THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 25, 1996 TAG: 9602230553
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GEORGE TUCKER
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
You don't have to be a dyed-in-the-wool Rebel to appreciate the White House of the Confederacy, the Valhalla of the Lost Cause in Richmond that has recently been subjected to a good deal of unfavorable publicity.
Take me, for example. Unlike my Civil War era ancestors, all of whom were Union sympathizers, I early developed a keen interest in the more gallant Southern aspects of the Late Unpleasantness. Maybe it was because I was born and bred in Berkley, where anyone tainted with Federal forebears was automatically regarded as a wood's colt at a family reunion.
Even so, I had sense enough to conceal the fact that my antecedents wore Union suits rather than Butternut Gray. As a result I was encouraged by my mentors to explore the more human aspects of what some Dixiecrats still refer to as the War of Northern Aggression. And one of the landmarks I achieved while pursuing my hobby was the discovery of the White House of the Confederacy during a visit to the Holy City as an adolescent.
At that time what some Richmonders still like to designate as the ``Gray House of the Confederacy,'' to differentiate it from President Clinton's official domicile in Washington, was an oversized version of Charles Dickens' Old Curiosity Shop. I didn't let that dampen my enthusiasm, however, when I found the collection ranged from the coat General Lee wore when he surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox to tattered mementos of the Boys in Gray whose valiant struggles to preserve the Southern way of life were eventually embittered by defeat.
But I am getting ahead of my story, for something should be said concerning the historic house that until recently housed these treasures.
Built in 1818, the house passed through several hands until the eve of the Civil War. It was then bought by the City of Richmond and offered as a gift to Jefferson Davis, the only President of the Confederate States of America. Davis declined the gift, but the Confederate government rented it as its Executive Mansion anyway.
From 1862 to 1865, the house was the domestic hub of the Southern effort at independence. It was also the constant target of pro-Union spies. One of the most successful of these was Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Bowser, an African-American domestic, whose eavesdropping furnished the besieging Federals with invaluable secret political and military information.
When the Confederate government fled from Richmond in April 1865, the Union forces took over the house. Later, when Abraham Lincoln visited the city on the day it was occupied, he relaxed for a short time in a rocking chair in what had only lately been Mrs. Davis' drawing room.
Held by the Federal forces until 1870, the house was then returned to the city. Meanwhile, having barely escaped being turned over to the Freedman's Bureau to be used as a Negro Normal School, it was made a public school, a function it filled until 1890. Three years later, after the Richmond School Board threatened to tear down the house, it was acquired by the Confederate Memorial Literary Society and became a museum for Confederate relics. Each Southern state was assigned a room of its own and it was not long before the place was crammed to the rafters with mementos of the Lost Cause.
That was the state of things when I first visited it. Now a complete change has taken place. Realizing the importance of maintaining a well-organized museum, the Society has lately erected a contemporary style showcase behind the house, featuring only its most significant artifacts. In connection with the updated museum, the Society's vast collection of Confederate-oriented documents has also been properly cataloged and made available to scholars.
Meanwhile, the house has been completely transformed from a dusty repository of miscellaneous relics into a careful restoration of what it was like when the Davis family lived there. As an added inducement for tourists, the house is also now staffed with well-informed guides who successfully bring its vivid history into proper focus.
So you see why I am still enthusiastic about the White House of the Confederacy, even though I am descended from Yankee sympathizers. And as a parting shot, let me point out the grounds contain the propeller shaft of the CSS Virginia (the former USS Merrimack). Now I ask you, where else could you find a more appropriate seat to take a load off your feet while you glory in the assurance that we now enjoy the blessings of an undivided country? by CNB