Monument
to Jefferson Davis
Monument Avenue, Richmond, Virginia
#NC-10201-MM - Notecards
Also available in Assortment Pack #AST-830
#PR-10201-MM - Open Edition Print
The first
and only President of the Confederate States of America is commemorated
with this monument near the northern edge of Richmond's outer
defenses during the Civil War. Beginning in 1845, Davis represented
Mississippi in the U.S. House of Representatives and, later, Senate.
A veteran of the Mexican War, he also served as the Secretary
of War under President Franklin Pierce between stints in the Senate.
When his efforts
to keep the Southern states in the Union failed, he withdrew from
the Senate and was elected President of the Confederacy in 1861.
After fleeing from Richmond in 1865, he was captured in Georgia
and imprisoned until 1867. He died in 1889 at the age of 81.
Sculptor Edward
V. Valentine and architect William C. Noland, both from Richmond,
collaborated on this elaborate monument. Behind the Davis statue
stands a sixty-foot Doric column topped by a statue of the Vidicatrix
-- the robed female representing the spirit of the South. The
columns in the semicircle behind these statues represent the 11
Confederate states and the two others that sent delegate to the
Confederate Congress. Following a week-long celebration, the dedication
occurred on June 3, 1907, which would have been Davis' 99th birthday.
Text
© 2000 Terry White, Drawing © 2000 Bill Harrah
.
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