By STUART FERGUSON
Wall Street Journal
August 28, 2008; Page D11
Biloxi, Miss.
In 1878, ex-Confederate President Jefferson Davis wrote: "Our house was given its name by its former possessor to express
a beautiful prospect. The air is soft. In winter especially the sea breeze is invigorating. The oranges are shining golden on
the trees, and our pine-knot fires soar in the chimneys; in their light I try to bury my unhappiness."
Davis had much to be unhappy about. Not only had the South's bid for independence failed and its leader been
arrested and imprisoned -- for a brief time in chains -- but Davis was sickly and broke. Beauvoir would be his final refuge
from 1877 to 1889, when he died in New Orleans returning from a trip to Brierfield, his old plantation on the
Mississippi River.
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