1889, December 6—With his wife at his bedside, died in New Orleans, Louisiana at the home of his dear friend, J. U. Payne—(was on his way back to Beauvoir from his Brierfield Plantation near Vicksburg, Mississippi).
1889, December 12—Body moved to City Hall, where it lay in state for over four days before temporary burial in Metairie Cemetery in the semi-underground vault of the Army of Northern Virginia, surmounted by the statue of Stonewall Jackson. Reporting on the funeral, the New Orleans Times Democrat said editorially: “This generation will never again look upon the like of this day’s funeral pageant—”.
1893, May 27—The remains of Jefferson Davis in a heavy brass trimmed oak casket removed from the temporary vault to Confederate Memorial Hall. On the following day, in a touching speech, Governor Murphy J. Foster of Louisiana, delivered the casket to the committee of Veterans from Virginia sent to receive it.
1893, May 28 to May 30—“The Great Chieftain’s Last Ride”—funeral train made a brief stop at Beauvoir before making three full stops for the body to lie in state in the capitols of Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina.
1893, May 31—After lying in state in the Capitol at Richmond, Virginia during the morning, the funeral procession, with Mrs. Davis and her daughters, Margaret and Winnie, in a carriage directly back of the caisson drawn by six white horses, slowly made its way to Hollywood Cemetery, where there and along the streets leading to the cemetery were gathered at least 75,000 people. A 21-gun salute and taps were the final acts in the burial of the First and Only President of the Confederate States of America.
THE FAMILY OF JEFFERSON DAVIS
The following data were obtained from the Department of Archives and History, Jackson, Mississippi, and “Jefferson Davis’—Private Papers, 1823-1889” selected and edited by Hudson Strode—1966.
Morgan Davis, ancestor of Jefferson Davis, came to Pennsylvania in 1684 from Wales—the line of descent follows: Morgan Davis, father of John Davis; John Davis, father of Evan Davis; Evan Davis, father of Samuel Emory Davis; Samuel Emory Davis, father of Jefferson Davis.
The children of Jefferson Davis and wife, Varina Howell Davis, follow:
1. Samuel Emory: born July 30, 1852; died June 30, 1854.
2. Margaret Howell: born February 25, 1855; married J. A. Hayes January 1, 1876; died July 19, 1909.
3. Jefferson Davis, Jr.: born January 16, 1857; died October 10, 1878, unmarried.
4. Joseph Evan: born April 18, 1859; died April 30, 1864.
5. William Howell: born December 16, 1861; died October 16, 1872.
6. Varina Anne (Winnie), “The Daughter of the Confederacy”: born June 27, 1864; died September 18, 1898, unmarried.