Cobblestone articles from January 2001

Cobblestone archives from January 2001

Editor's Note.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Jefferson Davis probably is remembered best as president of the Confederate States during the Civil War. But that war lasted only four years, and Davis lived to be more than eighty years old. During his long life, Davis had many roles. He was a...

YOUNG JEFFERSON DAVIS.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Jefferson Davis was born on June 3, 1808, the youngest of ten children. His father, Samuel Emory Davis, named him after Thomas Jefferson, the third U.S. president. At the time of Jefferson's birth, the Davis family lived near Fairview,...

A Promising OFFICER.(Jefferson Davis)
January 1, 2001... In 1824, at the age of sixteen, Jefferson Davis had two educational goals. First, he planned to finish his senior year at Transylvania University, the boarding school he was attending. Then, he would study law at the University of Virginia....

FAMILY TIES.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... On June 17, 1835, twenty-seven-year-old Jefferson Davis married Sarah Knox Taylor. "Knox" was the daughter of Colonel Zachary Taylor, Davis's commanding officer. Because Taylor did not want his daughter to marry a military man, Davis resigned...

`Daughter of the Confederacy'.
January 1, 2001... The last of the six Davis children, Varina Anne, was born on June 27, 1864, just nine months before Richmond, Virginia, fell to the Union army. She was the only one of Jefferson Davis's children allowed to visit him when he was imprisoned after...

THE STATESMAN EMERGES.(Jefferson Davis)
January 1, 2001... Jefferson Davis's political philosophy as an adult was deeply rooted in his upbringing and education. At a young age, Davis had been taught the theory of "Jeffersonian democracy," a philosophy based on the thinking of Thomas Jefferson. ...

A Nation DIVIDED.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... In February 1861, Jefferson Davis was tending his garden with his wife, Varina, when he looked up to see a lone rider galloping at full speed toward the Davis plantation, Brierfield. Reining his horse to a quick stop, the rider leaned over and...

Whose Rights Are They Anyway?(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... The Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states that "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." That is a formal way of...

Did You Know?(Jefferson Davis, ex-president)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... When he lived at Beauvoir, Davis had a pet dog who guarded the property so carefully that the windows and doors were never locked. Davis's great-grandfather, Evan Davis, immigrated to America from Wales (Great Britain). After the Civil...

STEP BY STEP.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... In 1859, the U.S. Senate once again debated the issue of slavery in the territory of Kansas. One senator from Mississippi faced some difficult choices and decisions. Although some of his colleagues worked for compromise, the rift between...

THE CONFEDERATE PRESIDENT: Was Davis DOOMED.(Jefferson Davis)
January 1, 2001... Jefferson Davis did not attend the February 1861 Montgomery convention that approved a provisional constitution for the Confederate States of America. But the political leaders who did attend -- from Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama,...

A Spy in the Confederate White House.(Mary Elizabeth Bowser)
January 1, 2001... Editor's Note: This article provides a fictional account of Mary Elizabeth Bowser's role as a Union spy. Although some facts are known about her early life, very little is truly known about her later years. We know that Bowser was a real person...

What a Cast of Characters!(quiz on Jefferson Davis's cabinet and military leaders)
January 1, 2001... Jefferson Davis had quite a cast of characters in his Cabinet and among his military leaders. Some relationships were rooted in respect and frienship. Others were tainted by distrust, backbiting, and resentment. Here are brief descriptions...

The Symbol of the Lost Cause.(Jefferson Davis)
January 1, 2001... Following the fall of the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia, and the surrender of General Robert E. Lee's army in April 1865, Jefferson Davis and a small group of government officials and followers fled the state. They went to North...

Brain Ticklers.(quiz on Jefferson Davis)
January 1, 2001... Give your brain a little tickle to see how well you read and understood this issue on Jefferson Davis. If you believe the answer to be false, give yourself the ultimate test and see whether you can explain why it is false. 1. Jefferson...

Letters.(Poem)
January 1, 2001... Sleigh Ride The ice is cold. The hills are covered with ice and snow. My house is warm. My window is wide. The ice and snow are nice outside. The hills are big. Their tops are white. You...

Digging Deeper.(books on Jefferson Davis)(Bibliography)
January 1, 2001... Books to Read Jefferson Davis: President of the Confederacy by Joann J. Burch (Springfield, New Jersey: Enslow Publishers, Inc., 1998), part of the Historical American Biographies series, follows the life of the man who led the Confederate...