staff, meeting the confederacy is broken but not completely torn apart. You also have the forgetmenots. Dont forget the confederacy. Victorians love their symbolism. This is rife with all kinds of symbolic pieces. It is a propaganda piece in and of itself. That is what i chose for the cover. I had seen this portrait and others growing up. I always wondered about this woman, not only because of what she was wearing, but because of her expression. She is so melancholy. She is so sad. Not just in this portrait, but in so many others. I figure there must the a story. Indeed, when i did some more digging in college and my museum work, i found there was a huge story and that nobody had ever really written about her in full. This is actually her first mainstream full biography. To understand winnie davis and her place in the family, we must go back to the beginning. The marriage between Jefferson Davis and marina davis. I want to tell you about Jefferson Daviss first marriage. He was married to, does anyone know . You get a gold star if you do. Yes . Close, not polk. It was the president s daughter. A later president s daughter. Thank you. Excellent. I wish i could throw candy. Good job. It was zachary taylors daughter. She was sera knocks taylor. She was pretty and feisty. They exchange wonderful love letters, only a few survived. She and Jefferson Davis he opposed the marriage. The father did not come to the marriage. They would become good friends later. At this point, it was not working out. It was because he did not want to have his daughter have a military life. It was a very hard life. Jefferson davis married her. They were married for three months. She died in his arms of malaria. Very sad. He also had malaria and a most died. He became a hermit. In my research, i think this is one of the things that devastated him more than anything else up to this point. He would have later tragedies, many of them. This sort of formed a shell around his heart. Eight years later, we fastforward, his brother joseph says it is time for you to get out. He match makes in mississippi with another family that he knows well. I believe he was in the womans wedding. Jefferson likes her and decides it is time to have children. They get married. I look out love how demure she looks. She does not stay this way long. Even before the wedding, they start having issues and fighting. They get married. They stay married. There he they have a long marriage filled with different battles for dominance and control. Jefferson davis is a 19th century hunter aristocrat. He expects his wife to subscribe to the virtues of the true woman. She is not that way. She is a modern woman. Feisty, opinionated, educated for her time. She would fit in with us now. In the 19th century, this was not looked upon as an asset. Everson jefferson is always trying to control her they have a long time without children. The children start to arrive. Children start arriving. They send spend the 1850s nbc. In dc. This was when zachary taylors kinship comes in handy. He has been through some military campaigns with taylor. He has risen in his esteem. He becomes secretary of war under franklin pierce. He helped found the smithsonian. He helps with the transcontinental railroad. These are all the things and Jefferson Davis does. Most of us do not know about it. Most of us think of as it of him as the president of the confederacy. He did more than that. He was a rising star in washington, d. C. They were one of the most popular and powerful couples in the capital. When the war comes, we have gone to the 1850s, we are getting to the end of the decade. Lincolns inauguration comes in 1861. All the southern senators have all left the capital by january. Davis is asked that he will be president of the confederacy. He unwillingly accepts this post. We will talk a little bit more about his time in richmond. I did want to come back to smith that many of us have. This is a popular image that many have in the u. S. At the end of the war, when davis is fleeing from the federal troops, he is captured. How many of you have heard this . It looks like a lot of the of you have heard this. This is actually northern political propaganda. It starts with jefferson and before. It just goes on. It is totally a false story. It is such a great image. I can see why it caught on. Jefferson davis and his wife were on separate tracts. She fled richmond before davis left. She and the children went one route, and he went another. They went separates of they would not be captured. They made the mistake of meeting up in georgia. She has a prophetic dream the night before that they will be captured. She is correct. She often has these dreams about things. She is almost always right. They are captured. What really happened was that she threw a cloak over Jefferson Davis this is a unisex garment that was invented in the crimean war. It is unisex. That morphed into petticoats and hoop skirts and all kinds of crazy the whole getup. It is funny to look at it now. I love different historians i think this is william c davis. He said, Jefferson Davis would rather have died than dress like a woman and fled as a woman. That i can guarantee. This is not in his nature. He he got very upset with her. She got between him and her federal troops to save his life. He thought it was embarrassing. He did not appreciate her in so many ways. He did not appreciate that. That further this myth that his wife wore the pants in the family. That she was in control. That was not good for the marriage. It was definitely not good for publicity. The reason i bring this up is that it is related to winnie davis. There is a need to reinforce that he was verile and masculine. Her job is assigned is to prove that davis is not a