1862 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation by CSA President Jefferson Davis.

President Jefferson Davis, Confederate States of America, made the following Thanksgiving Day proclamation in 1862. His first such proclamation, "a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer,"  had been issued in 1861.  It was not until two years later that the infidel Abraham Lincoln copied Davis and announced the first official Thanksgiving day in the North.  

To the People of the Confederate States:

Once more upon the plains of Manassas have our armies been blessed by the Lord of Hosts with a triumph over our enemies. It is my privilege to invite you once more to His footstool, not now in the garb of fasting and sorrow, but with joy and gladness, to render thanks for the great mercies received at His hand. A few months since, and our enemies poured forth their invading legions upon our soil. They laid waste our fields, polluted our altars and violated the sanctity of our homes. Around our capital they gathered their forces, and with boastful threats, claimed it as already their prize. The brave troops which rallied to its defense have extinguished these vain hopes, and, under the guidance of the same almighty hand, have scattered our enemies and driven them back in dismay. Uniting these defeated forces and the various armies which had been ravaging our coasts with the army of invasion in Northern Virginia, our enemies have renewed their attempt to subjugate us at the very place where their first effort was defeated, and the vengeance of retributive justice has overtaken the entire host in a second and complete overthrow.

To this signal success accorded to our arms in the East has been graciously added another equally brilliant in the West. On the very day on which our forces were led to victory on the Plains of Manassas, in Virginia, the same Almighty arm assisted us to overcome our enemies at Richmond, in Kentucky. Thus, at one and the same time, have two great hostile armies been stricken down, and the wicked designs of their armies been set at naught.

In such circumstances, it is meet and right that, as a people, we should bow down in adoring thankfulness to that gracious God who has been our bulwark and defense, and to offer unto him the tribute of thanksgiving and praise. In his hand is the issue of all events, and to him should we, in an especial manner, ascribe the honor of this great deliverance.
Now, therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States, do issue this, my proclamation, setting apart Thursday, the 18th day of September inst., as a day of prayer and thanksgiving to Almighty God for the great mercies vouchsafed to our people, and more especially for the triumph of our arms at Richmond and Manassas; and I do hereby invite the people of the Confederate States to meet on that day at their respective places of public worship, and to unite in rendering thanks and praise to God for these great mercies, and to implore Him to conduct our country safely through the perils which surround us, to the final attainment of the blessings of peace and security.

Given under my hand and the seal of the Confederate States, at Richmond, this fourth day of September, A.D.1862.
JEFFERSON DAVIS

Children in the White House of the Confederacy

This house in Richmond, Virginia was the executive mansion of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his family from August 1861 until April 2, 1865. A West Point graduate, former U.S. senator from Mississippi, and former U.S. secretary of war, Davis was the Confederacy’s only president. He worked long hours here, meeting with Confederate civilian and military leaders. On April 14, 1862, he held a council of war here with Secretary of War George W. Randolph, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, Gen. Robert E. Lee, and other officers to discuss the Confederacy’s defense against Union Gen. George B. McClellan’s advancing army, at the command of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, who had raised an army to invade the Confederate States.

More often, the house was the site of official receptions and unofficial parties. One observer declared Confederate First Lady Varina Davis “to be a woman of warm heart and impetuous tongue, witty and caustic, with a sensitive nature underlying all; a devoted wife and mother, and a most gracious mistress of a salon.”

The Davis’ young family, with six children, enlivened the White House. A family friend remembered, “Statesmen passing through the halls on their way to the discussion of weighty things were likely to hear the ringing laughter of the care-free and happy Davis children issuing from somewhere above the stairs or the gardens.” Two Davis children, William (Billy) and Varina Anne (Winnie) were born in this house; one, Joseph, tragically died here in a fall from the balcony. Three other Davis children living at the Confederate White House included Margaret (Maggie), Jefferson Jr., and the the Davis' adopted black son, Jim Limber Davis.

Have a Happy Confederate Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving in Camp - Harper's Weekly - November 29, 1862

During the Thanksgiving season we often hear that the first national Thanksgiving Proclamation was given by Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C. on October 3, 1863. What the northern history books fail to mention is that Lincoln, bowing to political pressure, copied the President of the Confederate States of America.  Jefferson Davis actually had made the first national Proclamation of Thanksgiving two years earlier in Richmond, Virginia.  Here it is:

Proclamation of Thanksgiving, 1861

by President Jefferson Davis

WHEREAS, it hath pleased Almighty God, the Sovereign Disposer of events, to protect and defend us hitherto in our conflicts with our enemies as to be unto them a shield.

