Beauvoir In Biloxi Mississippi

 On the gulf coast of Mississippi sits a piece of history that is not well known. When I moved to Mississippi as a junior in high school, I knew from history class what the civil war was, a war to end slavery. I didn’t know that the home of the president of the confederacy laid not far from our first apartment. On a trip to visit this historical place, I learned more about this man who quietly made history by standing up for what he believed. He worried about the rights of the states and at the end of the day, I learned that the civil war balanced on the rights of each state to change the course of their path, not a central all-controlling federal government. I also learned that the dynamics of the Civil War wasn’t slavery, though this was a component. Not to go into perceptions and interpretations of the past we know what is written and saved not actually what was happening at the time history was made. We are here to take a short little trip to Beauvoir and see what life was like in the 1800s

 Beauvoir was built by James Brown as a summer home starting in 1848 and being completed in 1852. It has housed the Brown family, Davis family, Sarah Dorsey an American author of the time, and later civil war veterans home. Jefferson Davis moved to Beauvoir in 1877 where he rented a cottage from Ms. Dorsey for $50 a month, the cottage once housed the schoolroom for the Brown children. Davis wrote his book, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government in this cottage with the help of his wife Varina.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina plowed into the gulf coast creating millions of dollars in damage. Beauvoir being in the path of Katrina sustained considerable damage. In previous visits, I remember lush oak trees shading the paths, a rose garden filled with plants, and a museum housing many artifacts. Many of the buildings that were there were destroyed and the Mississippi division of the United Sons of Confederate Veterans who own and operate Beauvoir have put in many hours to restore this piece of history. The cottage Davis rented was destroyed and has been reproduced as well as other structures on the property.

This piece of history also holds the graves of approximately 780 confederate veterans, wives, and widows as well as members of Davis’s family and others. On a recent visit, I learned that the graves were not just confederate affiliated but also union and that the last confederate burial was in 1980. The remains of a 15-year-old were uncovered in a shallow grave and reburied in the Confederate Soldiers’ Home Cemetery. The author of the Buffalo Bill dime novels, Prentiss Ingraham, is buried there as well as Jefferson Davis’ father, Samuel Emory Davis, who was a revolutionary war veteran and was reinterred at Beauvoir in 1942.

Beauvoir not only housed Jefferson Davis it also was the home of veterans of the civil war and their families until the 1950s. The veterans left their mark not only on their graves but also in the work they did around the grounds of Beauvoir. Being on the losing side of the war between the states doesn’t diminish the fact that these men were veterans of a war that happened on our nation’s land. Did they fight for wrong ideals or hated beliefs, maybe, but every war fought has been at the expense of someone’s wrong ideals or hated beliefs.

Beauvoir has gone through a transformation through the years and has survived 26 major hurricanes in its history, but like the memory of southerners and northerners alike, the history behind this beautiful piece of history has remained strong and vivid. As you walk the grounds of this majestic southern home you see the damage that is still being healed in the trees, but the resilience of these old trees and the heritage that surrounds this home lives on to see another day.

Beauvoir is a national historic landmark and is dedicated to preserving the legacy of Jefferson Davis. It is owned and operated by the Mississippi Division of the United Sons of the Confederate Veterans, Inc. a non-profit organization. The home relies on the admission receipts, gift shop sales, and contributions to find the grounds.

Our history is something that should be learned from not hidden away or destroyed. History is ugly and hurts sometimes but the people in our past are the ones who have made the present, and we are the ones who will determine our future. Do we erase the past, and build hate in our present, so the future will be the same? Or are we learning, growing, and building from our past so our future will be better?