coward. He is a man. This is why i show you this image. To talk to you about how she relates to this. We will go back to children and the davis family. I read you a little bit in the next for my book. At this point, we will go to right before the petticoat. This is the spring and april. It is beautiful outside. It is a gorgeous day. They are together at the customs house. She has left the children with the irish nanny. She has left to take lunch to her husband. He never eats. She worries about him all the time. At this point, we have maggie, the older daughter, billie, jeff junior. They all are all here at the house. Then we have little joe. The davis is also had a son, samuel, who died of measles. This particular day, i will show you a picture of that, jeff junior is out on the balcony. He is walking on top of the balcony. At this point, it is up here. At some point, we are not sure when, the balcony was moved, and the brick pavement has been built up. There is a subbasement now that goes down below, maybe about five or six feet. When jeff junior is walking along the balcony, he is walking, balancing up here. Girls do this too, not to be gender stereotyping. Jeff junior is walking along the rail here. They come out the window. And five year old joe follows his brother in balancing on that, then he falls, not just down to where the balcony is now. He fell to the subbasement. He fell 20 feet or 25 feet. She disappears from the narrative. They are told by a young man that they need to go back right away. They are with joe for about 45 minutes. There is a great quote about them being with them and it is like the wick of a candle going out. He dies. This is who they were going to depend on in their old age. They put a lot on this child. They have lost two sons. She is about to give birth to winnie davis. They have a huge funeral. All the children of the neighborhood come and throw white flowers. It is pretty devastating to read about. That sets up things for winnie davis. She enters is emotional. You can see already i love this most of these are from the museum of the confederacy archive. You can see the bonding here. This is an unusual portrait. Usually they are very stiff, posed. They are touching each other. She adored her children. They were both very affectionate parents they spoil those children rotten. She calls the davis nursery a special name. They are blowing things up. They have a cannon that fires. They were doing what boys do. The davises adored them. But winnie davis has this tight bondage she is a replacement child are these two dead sons. I would like to show you that. We might say codependent today. This is what happens later. I will talk about that. Then we have winnie davis as a little girl. I love this picture. It reminds me of these awful beauty pageants that we have today. She is dressed up like a prized pony. That is sort of what she was as a child. Winnie davis was so bright, smart, precocious. She would recite shakespeare when she was seven years old. She would memorize long poems. She is basically treated like royalty, like a queen. She is made to perform. I think her mother is somewhat of a stage mother. This is the dynamic you were seen throughout her life. This is her being a actress for her parents friends for your later, when she becomes a writer, her mother tries to stage manage some of that career as well. Fun to just see the picture, i think. This is teenaged winnie davis. I look at her and her expression. I remember being a teenager too. I love this image. She has a sullen look on her face. She has a good reason though. Not just because shes a teenager, but also because in the picture she had just returned from five years in a convent in germany. I think we all might be a little upset if we were sent away for five years. This was customary for a lot of upper class at the time. They would send their daughters to be educated. More often it would be france. Maggie, the older daughter, spent some time at a convent in paris. Jefferson davis, was kind of a prude, and said there were too many amorous toys in paris. He did not think it was appropriate. They pulled maggie out. Winnie davis goes to a german boarding school. This was somewhere that had been recommended by the wifes relations. Winnie davis had a little friend that went with her. She did have a companion. They were sent away very young. She was 17 when she came back. She was just on the verge of being 13 when she left. She did not see her father for five years. That sounds harsh, but at the time, this happened quite often. Her mother did often stay nearby. She did see her mother. Winnie davis would later write about the harsh conditions that she would wake up and there would be a pitcher of water frozen with ice that you would have to stab to get it to shatter. It was freezing cold. They did not feed them enough. She also did gain a lot from this experience. She became known as one of the most educated women of our time. She spoke fluent german, fluent french, beautiful painter, beautiful artists, musician. She did not know anything about American History. This is deliberate. Her parents did not want her to have to suffer the consequences of the fallout from Jefferson Daviss time as the president of the confederacy, his imprisonment. She was the only child allowed to go see him at fort monroe. She did not remember this. They wanted to remove her. They thought they would be doing her a favor, but as it turned out, she did not know her American History. The other reason they sent her also, i like the picture winnie davis started out independent and stubborn. They did not like that very Jefferson Davis did not like any women in his family to be anything but submissive. His wife, while she herself was not submissive, i