And whereas, with grateful thanks we recognize His hand and acknowledge that not unto us, but unto Him, belongeth the victory, and in humble dependence upon His almighty strength, and trusting in the justness of our purpose, we appeal to Him that He may set at naught the efforts of our enemies, and humble them to confusion and shame.

Now therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States, in view of impending conflict, do hereby set apart Friday, the 15th day of November, as a day of national humiliation and prayer, and do hereby invite the reverend clergy and the people of these Confederate States to repair on that day to their homes and usual places of public worship, and to implore blessing of Almighty God upon our people, that he may give us victory over our enemies, preserve our homes and altars from pollution, and secure to us the restoration of peace and prosperity.

Given under hand and seal of the Confederate States at Richmond, this the 31st day of October, year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty one.

By the President,
JEFFERSON DAVIS

Jefferson Davis Statue, Montgomery, Alabama

This statue of Jefferson Davis stands in a prominent spot in front of the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery.  It was here that Davis was inagurated President of the Confederate State of America, February 18, 1861. The inscription reads:

JEFFERSON DAVIS

SOLDIER - SCHOLAR - STATESMAN

A GRADUATE OF WEST POINT

MILITARY ACADEMY, HE SERVED

THE UNITED STATES AS COLONEL

OF MISSISSIPPI VOLUNTEERS

MEXICAN WAR, MEMBER OF HOUSE

OF REPRESENTATIVES, SENATOR

AND AS SECRETARY OF WAR

INAUGURATED PRESIDENT OF

THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT

CONFEDERATE STATES OF

AMERICA, FEBRURAY 18, 1861

Photo by J. Stephen Conn

Deathbed of the Confederacy

It was here in the Burt-Stark Mansion, also known as the Armistead Burt House, Abbeville, South Carolina, that President Jefferson Davis met with his cabinet for the last Council of  War for the Confederate States of America, May 2, 1865.

Just three weeks earlier, on April 9, 1865 General Robert E. Lee had surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to General William T. Sherman at Appomattox Courthouse. Many people regard Lee's surrender as the end of the War Between the States, but actually only a portion of the Confederate Army surrendered at that time.

On April 26, 1869, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston followed Lee by surrendering his Army of Tennessee, also to General Sherman, near Greensboro, North Carolina. One of my great uncles, John Tomas Conn, was among those who surrendered with Johnston.

However, when the last Confederate Council of War met, there were still other very determined Confederate armies fighting in the field, including the Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana Department, the Trans-Mississippi (Texas) Department, and others. President Davis wanted to continue the struggle for Southern Independence. However, despite the righteousness of the Confederate cause, the Council persuaded Davis that to continue fighting against such overwhelming odds was futile and that the government should be.

Just two days later, May 4, 1865, Confederate Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor, son of former U.S. president Zachary Taylor, surrendered the Confederate Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana, with some 12,000 troops.

The last land fight of the War occurred May 12--13 May at Palmito Ranch, Texas, where 350 Confederates of the Trans-Mississippi Department were victorious over 800 invading Federals. Afterwards, upon learning that Richmond had fallen that General Robert E. Lee had surrendered, the Trans-Mississippi Confederates gave up their fight for Independence Most of the soldiers simply went home, but some 2000 of them fled into Mexico, alone or in scattered groups.

Last of the Confederate Generals to surrender was Brigadier General Stand Waite of Oklahoma. Stand Waite was also a Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Fighting until the bitter end, General Waite finally surrendered his battalion of Creek, Seminole, Cherokee, and Osage Indians on June 23. 1865.

There was never a formal surrender by the Confederate States of America. No peace treaty or armistice was ever signed, and it could be argued that the Confederate States of America is still an occupied nation.

A week after that fateful last Council of War in Abbeville, President Davis and a large entourage traveling with him, was captured in Irwinsville, Georgia, by the Fourth Michigan Calvary during the early morning hours of May 10, 1865.

The Burt-Stark Mansion was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1992 because of its importance as the last meeting place of the leadership of the Confederate nation.

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Incidentally, Abbeville, South Carolina lays claim to being both the birthplace and the deathbed of the Confederacy. I'll tell more of Abbeville as the birthplace in a future post.

Jefferson Davis' Prophetic Words and State Secession Movements

After the War for Southern Independence, and the South's defeat by a vastly larger invading Northern army, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America said:

"The principle for which we contend is bound to reassert itself, though it may be at another time and in another form."

