subscribesubscriber servicescontact usabout ussite mapBuy a Classified
Sun, Nov 08 2009 

Published: May 12, 2008 08:22 am    print this story  

Confederate president portrayed at battlefield

Bill Robinson
Register News Writer

KINGSTON June 3 will mark the 200th anniversary of an American president born in Kentucky.

It is not Abraham Lincoln. The 200th anniversary of his birth is Feb. 12, 2009. A two-year national celebration of his bicentennial began this year.

June is the birth month of that “other” native-Kentuckian who headed a national government, Jefferson Davis, first and only president of the Confederate States of America.

A more subdued commemoration of his birth will take place Sunday, June 8, in Fairview, where a 351-foot concrete obelisk, taller than a football field is long, rises above the Todd County countryside.

The Davis birth place is less than 100 miles from Lincoln’s near Hodgenville.

Two former Frankfort schoolteachers who portray Davis and his wife Varina will be among those in Fairview on June 8. On Saturday, they appeared as the Davises during a living-history weekend at Madison County’s Battlefield Park

Cliff Howard held up a large portrait of Davis, to which he bears a striking resemblance. However, the tall, bearded Howard began his living-history career by portraying Lincoln.

“We found that men portraying Lincoln outnumber those presenting Davis by about 100 to 1, said Howard’s wife Joan, who portrays Davis’ second wife.

“I was trained to be a professor, not a president,” said Howard as Davis,

“Before I could be admitted to Transylvania University in Lexington, I had to demonstrate that I could translate from the Greek New Testament.”

The school had only recently begun to accept non-ministerial students when Davis enrolled in 1822, but it still retained the Greek-language admission requirement.

Davis knew the ancient language because his father had earlier dispatched him from their Mississippi home to study at the St. Thomas Aquinas School in Springfield.

After his 1824 appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., Davis almost was denied admission because he was deficient in math.

“They didn’t want me, because I couldn’t do arithmetic,” said Davis. “I may not know arithmetic, I told them, but I can translate the New Testament from Greek. I guess they figured if I could master Greek, I could learn arithmetic.”

Howard began his portrayal of Davis almost apologetically, because the Confederate president’s leadership was harshly criticized during and after the Civil War. As chief executive of a nation based on a weak central government, Davis was chosen for his collegial, consensus-building style, Howard said.

Although he proposed gradual emancipation of slaves, Davis also is inextricably linked to the Confederacy’s attempt to prolong slavery.

“Judge us by the standards of our day, not today,” said Joan Howard as Varina Davis.

“My husband and his family treated their slaves humanely,” she said. “He even tried to reunite separated families.”

Several of the Davises’ former slaves remained with them as hired servants after emancipation.

Prior to the Howards’ portrayals of the Davises, members of Madison County’s five Masonic lodges and the Order of the Eastern Star dedicated a monument to Masonic veterans of the 1862 Battle of Richmond.

They assembled in the lawn of the Battlefield Visitor’s Center as Madison County Historic Properties Director Phillip Seyfrit and battle historian Robert Moody unveiled the stone memorial.

“Bob Moody and I got the idea for this monument during a visit to Gettysburg, where we saw what we believe to be the only Masonic memorial on a Civil War battlefield,” Seyfrit said. “This one is the second.”

“Numerous officers on both sides of the battle were master Masons,” Moody said. Some were lodge founders. The enlisted men, many in their teens, would have been too young to be Masons.

Union Gen. Malon Manson had founded a lodge in Crawfordsville, Ind.

After he was wounded, Confederate Gen. Patrick Cleburne, who was founder of an Arkansas lodge, convalesced in the home of the Kingston lodge’s master.

After the war, Masonic leaders worked to dispel the bitterness felt by some fellow Masons who had fought on opposing sides, said Robert Davenport, a past grand master of Kentucky’s grand lodge.

Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 623-1669, Ext. 267.

print this story  



autoconx
Premier Guide
Find a business

Walking Fingers
Maps, Menus, Store hours, Coupons, and more...
Premier Guide
Premier Guide
Premium Jobs

Now Taking Applications for all Positions.
Now Taking Applications for all Positions. Apply in person. Madison Gardens, 152 N. Madison Ave., downtown Richmond....>MORE

Now Hiring Shift Mgr & Asst Mgr
Now Accepting Resume/Applicantions for > Shift Manager
> & Assistant Manager. Apply at Madison
Gardens, 152
...>MORE

Appalachian Research & Defense Fund
Appalachian Research & Defense Fund of Kentucky, Inc. is accepting resumes for two full-time intake secretaries. The app...>MORE

Employment Opportunity Groundskeeping
Employment Opportunity Groundskeeping Helper
65 temp. openings. Swartz Mowing, Inc., Olympia, KY. Employment begin
...>MORE

Employment Opportunity
Employment Opportunity
Brick Mason Helper
11 temp. openings. Cross Roads Masonry, Beattyville, KY. Employment
...>MORE

Employment Opportunity Construction Helper
Employment Opportunity Construction Helper
10 temp. positions. Bobby Cameron Stone Masonry, Brodhead, KY. Employmen
...>MORE

See all ads

Premium Autos

2003 Wildwood, 37ft asking $17,000
2003 Wildwood, 37ft S/C. Like new. Air, awning, super slide. Fully loaded. Must go. Paid $28,000 asking $17,000 Best of...>MORE

Looking for a Great Auto Deal?
Looking to buy or sell? Check here for the Premium Auto Section. For More Information Call 859-624-6681. ...>MORE

2003 Wildwood, 37ft S/C. Like new. Air,
2003 Wildwood, 37ft S/C. Like new. Air, awning, super slide. Fully loaded. Must go. Paid $28,000 asking $17,000 Best of...>MORE

See all ads

Premium Rentals

Berea: 3Bd brick, 2full ba, 1car garage.
Berea: 3Bd brick, 2full ba, 1car garage. $700 + dep. No pets. 859-925-9110....>MORE

4Bd, 2ba. Westwood Dr.
4Bd, 2ba. Westwood Dr.
$850 + utils, deposit, lease, references. No pets. 314-2642.
...>MORE

3Bd, 2ba. 2000sf living space, walk-in
3Bd, 2ba. 2000sf living space, walk-in closets. Close to EKU. $950 (incls utils). 314-3081, 582-2627....>MORE

See all ads

Deal of the Day

Everything from A-Z!!!
Need to sell your bedroom suite, washer and dryer, or even selling an animal? Call Mayme or Melissa at 859-624-6681 to p...>MORE

See all ads


 

Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.CNHI Classified Advertising NetworkCNHI News Service
Associated Press content © 2009. All rights reserved. AP content may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Our site is powered by Zope and our Internet Yellow Pages site is powered by PremierGuide.
Some parts of our site may require you to download the Flash Player Plugin.
View our Privacy Policy
Advertiser index