think shes all the problem that it caused. A jointly decided to crush this stubbornness and spirit out of winnie davis. It is sad today, but based on that, they thought she would never find a husband. That was the goal for the women at the time. They were worried about that. They just thought she should be more deferential to them. That was the other reason they sent her to boarding school. That is the reason that i did not know about until i started researching. I thought that winnie davis was always submissive. They crushed that out of her. She comes home from germany at 17. She spends a couple of years at school. It was a house that was given to Jefferson Davis. Some of you may or may not have heard this tale. It was from a supporter of Jefferson Davis. When he wanted to write his memoirs, she gave him a cottage. His wife was in england at the time and found about this in the newspaper. She was not pleased with this arrangement. It looked very suspicious. It did not look correct. It did not look correct. It looked very strange. Eventually, she comes home. Ends upn davis i paying in full. This gives people further cause for gossip. It is kind of convenient because sara dorsey dies up breast cancer. They have a home to live in. It is not a nice way of happening, but it kind of worked out. They kind of finally have a place to be at peace. Winnie becomes a secretary and they stroll the beach together. It does not do that well at the press. Solely over time it starts to restore his reputation and he becomes a martyr of the lost cause. It has worked slowly but people start to see him in this light as they hear more about fort monroe and the terrible conditions he faced and what he gave up for his family and country or for the south. His reputation is being rehabilitated. There are a bunch of monuments all across the south. The money is raised by the united daughters of the confederacy. He and winnie go on a train trip to dedicate all of these monuments. On this trip, there is a fateful day it is always in april. In april, near west point am a georgia in 1886, Jefferson Davis is feeling ill. It is dusty and hot. He does not feel like performing today. General john gordon is a Southern Confederate hero. He is also very a politician, a very good one. A showman. He sees winnie and yanks are out of the train. She is very shy and submissive due to her forced education in germany. He hoists her up on the back of the train and he says, i give to you the daughter of the confederacy. This is when it all starts to happen. This is when she becomes the it girl of the confederacy enter images all over the place. In the 19th century, it is not like mad men in the 1960s where they pay you something for your image. They just appropriate it and steal it from you. She is on liver pills, candy, ice cream, all over the place because she is young and beautiful and fresh to the veterans and also to the women of the confederacy. The ladies memorial association. She gives an aristocratic tinge to their organization and represents a future, what we can do Going Forward with these young people to memorialize the image of the south, whether it is true or not. To keep that image going. You can see how lovely she is. She is kind of an ideal spokesperson because she is just an image. In 1886, all is well. She excepts this role. Things never go smoothly. There is some obstacle or twist that comes up. The twist here could not be more ironic or interesting. I mentioned that in the 1850s, they were in d. C. And popular. They had friends north and south. They keep up with their northern friends and they go visit. Not often, but they spend time in new york. Karina particularly keeps up with them. In the south, they are suspicious of her because she is very smart and she has all these northern ties. They never accept her as the first lady of the confederacy. She is very torn about it. They go to a party, just like in romeo and juliet. They show up at a friends house in syracuse, new york. He is six foot tall. He went to harvard with teddy roosevelt, same class. All of the girls think he is just rainy. He has not really been interested in anyone. They dismissed him. He is 28 years old, so old. Of course he will not get married because that is very old at the time. They have written him off. He has just not met the right person. He sees winnie and they are instantly smitten. It is love at first site on both sides. Theyre both smart and articulate. He is a patent lawyer and has a business that will continue to thrive. He has one strike, which is that he is a northerner. You can see that in the south, it has been about 20 years since the war. People are still resentful. At this point, people have known southern girls who have married northern boys and vice versa. Things are starting to mix up. That is not the only skeleton in freds closet. They are the romeo of the north and the juliet of the south. And then these things start coming about his family. Freds father, who was a banker in town the family is very aristocratic, upperclass. His father is a raging alcoholic. He hasnt dazzled tons of money from the bank there. We start hearing some rumors about the wilkinson scandal. It is like the perfect gilded age scandal. Money and drinking and he is stealing the family silver to pay for his whiskey. Poor fred and his sisters, they feel they have to restore the family fortune and reputation. Fred is very responsible. He was never implicated in this. He was too young. He bills of his practice and does very well. Winnie is beginning her writing career. Her parents have published a book that she did. She is very literary. They look like a great match but the alcoholism comes out. That is the second strike and this is the third strike. Winnie