On May 19, 1865-149 years ago today-former Confederate States of America president Jefferson Davis began his imprisonment in a casemate at Fortress Monroe in Hampton, Virginia. General Nelson Miles, in charge of Fortress Monroe, ordered Davis to be shackled in leg irons. Though Davis was eventually moved to more hospitable quarters and joined by his family, he remained confined at Monroe for the next two years. He was later released after several prominent citizens (both northern and southern) paid his $100,000 bail, and he was never prosecuted for treason. He later sold insurance and was even elected to the U.S. Senate, though the 14th Amendment barred him from serving in that body. In 1881, he published his two-volume The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, his history of the Confederacy and justification for the Souths secession (which, in his opinion, was wholly constitutional). A copy of Daviss book is seen at bottom on the shelves of the Memorial Library at James A. Garfield NHS. We wonder if President Garfield, who served in the Union army and the U.S. Congress during the Civil War and therefore helped ensure the Confederacys defeat, ever had a chance to read it. Of course, 1881-the year of the books publication-was the year Garfield became the nations 20th President and also the year he was shot and died. On November 1, 2011, under the authority granted by the Antiquities Act, President Barack Obama signed a declaration designating the decommissioned Fort Monroe as Fort Monroe National Monument (nps.gov/fomr). The monument is now administered by the National Park Service.
Posted on: Mon, 19 May 2014 15:03:48 +0000
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