Varina Anne Davis
Daughter of the Confederacy

Varina Anne Davis, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jefferson Davis, was
born in 1865 during the last year of the Civil War in the Confederate
White House. Her father was the President of the Confederate States
at the time of her birth. She was named for her mother and was the
youngest of the Davis children. She was called "Winnie" for most of
her life; a pet name Jefferson had first given his wife and then his
daughter. According to what she was told as a child, "Winnie" was an
Indian name meaning "bright or sunny".

When the Civil War was finally over, President Davis became a
prisoner. Baby Winnie was the only one of the children allowed to
accompany Mrs. Davis on her visit to the prison to see her husband.
Soon after this, Winnie was sent to visit relatives in Canada, where she
remained until Mr. Davis was settled in Memphis, Tennessee.

Winnie received most of her early education at home from her mother
in the post-Civil War years. At the age of twelve, Winnie was taken to
Europe, where she was enrolled in a boarding school in Karlsruhe,
Germany. Here she received a thorough education. Afterwards, she
spent some time in Paris, France, to finish her social education and
was then she was ready to take a leading role in the intellectual and
social society among the people of the South. Winnie's beauty and
grace and her kind-hearted manner made her a distinguished favorite
in both the North and the South. Soon after her return to America,
while on a visit to Atlanta, she was introduced by General John B.
Gordon as "The Daughter of the Confederacy" and this title clung to
her for all time (King, Woman, p. 467).

Winnie showed much skill in the arts. She was a fine painter and
skilled musician. She had also inherited her mother's literary interests
and published several books under the name of Varina Anne Jefferson
Davis. Some of the titles were "An Irish Knight of the Seventeenth
Century", "The Veiled Doctor", and "Foreign Education for American
Girls".

Winnie lived with her parents during most of the 1880's and
accompanied her father to many public functions. At one point,
Winnie was engaged to Alfred C. Wilkinson, a Syracuse, New York
attorney, whose grandfather had been a leading abolitionist. While
their romance lasted five years, they finally succumbed to public
outcry against their union.

In 1891, Winnie moved to New York City to continue her literary
career. Later on, she bought a beautiful home at Beuvoir, Mississippi,
but the closing years of her life were largely spent in travel.

Varina Anne Davis died on September 18, 1898 after an illness of
several weeks. It is believed that on a trip to Rhode Island she
contracted "malarial gastritis". The funeral services were held in
Richmond, Virginia and her body was laid to rest beside that of her
father in Hollywood Cemetery. In keeping with her status among ex-
Confederates, Winnie was buried with full military honors.

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Excerpt from "History's Women - The Unsung Heroines" available
for $12.99 at: https://www.pcpublications.org/hw/form.html