and fred, when the court in syracuse, they do a lot of courting at the home of freds abolitionist grandfather. Samuel may is part of the alcott family. He is up there with all of the famous abolitionists. He is one of the big names. It is amazing how long they take to realize who this truly is. When they appear at samuel mays house, the porch below was a stop for the underground railroad. Eventually, people find out about this and they are really unhappy with this. The north is more excepting and there is a Movement Towards reconciliation. It is too soon for many in the south. Confederate veterans start flipping out when the engagement is announced and they threatened to shoot fred through the heart. Many lovely descriptions. They threatened to kill him and then they say, respectfully yours [laughter] from the robert e lee regiment. I will not in it on that regiment. I have to see who it was. The letters are threatening to kill him. Just a little detail. They are still courting. They are still together. They go on three improbable trips to italy in 1890. They are engaged but they are not married and they go on a trip because winnie is having nervous not quite a breakdown, but nervous feelings about marrying fred. She is getting frail. She is not eating. She is doing all the victorian 19thcentury heroine things when they are distressed. Her parents sent her on a cure to europe. I keep hoping i will go on the cure. Winnie did get to go and her father, Jefferson Davis was very ill at the time and they did not tell her. They covered it up. This is the winter into 1890. Jefferson davis is very ill and he dies while she is abroad in italy. Jessica and varina really pushes them to go. Even though all these things are coming out about him in new york and varinas friends are looking into him, doing the background check. For inexplicable reason, varina decides to push this. She is like, you have to push this and get this done. Fred goes to italy. There are diary entries this surfaced at auction just a couple of years ago from the davis family members, i believe. It was auctioned off and the museum bought it. It is winnies entries about the trip with fred. I got a memoir from freds family. These are exciting for any writer or historian. They explain Different Things but it is inexplicable to me that the daughter of the confederacy and Everson Davis would be allowed to go on chaperoned to italy with her fiance. Many times they were alone. Joseph and kate were the worst chaperones ever. [laughter] really and truly, i wish they could have been my chaperones. I am so old. We still had chaperones when i was in college and high school. Joseph is the owner, Joseph Pulitzer, who i did not make clear before, he is owner of the world newspaper and several others. He is a veteran of yellow journalism. Kate, his wife, is a distant avis cousin. She and her husband become good friends with the davis family. They become winnies fairy godparents. Winnie becomes godmother to one of their children. Joseph pulitzer is a hypochondriac but he is truly going blind, which is a great requirement in any good chaperoned. He cannot see. He does not know what is going on. Kate will embark upon an affair with a colleague of his at the newspaper. Kate is a big socialite. She loves her parties and feathers and diamonds. No one is paying any attention. I leave it to readers in the book to see what you think about that trip. I think they had a lot of freedom to do what they want to do, because of these fabulous chaperones they had. Sadly, the engagement finally does break up, despite the pulitzers support. They are urging winnie and fred to get married. In the north, everyone is excited about this idea of getting married. It does not work out. Fred is broken hearted. He is turned away not by winnie, but by varina. Varina breaks up with him for winnie. Winnie stays in her room. Fred goes to have a last interview with varina and she accuses him of lying to her, not being transparent about his finances. I think a main thing with varina is the finances. He is very successful and makes auntie of money. This is not really true. There are some other reasons why she thinks his finances are shaky. That turns out not to be true. I think the real reason is back to this slide. I will go back for one second. You will see what i mean. I think this is it. I think they are not winnie quite so much as varina, but to get you up on the other children, billy has died of diphtheria. Just junior has died of yellow fever. All four of her boys are dead. Maggies oldest daughter has made a good match to another southern man, addison hayes. They have moved out to colorado springs. Supposedly for his asthma, and it was partially for that, but i have interviewed maggies descendents and their quote was striking. She had seen so much, she needed to get away. He said for years and years, all the colorado family, which is where the descendents were, they wanted nothing to do with themselves. There is no work, there is no economy. It had such memories for them. Bitter memories that they could not overcome. I think that is why Maggie Maggie is far away. Varina and winnie move to new york together. Winnie and fred break up and go back to what happens next, which i think is the most fascinating part of winnies life after that period there is new york. I should tell you about new orleans. First, we get a consolation prize. Winnie, for bricking up with fred, the new orleans confederate veterans and other confederate supporters award her queen of comiss. They dont do this officially, but this is her unofficial prize for breaking with a yankee. This is a time where asian trade is starting to open up. She has this beautiful embroidered kimonos. After the lecture, you should