"Truth crushed to the earth is truth still and like a seed will rise again."

It was the South that fought to uphold the principles of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. The South stood on especially firm legal ground in defending the 10th Amendment to the Constitution: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Some say that the defeat of the Confederate States of America in the War Between the States settled the issue of secession once and for all. However, peace that comes through force and conquest is not true peace at all. It is subjugation. The nation with the biggest army is not always right. I find it interesting that now, on the eve of the sesquicentennial of the War Between the States, Jefferson Davis' words are proving to be prophetic.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports:

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AUSTIN — As head of the Texas Nationalist Movement, Daniel Miller of Nederland believes it’s time for the Lone Star State to sever its bond with the United States and return to the days when Texas was an independent republic.

"Independence. In our lifetime," Miller’s organization proclaims on its Web site.
When Gov. Rick Perry suggested that some Texans might want to secede from the Union because they are fed up with the federal government, the remarks drew nationwide news coverage and became fodder for late-night comedians.

But to Texas separatists like Miller and Republican gubernatorial candidate Larry Kilgore of Mansfield, secession is no laughing matter. Nor is it exclusive to the nation’s second-largest state.

Fanned by angry contempt for Washington, secession movements have sprouted up in perhaps more than a dozen states in recent years. In Vermont, retired economics professor Thomas Naylor leads the Second Vermont Republic, a self-styled citizens network dedicated to extracting the sparsely populated New England state from "the American Empire."

And on the other side of the continent, Northwestern separatists envision a "Republic of Cascadia" carved out of Oregon, Washington and the Canadian province of British Columbia.

While most Americans dismiss the breakaway sentiments, sociologists and political experts say they are part of a larger anti-Washington wave that is rapidly spreading across the country.

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There's more. Here's a link to the full story: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/story/1623872.html#

Jefferson Davis Birthplace - Bethel Baptist Church

First organized in 1814, Bethel Baptist Church stands on property donated to the congregation in 1886 by Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, 1861 - 1865. The church occupies the same spot as the log cabin in which Jefferson Davis was born in 1808.

LIke many other churches in the antebellum South, this congregation had both caucasian and negro members before the Yankee attrocities of "reconstruction" following the War Between the States caused a racial divide which has never been fully overcome. In 1870 the church had 62 black members who requested permission to be dismissed in order to organize their own church at nearby Pembroke, Kentucky.

Jefferson Davis was present for the dedication of the church in November, 1886. On that occasion he addressed the congregation with these words:

“It is with heart full of emotion that I thank you for commerating the spot of my nativity by building this temple to the Triune God. In reply to the question why I am not a Baptist I would only say that my father who was a much better man than myself was a Baptist. I left this place during my infancy, and after an absence of many years revisited it on a previous occasion. On both visits I have felt like saying, “This is my own, my native land.” I see around me now in this beautiful house of worship, the most gratifying use to which the spot of my birth could be devoted. It speaks highly for this community that the most commodious and handsome of all its buildings belongs to God. It shows your reverence and love for your Creator. I rejoice to hear of the continued progress and prosperity of my old home. I am not here for the purpose of making a speech nor would I mar the effect of this solemn dedication, nor of the beautiful and eloquent sermon to which you have listened, by attempting one. I came only to tend to you formally the site on which this building stands. May He who rules the heavens bless this community individually and collectively and may his benediction rest upon this house of worship always. I thus leave it with you. More than this it would be improper for me to say.”

A slab of violet-gray finely polished Tennessee marble set in the wall of the church has this inscription:

JEFFERSON DAVIS,
OF MISSISSIPPI, WAS BORN
June 3, 1808,
ON THIS SITE OF THIS CHURCH
HE MADE A GIFT OF THIS LOT
March 10, 1886,
TO BETHEL BAPTIST CHURCH,
AS A THANK-OFFERING TO GOD

You can learn much more by following this link: www.westernkyhistory.org/christian/church/bethelchurch.html
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Bethel Baptist Church viewed from atop the Jefferson Davis Monument

Story and photos by J. Stephen Conn

Mile Zero, Jefferson Davis Highway

This milestone, marking the beginning of the Jefferson Davis Highway, sits on the Christian/Todd County line in the village of Fairview, Kentucky. It is in the Jefferson Davis State Historic Site, Jefferson Davis' birthplace. The monument reads:

ZERO MILESTONE
JEFFERSON DAVIS HIGHWAY
FAIRVIEW KY. - BILOXI, MISS.

