Originally aired on November 14, 1997 - In part 168 of our Civil War series, Virginia Tech history professor James Robertson profiles the only first lady of the Confederate States of America.
#168 – Varina Davis
There was a time, in the not-too-distant past when the First Lady of the land occupied a backseat near obscurity. Not anymore of course. One instance in which the hostess of the nation sought to remain in the background, but could not, was the wife of the President of the Southern Confederacy.
Varina Howell Davis was unsuited by personal background and political inclination for the role she came to play. Born into the Mississippi planter class in 1826, she received an excellent education. Varina was never the stereotype of the ante-bellum Southern belle. Rather she was honest, handy, and quite outspoken in her opinions.
At a Christmas party in 1843, the teenager with large expressive eyes and keen wit met a reserved, but wealthy widower named, Jefferson Davis. He was nineteen years older than she. Further, Miss Howell, the young Whig, wrote after their first meeting: “He is refined and cultivated, and yet, he is a Democrat.”
Despite their major difference the two fell in love and were married in 1845. It was a stormy union for several years. An inheritance dispute, Davis’ long absence in the Mexican War, his strong-mindedness over family matters and the night and day contrasts in their personalities were the leading factors for promoting discord. Somehow the marriage lasted. It also produced four children in the 1850s and two more during the Civil War years.
The Southern Confederacy was born in the shadow of approaching war. Varina Davis was controversial from the moment she entered the Presidential Mansion in Richmond. She was an unusually large woman, five feet ten inches tall, and according to one source, “pleasingly plumb rather than fat”. Her western upbringing and dark complexion led one Virginia socialite to dub her “an old squaw”.
Mrs. Davis’ understanding of contemporary issues coupled with her tendency to voice opinions on the course of the war led to accusations of meddling in politics, an area then reserved exclusively for men. In fact, Varina had little or no influence on her husband, the President.
Yet her extraordinary behavior attracted as much attention as it did criticism. An official who met the First Lady in 1862, thought her, “very smart, quite independent, says what she pleases and cuts at people generally”.
Appearing in public during two war-time pregnancies was likewise deemed “highly inappropriate”. Only once in the Civil War did Varina Davis obtain genuine sympathy. That occurred in April, 1864, when her five-year-old son Josie accidentally fell to his death from a balcony at the Confederate White House. The grieving wails of the mother could be heard for blocks in the hours that followed.
An even greater need for strength came to Mrs. Davis in the post-war period. She endured two years of loneliness while her husband was held in a Federal prison. Jefferson Davis was unable thereafter to support his family. The Davis’ never again owned a home.
Varina Davis gradually assumed the management of the household. She found time to write a 1,600 page memoir that remains a basic source for the man who was Mississippi Senator and Confederate President.
Mrs. Davis weathered the deaths of her three remaining sons. After her husband’s passing in 1889, Varina spent the remaining years of her life with a daughter in New York City. There she mellowed in old age. There she died in 1906.
On the positive side, Varina Davis had a natural charm, was well-informed, and possessed an engaging sociability for genuinely liking people. Her short-comings included a hyper-sensitive attitude to any criticism of her husband and a tactlessness that led her on one occasion to refer to Richmond’s “solemn ponderous society”. Nevertheless, on her tombstone in Richmond’s Hollywood Cemetery there’s an epitaph Varina Davis would like:
Beloved and faithful wife of Jefferson Davis
And devoted mother of his children.
