died on this date, 1889 at age 81
“Several notable Northern lawyers offered their free services to defend him in a treason trial, which Davis longed for. The government, however, never forced the issue—because, many believe, it feared that such a trial might establish that the original Constitution gave the states a right to secede.“
Davis died in 1889 in New Orleans of a complicated bronchial ailment. At his temporary interment he was accorded the greatest funeral the South had ever known. On May 31, 1893, he was buried permanently in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.
Lincoln illegally invaded sovereign States when they exercised their right to withdraw from the voluntary union. Regardless of the narrative – the victors write the histories – the invasion had more to do with the economics of cotton (the global commodity of its day) than slavery or “save the union”. It was Lincoln that changed the nation from a union of sovereign States to a centralized Union of subservient states.
I was raised “Yankee” but looking at different levels of history, including family papers, my participating ancestors fought for their State, not some need to Save The Union (the slavery issue came up later in the war). The family at the time was anti-slavery but pro “States Rights”. They aligned with the north (in a state militia, not directly the US Army) simply because the Confederates invaded the neutral State and raided close to their home.
G’grandpa was with mounted infantry, mostly performing scouting duties, primarily in eastern Kentucky. His brothers were scattered around, one of whom served with him, another was with the Confederates. They all survived the war.
The only major battles g’gramps was part of were Salyersville, Cynthiana, and Saltville I (which was the only time his unit left the state). He was part of the action at Mt Sterling, chasing Morgan’s raiders, New Haven, and Roaring Springs. He mustered out in December ’64, before Saltville II. My father’s grandfather; he died at age 61, long before my father was born.
Kentucky was a torn state during and after the war, more so than the “true” southern states. Kentucky had a star on both flags – Kentucky being the central star on what people think of as the Confederate flag. Those issues still persist; I have a close cousin who is proud of her Confederate heritage … even though her g’grandfather, her only direct ancestor in the war, was a proud member of the GAR as stated on his tombstone. Facts sometimes get in the way of the desired narrative.