Erected 1930 by
United Daughters of the Confederacy

JEFFERSON DAVIS

Born June 3, 1808
In Christian, now Todd Co., KY
Died December 6, 1889
In New Orleans, LA.
Graduated West Point, 1828
Served in Indian Wars, Mexican War
Hero of Buena Vista and Monterey
Secretary of War 1858
United States Senator from
Mississippi 1857

PRESIDENT OF THE
CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA
1861 - 1865

Patriot, Soldier, Statesman, Christian

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The Jefferson Davis Highway was first conceived in 1913, one year after the Lincoln Highway was proposed. It was a coast-to-coast road through the Southern capitals and beyond. Monuments and markers may still be seen along many parts of the highway. The Fairview route is actually just one of several extensions of the Jefferson Davis Highway, running from Fairview, Kentucky south to Biloxi, Mississippi. The historical marker pictured below stands along side of the Jefferson Davis Highway at the entrance to the Jefferson Davis State Historic Site.

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Photos by J. Stephen Conn

Black Southerners in Confederate Gray

Black Confederate Soliders - Library of Congress Photo

The Murfreesboro Post

By Shirley Farris Jones

Note: The writer gratefully acknowledges Zack Malpass, Murfreesboro SCV Camp 33, for so generously sharing his extensive research, and to Dr. George Smith, for providing both research and viewpoint.

February marks the beginning of Black History Month – a remembrance of important people and events of African American origin that began in 1926.

There have been many major contributions to our nation and to our society by black Americans some that have changed history – and are continuing to do so today. One area that has never received the recognition it deserved and has even been over-looked to a certain degree was that of black Southerners who fought for the Confederacy.

One would have to ask, “Why haven’t we heard more about them?”

Ed Bearss, National Park Service Historian Emeritus, made the following statement: “I don’t want to call it a conspiracy to ignore the role of Blacks, both above and below the Mason-Dixon line, but it was definitely a tendency that began around 1910.”

And, Historian Erwin L. Jordan, Jr., calls it a “cover-up” which started back in 1865. He writes, “During my research on pension applications, I came across instances where black men stated they were soldiers, but you can plainly see where ‘soldier’ is crossed out and ‘body servant’ or ‘teamster’ inserted.”

Another black historian, Roland Young says that “he is not surprised that blacks fought ... some, if not most, would support their country, and that by doing so they were demonstrating that it was possible to hate the system of slavery and love one’s country.”

This same principle was exhibited by African Americans who fought for the colonies during the American Revolution, despite the fact that the British offered them freedom if they would fight for them. Peter Jennings, an early settler of Rutherford County, was one of more than 5,000 black soldiers who fought for the colonies in the war for Independence. In 1830 Jennings was listed as having built a house on the corner of Vine and Church streets, which was also his bakery shop. There is a marker in the old City Cemetery commemorating his services in the Revolutionary War, but the exact place of his burial is not known.

It has been estimated that more than 65,000 Southern blacks served in some form or fashion in the Confederate ranks, and more than 13,000 of these “saw the elephant,” a term used to describe meeting the enemy in combat. These black Confederates included both slaves and free men. The Confederate Congress did not approve blacks to be officially enlisted as soldiers, except as musicians, until late in the war. But in the ranks it was a different story. Many Confederate officers, ignoring the mandates of politicians, enlisted blacks with the simple criteria, “Will you fight?” According to historian, Ervin Jordan, “biracial units were frequently organized by both local and state militia commanders in response to immediate threats by Union troops.”

As of February 1865, there were 1,150 black seamen who served in the Confederate Navy. One of these was among the last Confederates to surrender, aboard the CSS Shenandoah in England, six months after the war ended.

However, Dr. George Smith has done extensive research on this subject as well and based upon both Union and Confederate documents included in the Official War Records, it is his opinion that “Since it was illegal for Blacks, either free or slave, to carry and bear arms, it is extraordinarily hard to believe there were 65,000 Blacks serving in Confederate ranks, with over 13,000 seeing combat. Closer to 100,000 freemen and slaves were impressed under the numerous impressments acts. All the impressments acts clearly delineated slaves were to be used as teamsters, laborers, hospital orderlies, cooks, etc.”

As the war was nearing its final days, the Confederacy took progressive measures to build back its ranks with the creation of the Confederate Colored Troops, copied after the segregated northern colored troops, but this idea came too late for any measure of success. CSA Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne, at the height of his military career and recognizing the plight of the South’s dwindling supply of able-bodied men, made a bold proposal in late 1863 to “drill and arm as many as 300,000 black slaves.” Included in this proposal was the idea to not only free the blacks who volunteered, but their wives and children as well.