go. They have one of her badges. They have robes and to reenter crown. This is supposed to make up for that. For a lot of women, this would be awesome. This would be the coolest thing ever, with the beautiful close, the parties, and a new batch of boys to choose from. This is not for her. She is very serious, very artistic. She is not interested in other men, particularly. She has her very melancholy expression on her face. We get to her years in new york. She and her mother moved to new york in the 1890s. They live in two different hotels. A of people lived in hotels. They were like upscale boarding houses. Anyone who is late with the theater district, they moved to 44th street. Its a great restaurant nowadays. I have eaten there many times. A good french restaurant. Winnie would have appreciated that because she loved theater and painting and all of that. The restaurant is in the lobby of the gerard hotel. She and her mother had literary salons and would entertain artists and actresses. Winnie is a talented writer. She and her mother worked for Joseph Pulitzer at the world. They would get a stipend from them. He becomes their financial savior at this point. He recognizes the women need money. They are columnists for pulitzer. He verily rarely uses varinas. I have read some of her work and it is not great. To put it mildly. And i cannot read her handwriting. Winnie is a beautiful writer and she writes for Joseph Pulitzer but also writes novels. She had two novels which are fairly successful. She is making enough money to help her mother. They are talking about buying a new carriage with proceeds from the second book and she is kind of on the literary rise. She is still wearing her white. She loves gray and white and muted colors. She is very lowkey. Shes exactly i think what her father and mother wanted to create, even though that is not her real nature. I think she is independent naturally. She is an artist and a writer. In new york she finally gets what she really wants, which is to not be the true woman, like the cult of true womanhood, but she wants to be the new woman, the career woman. I think that is truly what she wants and it has been repressed for such a long time by her parents, boarding school, and she thought maybe she would go the domestic route like her sister. Her mother prevents that. I think winnie i am not sure she wanted to get married. I think when she watched her parents marriage and saw the epic struggle, she probably thought, is that what i want . I really want to be a writer. I am so thankful that she did it. This is highly unusual in the 19th century, particularly among someone who is a daughter of the confederacy who is upperclass. They did need the money, but for winnie this was very fulfilling. I am not going to tell you the end and what happens. There is more tragedies to come. I like to think of her being in new york and narragansett, rhode island. This is where newport where they stayed every summer at a fabulous hotel. Winnie loves to bike. Susan b anthony said bicycling did more to liberate women than anything else. That is how i like to think of her, as a writer, a new woman on the verge of becoming an independent woman. That is how i like to remember her. Thank you so much. [applause] i would love to take questions if anyone has questions. [indiscernible] yes, mary chestnut. She is the South Carolina diarist and is wonderful. They sell her book in the museum shop. Look her up. She is great. [indiscernible] she did. Varina did this too. Sometimes they would change their name. Varina would be varina Jefferson Davis and winnie would be under varina and davis. It was known who she was. She did not write anonymously. There was a book that was published by her parents and a canadian publisher as a vanity project, but the books that were published by mainstream publishers in new york you can get them still online. It is theveiled doctor, is the first one. It is a victorian romance for the woman is punished for trying to step out of the role. By the second, she is making comments like, i dont approve of marriage or doing. They are both worthless and dangerous. She evolves in her thinking and her characters get a lot more dimension by her second book. We were always calling her varina. Are they not related . I have gotten that question on the past three days. I rumored that varina rhymes with marina. I do not think they are related at all. I do not know about varina, virginia. I need to find out. I think we may have had another question in the way back, maybe . Whatever happened to fred . Poor old fred. I knew someone would ask. One, you can read the book and find out. [laughter] this is a special crowd. It is the day after her birthday. I will give you a gift and tell you what happened. Alfred wilkinson, he is broken up. They never marry. He goes on to have a successful business in new york. Robert called winnie the last casualty of the lost cause. Fred is also one of the last casualties of the lost cause along with her because he has a nervous breakdown in Atlantic City and later has a heart attack. I cant help but think that some of this came from the fallout from his relationship with winnie. All these death threats. Varina at people investigating him, doing the background checks in an invasive way. I think he was extremely affected by that. He dies in his mid50s. There is another story that may not be true, but i did put it in the book because i had a number of sources tell me that fred shows up that winnies funeral. I wont tell you when it is, but he shows up sobbing in the back of the church. Lots of sources say that but we cannot verify it. I really enjoyed it. She was spending so much time with northerners, when her father died, was she reaching out to him