Thursday, February 10, 2011

February 10, 1861: Jeff Davis at Brierfield

On Sunday, February 10, 1861, Jefferson Davis was in the garden of Brierfield, his plantation home, pruning rose bushes with his wife Varina when a messenger arrived with a telegram informing him that he was to be the president of the Confederacy.

Varina Davis later said that his expression as he read the telegram made her apprehensive that some terrible calamity had occurred.  When he told her what the message said, he spoke "as a man might speak of a sentence of death."

Davis spent one day getting his affairs in order, then left for Montgomery.

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