Cleburne was quite disappointed that his idea was not more readily embraced. However, in 1864, President Jefferson Davis, in an attempt to gain official recognition of the Confederacy by Britain and France, did approve a plan that proposed the emancipation of slaves. But what actually passed on March 13, 1865 was General Orders No. 14 which stated: “SEC. 2, that the General-in-Chief be authorized to organize the said slaves into companies, battalions, regiments, and brigades, under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of War may prescribe, and to be commanded by such officers as the President may appoint. ... that nothing in this act shall be construed to authorize a change in the relation which the said slaves shall bear toward their owners, except by consent of the owners and of the states in which they may reside, and in pursuance of the laws thereof.” This occurred just one month before the end of the war and by this point, there was no time, no munitions, no supplies, no uniforms, no nothing, for it to ever come to fruition. It is unclear whether the wages would go to the slaves or to the owners.

Contrary to what a lot of people believe, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which went into effect in January of 1863, stated that only those slaves held “within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States” would be freed and those slaves in states “not in rebellion” were not affected.

Free black men served the Confederacy as soldiers, teamsters, musicians, and cooks. They earned the same pay for their service as did white Confederate privates, which, in the Union Army, was not the case. They also earned the wrath of their fellow black men of the North. Ex-slave Frederick Douglas commented: “There are at the present moment, many colored men in the Confederate Army doing duty not only as cooks, servants and laborers, but as real soldiers, having muskets on their shoulders and bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down ... and do all that soldiers may do to destroy the Federal Government.”

Horace Greeley, observing the differences between the two warring armies, commented: “For more than two years, Negroes have been extensively employed in belligerent operations by the Confederacy. They have been embodied and drilled as rebel soldiers and had paraded with white troops at a time when this would not have been tolerated in the armies of the Union.”

Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was a slave trader before the war, had both slaves and free men serving in units under his command. After the war, Forrest said of the black men who served under him, “These boys stayed with me ... and better Confederates did not live.” And, in an address given by Col. William Sanford, at the Confederate Veterans Reunion of the 7th Tennessee Cavalry Regiment of Cavalry, Forrest’s Corps, at Columbia on September 22, 1876, Col. Sanford said: “And to you, our colored friends ... we say welcome. We can never forget your faithfulness in the darkest hours of our lives. We tender to you our hearty respect and love, for you never faltered in your duty nor betrayed your trust.”

When Forrest made his raid on Murfreesboro on July 13, 1862, there is documentation regarding the participation of Black Confederates according to Col. Parkhurst’s report (Ninth Michigan Infantry) included in the Federal Official Records. He wrote: “The forces attacking my camp were the First Regiment Texas Rangers, Colonel Wharton, and a battalion of the First Georgia Rangers, Colonel Morrison, and a large number of citizens of Rutherford County, many of whom had recently taken the oath of allegiance to the United States Government. There were also quite a number of negroes attached to the Texas and Georgia troops, who were armed and equipped, and took part in the several engagements with my forces during the day.”

Southern generals owned slaves but northern generals owned them as well. Gen. Ulysses Grant’s slaves had to wait for the Thirteenth Amendment for freedom. When asked why he didn’t free his slaves earlier, General Grant replied, “Good help is so hard to come by these days.” In February of 1865, Grant in fact ordered the capture of “all the Negro men ... before the enemy can put them in their ranks.” And Frederick Douglas warned President Lincoln that unless slaves were guaranteed freedom (those in Union controlled areas were still slaves) and land bounties, “They would take up arms for the rebels.”

There's more. For the full story go to: http://www.murfreesboropost.com/news.php?viewStory=9134

Confederate Memorial Carving, Stone Mountain, Georgia

Below is the most popular photo of more than 11,000 I have posted on Flickr.com. The overwhelming majority of my travel photos on Flickr have absolutely nothing to do with the Confederacy. Yet, the two most popular pictures - determined by the number of views and comments they receive - are both Confederate related. This says something about the continuing intense interest in the Confederate States of America, almost 150 years after the War Between the States. With the photo I am also posting below it the description which I gave on my Flicker site.



It's difficult to appreciate the size of the Confederate Memorial Carving from a photograph. The three men on horseback look almost small against the massive side of Stone Mountain. To give some perspective, two school busses could be parked on the back end of Robert E. Lee's horse. This magnificent memorial consists of three acres of chiseled granite making it the largest high relief sculpture in the world. For shear size it even surpasses the better known and more "politically correct" four heads on South Dakota's Mt. Rushmore.

