Winnie Davis: Daughter of the Lost Cause

Summary (from the publisher): Varina Anne “Winnie” Davis was born into a war-torn South in June of 1864, the youngest daughter of Confederate president Jefferson Davis and his second wife, Varina Howell Davis. Born only a month after the death of beloved Confederate hero general J.E.B. Stuart during a string of Confederate victories, Winnie’s birth was hailed as a blessing by war-weary Southerners. They felt her arrival was a good omen signifying future victory. But after the Confederacy’s ultimate defeat in the Civil War, Winnie would spend her early life as a genteel refugee and an expatriate abroad.    After returning to the South from German boarding school, Winnie was christened the “Daughter of the Confederacy” in 1886. This role was bestowed upon her by a Southern culture trying to sublimate its war losses. Particularly idolized by Confederate veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Winnie became an icon of the Lost Cause, eclipsing even her father Jefferson in popularity. 

Winnie Davis:  Daughter of the Lost Cause is the first published biography of this little-known woman who unwittingly became the symbolic female figure of the defeated South. Her controversial engagement in 1890 to a Northerner lawyer whose grandfather was a famous abolitionist, and her later move to work as a writer in New York City, shocked her friends, family, and the Southern groups who worshipped her. Faced with the pressures of a community who violently rejected the match, Winnie desperately attempted to reconcile her prominent Old South history with her personal desire for tolerance and acceptance of her personal choices. 

 

Review: This book is the first biography of Varina Anne "Winnie" Davis, the youngest child of Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Born at the end of the Civil War, Winnie eventually became a living symbol of the Southern wife and family for defeated Confederates. Although highly educated in Germany and very publicly engaged, Winnie died young and single.

 

Winnie was the sixth and youngest child of Jefferson Davis and his second wife Varina. Jefferson's first wife died tragically just months after their marriage, and Jefferson is said to have never completely recovered from this loss. Jefferson and his second wife Varina lost their first child, Samuel as a baby. By the time Winnie was born the family had expanded from the loss of their first child to include Margaret, Jeff Jr., Joseph, and William. Tragically, just months before Winnie was born in 1864, young Joe fell from a balcony of the executive mansion in Richmond to his death.  Thus Winnie was born and raised in both a home and a community of mourning - of personal loss and also the loss of the war. More tragedy was to come; all four of the Davis sons would die young, leaving Jefferson and Varina with only Margaret and Winnie to carry on the family legacy.

 

Winnie was raised with an emphasis on "piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity." Personal sacrifice was applauded and Winnie sought approval through attempting to meet these ideals. At the age of thirteen, Winnie was sent to an austere boarding school in Germany. Although initially very homesick, Winnie eventually assimilated very fully into the European culture. By the completion of her schooling, "Winnie had become fluent in German and French, knowledgeable about European history, and particularly well versed in German literature and history. All this in addition to her notable skills in painting, writing, and music earned her a deserved reputation as 'one of the most cultured women of her time'" (68). After her return home, she gradually became her father's traveling companion, secretary, and literary assistant. Through attending events with her father, she became famous in her own right and was presented at public events as the "Daughter of the Confederacy," a symbol of redemption to the defeated soldiers. 

 

Winnie eventually met and fell in love with Alfred "Fred" Wilkinson, a young lawyer from New York. Once the news of their engagement became public, Winnie's family received public outcry over her engagement to a Northerner with an abolitionist grandfather. Winnie, always anxious to please, suffered from depression, anxiety, and anorexia, and was greatly troubled by this feedback. Over time, her mother also turned against the marriage and Winnie ultimately called off the engagement. Neither Winnie or Fred ever married.

 

Winnie's final years, before her death in her early 30s, were filled with Confederate events and scraping together a living through literary pursuits. Winnie and her mother moved to New York City, another unpopular move in the eyes of the South. After being caught in the rain and a short illness, Winnie died. The actual cause of her death is still unknown, although Winnie does appear to have had many health complaints throughout her life.

 

I was instantly drawn to this book because I love biographies of historical figures, particularly ones who are lesser known. I was even more excited to learn that the author is a fellow graduate of Davidson College. This was a well written and well researched book that sheds light on Winnie as a woman bound to a cause she didn't necessarily choose and which ultimately and mostly inadvertently became her life's work. I do wonder what Winnie's true feelings towards the Southern cause were. She clearly seems to have identified with European and Northern sentiments. Although much of her correspondence has been destroyed, I wonder how much of her role of "Daughter of the Confederacy" was done out of love and loyalty to her family and how much out of personal conviction.

 

Stars: 4