Product Description

This fascinating new book, explores the great competition that ensued between Southern cities as each vied for the honor of Davis' final resting place. Recounting the story that transfixed the South and explores the ways in which these funerals illuminate the repercussions of the Civil War a generation after its end.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1098222 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-30
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .95 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 200 pages

From Booklist
*Starred Review* This trenchant, even elegant, extended essay focuses on a specific series of events in the life of Confederate president Jefferson Davis: his death, his temporary burial in New Orleans (where he died), and his reburial--permanently, this time--three years later in Richmond, Virginia (the capital of the Confederacy, of course). The first chapter is a beautifully written precis of Davis' character and the political offices he held, which included an admirable tenure as President Franklin Pierce's secretary of war and as a distinguished senator from Mississippi. Using primary sources of the day, including newspaper accounts, Collins then reconstructs, in almost you-are-there fashion, the closing months of Davis' life and the "history" of his body until it was accorded a final resting place. The author's purpose is to chart the rise again in Davis' esteem in the hearts and minds of his contemporary fellow southerners after its immediate postwar low point. Imprisoned and enchained at war's end, Davis subsequently lived the life of a man with no country and suffered as a target of southern criticism. But his Richmond funeral parade and the press his reburial received clearly indicated a reestablishment of the South's affection. This slender but distinctive volume makes an important contribution to the entire story of the Confederate States of America. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
A welcome addition to academic libraries and to public libraries serving Civil War enthusiasts. (Koerting, Gayla Library Journal )

Cultivating previously neglected ground, Donald Collins authoritatively details the impact of Jefferson Davis's late southern tours, his death, his funeral, his reinternment, and the effort to construct a Davis monument in Richmond. Collins's account illuminates the ascension of Davis into the Confederate Pantheon. Moreover, The Death and Resurrection of Jefferson Davis makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of both sectional reconciliation and the rise and fall of the Lost Cause. (Cooper, William )

This is a valuable contribution to the growing body of scholarship on the memory of the Civil War. Collins traces the spectacular arc of Jefferson Davis’s image, beginning with that of the widely reviled wartime president, rising to become the foremost symbol of unrepentant Confederate nationalism, and subsequently falling again in the 20th century with the waning of Lost Cause ideology. Anyone who wants to understand how the Confederacy has been remembered will profit from this book. (Prokopowicz, Gerald J. )

The slender but distinctive volume makes an important contribution to the entire story of the Confederate States of America. (Hooper, Brad Booklist )

According to Collins, Davis's tours through the South in 1886 and 1887—as well as the public sympathy surrounding his death and burial in 1889—were the key moments. Collins dutifully recreates these events from newspaper records. (Crespino, Joseph Washington Post )

Civil War buffs who revel in the precise details of Confederate and New South life will devour Collins' descriptions of the funeral train and exact floral arrangements at Davis's funeral procession. . . . The Death and Resurrection of Jefferson Davis is a well researched, eloquently written chronicle of Jefferson Davis' last days and funeral.

(McShane, Chuck Charlotte Observer )

The descriptions of the major events are fascinating and superbly complement the many books on Davis already available. . . . Collin's descriptions of the adoration that accompanied Davis's tour, the lamentation that surrounded his funeral, and the celebration of his monument's dedication mesh well with his examination of peoples' changing views of Davis to render this book emotionally heady. . . . The Death and Resurrection of Jefferson Davis remains an excellent work. By providing scholars and general readers with the moving final chapters of Davis's biography and by illuminating his place in southern memory, Collins has rendered an invaluable service to those interested in the Confederate leader and his Lost Cause.

(Anderson, Jeffrey E. Civilwarbookreview.Com )

The Death and Resurrection of Jefferson Davis is an interesting book about the postwar restoration among southerners of Confederate president Jefferson Davis as one of the Civil War greats. Recommended. (Thomas, E. M. Choice )

Donald Collins has provided an important addition to our understanding of one of the last chapters of the Confederacy. The transformation of Jefferson Davis from pariah to paragon is a critical step in the formation of resurgent Southern nationalism at the dawn of the twentieth century. (Civil War History )

About the Author
Donald E. Collins is associate professor of history, emeritus at East Carolina University. An avid Civil War scholar, he has published numerous articles on the war and southern history and lives in Greenville, NC.