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Show Second Bride Was South's "First Lady" t - - ,! i '.' ,i , . j -i I i ' i i' s f 4 VARINA HOWELL I) AVIS After a long struggle, Jefferson Davis recovered from the fever that had taken his bride and sadly sad-ly returned to Mississippi, where lie became a studious recluse, devoting de-voting his attention to the interpretation inter-pretation of the Constitution and the matter of state rights. Undoubtedly Un-doubtedly it was during this time that he acquired the convictions which would make it possible for him during the next two decades to subscribe to the doctrine of secession se-cession and consent to become president of the new Confederate States of America. Another Romance. But in the meantime romance had again entered his life in the form of another seventeen-year-old girl, Varina Howell, the dark-eyed, dark-eyed, dark-haired daughter of W. B. Howell, a wealthy cotton planter plant-er who lived at "The Briers" near Natchez, and who was a friend of Joseph Emory Davis. Jefferson Jeffer-son Davis first met her when she came to visit "Diamond Place," the plantation of his sister, Mr David McCaleb. Concerning that meeting. Varina Howell wrote to her mother: "Today Uncle Joe sent, by his younger brother (did you know he had one?) an urgent invitation t me to go at once to 'The Hurricane.' Hurri-cane.' I do not know whether this Mr. Jefferson Davis is young or old. He looks both at times; but I believe he is old, for from what I hear he is only two years younger young-er than you. . . He is most agreeable agree-able and has a peculiarly sweet voice and a winning manner of asserting himself. The fact is. he is the kind of person I should expect ex-pect to rescue me from a maJ dog at any risk, but to insist upon a stoical indifference to the fright afterwards. I do not think I shall ever like him as I do his brother, Joe." But young Varina Howell proved to be a poor prophetess For she did come to like him enough to marry him. That event took place a little more than two years later, on February 26, 1S45. In the meantime Jefferson Davis, stirred to ambition, no doubt, by his love for her, had come out of his seclusion to enter the arena of politics. In 1344, while Davis was courting young Miss Howell, he stumped the state as an elector for James K. Polk and in 1345. a few months after his marriage, he was elected to congress as rep-resentative-at-large. His career in the national legislature was cut short by the outbreak of the War with Mexico. He resigned from the house and raised a volunteer regiment, the "Mississippi Rifles" of which he was made colonel. This regiment became the crack volunteer organization in Gen. Zachary Taylor's army, which it joined in September, 1C46. The Hero of Buena Vista. The Rifles distinguished them selves at the battle of Monterey but even more at the battle of Buena Vista where Davis did more than any other of Taylor's subordinaets .to win a victory. Tate says: "ColonelDavis, wounded wound-ed in the foot, went home on crutches, the hero of the hour. The mob cheered him in New Orleans, Or-leans, and he was eulogized by the great Prentiss. He had always thought of himself as a soldier; in a sense he had reached 'the zenith of his career. He seems to have believed the applause." In fact, that was one of the tragedies of Jefferson Davis his belief in his own militao' genius. When he became president of the Confederacy that belief contributed contribut-ed to his downfall and to the downfall of the cause to which he had pledged himself. If he had listened to the advice of other men who more nearly resembled "military genius" than he ever did, the result of the struggle from 1861 to 1865 might have been different. As a sort of corollary to that is another interesting "if." If the malaria had not carried away Sarah Knox Taylor Davis in 1835 and she, instead of Varina Howell Davis, had been the helpmate and closest companion of Jefferson Jeffer-son Davis, would his career have been different? Would her aversion aver-sion to army life, learned from her father, "Old Rough and Ready," have prevented his return re-turn to it in 1346, thereby winning the honors which contributed to his political advancement and eventually the climax of his career ca-reer his election to the presidency presi-dency of the Confederacy? |