and he to her at the end . Yes. Winnie and her mother really preferred the north, which rankled a lot of southerners. Jefferson davis dies in 1889 near new orleans. He was buried in new orleans and there is a reinternment later. He and winnie were never really estranged, even though it that you would think with the fiveyear separation they would be. That was kind of common practice in the 19th century to send girls of a certain class away. The time they spent together, they bonded again. It was good they had that time with him. They were completely reconcile. In terms of her role as daughter of the confederacy, she felt she had to carry on the davis legacy. I think she was at odds, in her public and private life. To live in new york and be a writer and maybe to marry a northerner, as it happens. I dont think she was able to reconcile the two. You will see in the book why i think that and how things unfold. She and her father really never had any kind of a rift, nor she and her mother. There may have been resentment built up over the fred romance and break up between the women. She and her father were very close before he died. [indiscernible] im already telling the whole story. Gosh. Her cause of death i love 19thcentury medicine because it is so primitive and then i think, one day they will say that about our medicine. The way she dies this is why people call her the last casualty of the lost cause. Great story. She and mrs. Stonewall jackson are in a carriage at a confederate veterans reunion in atlanta in 1898. They are in this carriage. There is a downpour. They are part of a confederate veterans reunion. There is a downpour. She is soaked to the skin. She saves in the outfit for hours. She finally goes back to the hotel to change and there is a big ball that evening and she catches a chill and a fever, and it takes several weeks. She gets on the training goes to narragansett for vacation and she lingers for a couple of weeks and dies of malaria gastritis. I have talked to every doctor i know and their like, what is that . There is a stomach ache, fever, but no one dies in a rainstorm. She had been to egypt months prior. It had been so long. It had been like three months before. I am not sure that makes sense. She was nervous, like Jefferson Davis. They both never eight. They may have had Something Like an ulcer. There was probably an underlying stomach disorder. I dont think the rain did it. She may have had a weakened immune system that pushed her over the edge. Very good question. I still wonder what it was. You said the davis family had a lot of tragedy, including the older brother that died about two months before she was born. Having children die in the 19th century was not that uncommon, but we know what happened to mrs. Lincoln when her son died. How did mrs. Davis react to all this tragedy . That is such an excellent question. I think really important to the story. When joe dies, when he falls off the balcony, that is when varina and jefferson fall apart. That is the one day he takes off. They have these other children die. When winnie dies, her mother goes to pieces. Varina, i give her credit. She pulled it together. She never gives up. She eventually is able to function and to go on and she stays on and lives in new york. I think that the cumulative affect of all of these deaths influences the four boys dying, i think it influences the way varina and winnie are together. I think varina becomes codependent. They both become codependent, but varina cannot give winnie up to marriage. That is not a lot of fun for her, either. I think with varina, she is a very strong woman but these deaths affect her tremendously. It was devastating and even for the 19th century, that was a lot of death in one family. That is unusual. And all boys so the name doesnt disappear. It almost died out. Yes . [indiscernible] the hollywood cemetery, it is a gorgeous cemetery overlooking the james river. They call it the davis circle and that is where and not every davis descendent you have jefferson, varina. Margaret, maggie. Addison, her husband and then you have all the boys there. Samuel and joe i believe joe was in one part of the cemetery and they moved him over at a certain point. All the boys are there. Winnie is there. Maggie and the parents and addison. The whole family only in death is together at hollywood cemetery. I visited many times and i have a photo of the angel of grief. Her mother poured a lot of grief into making this beautiful statue sculpted for the grave. They tried to raise enough money in richmond to finance it. It was the united daughters of the confederacy of new york that finished paying for it. It was a symbol of reconciliation between the north and south and that is what i think winnie tried to do, but could not get there. She edged closer to it happening. Yes . Did maggie ever get involved with maggie and the mother had a very interesting relationship. They had their battles but i think maggie had gone to colorado and was so far away that she couldnt do so much. She was saying mother, please stay with me. She lived in colorado springs. At various points, she offered to have her mother come and stay with her. I think they were close, but margaret and varina were so much alike that they butted heads. It was like a mini varina. They couldnt get along for too long. Margaret had her own life and children and she was very independent. Varina was used to winnie taking care of her. I think the distance and different Family Dynamics prevented them from being closer later in life. Certainly. Anything else . Thank you so much. This was great. [applause] thank you. You are watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend on cspan 3. To join the conversation, like us on facebook