In front is Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, 1861-1865. The central and most prominent figure is that of General Robert E. Lee, and behind him is his right hand man, General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. The carving, first envisioned in 1912, was not begun until 1923 and was finally completed in 1972. Three sculptors worked on the creation, the first being Gutzon Borglum, who later carved the Mt. Rushmore Memorial in South Dakota. Augustus Lukeman, the second sculptor, did the bulk of the work of carving the three central figures of the Confederacy on horseback.

Lack of funding and other problems caused work of the sculpture to remain idle for 36 years. Then in 1958 the state of Georgia purchased the mountain and the surrounding land. Walker Kirkland Hancock of Gloucester, Massachusetts was chosen to complete the carving and work resumed in 1964. A new technique utilizing thermo-jet torches was used to carve away the granite. Chief carver Roy Faulkner did much of the fine carving, completing the work of art with the detail of a fine painting.

Dedication ceremonies for the Confederate Memorial Carving were held on May 9, 1970. Finishing touches to the masterpiece were completed in 1972.

THE THREE CONFEDERATE LEADERS depicted on Stone Mountain were all noble men who were champions of liberty for all people.

GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE was strongly opposed to slavery and when he inherited slaves through his wife's family he set them free. This was at a time when Union General Ulysses S. Grant was a slaveholder who refused to give us his slaves - and continued to work his slaves throughout the War Between the States.

GENERAL STONEWALL JACKSON was a civil rights activist who organized black Sunday Schools through his integrated Presbyterian church in Lexington, Virginia, where African Americans were taught to read and write as well as spiritual and Biblical truths. Teaching slaves to read was considered by many to be a step toward emancipation - and this was many years before the War Between the States. The black citizens of Lexington, Virginia, later raised money to erect a statue in his honor.

PRESIDENT JEFFERSON DAVIS had an adapted free black son who lived with him in the Confederate White House in Richmond, Virginia, as a member of his family.

Stone Mountain is the most popular State Park in Georgia, on the outskirts of Atlanta - a Southern city which is a model of racial harmony for the entire nation. I've been to Stone Mountain dozens of times over the years and on every visit I have seen people from every race and ethnicity peacefully enjoying themselves in this beautiful and historic setting.

To see my Stone Moutain set on Flickr, or to view the photo in a much higher resolution, go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jstephenconn/2776794690/

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Photo and Article by J. Stephen Conn

Step Back in Time at Beauvoir

Beauvoir, Home of President Jefferson Davis, Before Hurricane Katrina

Story by Kat Bergeron, SunHerald.com

BILOXI -- Beauvoir House, an 1852 National Historic Landmark that has garnered national publicity since its post-Katrina revival, celebrates its reopening with a first-ever "Victorian Christmas at Beauvoir," a six-night tour that begins Monday.

A miniature Victorian village, complete with train and Ferris wheel, decorates the Library Cottage, the newly completed replica of the pavilion where Jefferson Davis wrote "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government." The U.S. statesman and Confederate president retired to the beachfront Beauvoir estate in the 1870s.

Before Katrina claimed all but the large Greek Revival raised cottage, Beauvoir celebrated Christmas with a Festival of Trees, impossible to orchestrate this year.

"We decided a Victorian Christmas is the best way to celebrate Beauvoir's recovery," said Rick Forte Sr., acting director and chairman of Beauvoir's combined boards. "Victorian Christmases are a step back in time for all of us involved in Southern history. Compared to the commercialism of today, it was a special and romantic time.

"We are very proud to show Beauvoir from where it was after the storm to where we are now. Beauvoir is the front cover of the 2009 AT&T phone book and AAA's Southern Traveler magazine has designated us as an 'official travel treasure.'

A recent chapter in the recovery story is completion of the Library Cottage and its twin, both flanking the front lawn near Beach Boulevard. The price tag for each was $300,000, paid by federal and state historic-preservation grants and Beauvoir funds.

Any new construction or repairs will return Beauvoir to its 19th-century appearance during the Davis era.

The antebellum house, now decorated with holiday greenery, candles and a live Santa for the special night tours, reopened in June after a $3.9 million restoration that stripped away out-of-character modern changes. Both the house and cottages are reinforced with invisible storm-strengthening techniques.

The modern presidential library, which will include a museum and gift shop, is in the blueprint stage and should open in 2010, as will the replica kitchen. A director's house that will look like the former carriage house and a carpenter's shop are also planned.

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See the original story at:

http://www.sunherald.com/local/story/999272.html