Docketed by the 1st Lady of the Confederacy, Mrs. Varina Howell Davis

5 1/2 x 3 1/4, with imprinted return address, "If not called for in 10 days, return to Roanoke College, Salem, Va." Addressed in ink to Hon. Jefferson Davis, Beauvoir, Harrison Co., Miss., with partial C.D.S., Salem, Va., Aug. 6, 1881, with 3 cents green George Washington postage stamp. The cover has been docketed along the left edge in ink by Mrs. Varina Davis as follows: "R.C. Holland on the right of secession, complimentary." Light age toning and wear. Jagged right edge where the envelope was originally opened. The cover is complete to include its back flap. Very desirable Jefferson Davis, and Mrs. Varina Davis related postal cover.

President Jefferson Davis:
(1808-1889) Graduated in the West Point class of 1828. He married the daughter of General and later President Zachary Taylor, but she tragically died only three months after their marriage. Elected to the U.S. Congress in 1845 from Mississippi, he resigned to fight in the Mexican War, serving under the command of General Taylor, and he was severely wounded at the battle of Buena Vista. He declined the appointment of brigadier general in the United States Army to re-enter politics, serving as a U.S. Senator from Mississippi. In 1853, he was appointed Secretary of War by President Franklin Pierce. He was chosen as the provisional president of the Confederacy and was inaugurated in February 1861, at Montgomery, Alabama, and was later inaugurated as president of the permanent government at Richmond, on February 22, 1862. Fleeing from Richmond with his cabinet at the end of the war, he was captured on May 10, 1865, at Irwinsville, Ga., and held in prison for 2 years at Fort Monroe, Va.

Mrs. Varina Howell Davis:
(1826-1906) She was the wife of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Varina Howell, a Natchez, Mississippi girl, not yet twenty years old, married Jefferson Davis on February 25, 1845. She became the mainstay of his life; independent, sometimes willful, she irritated the older Davis at first. After a period of adjustment, she shared his trials and triumphs, fought battles for him, bore him four sons and two daughters, and loved him until the day he died, and long afterwards as she fervently protected his legacy.

The only information that I could find on R.C. Holland was that he was a reverend. Apparently based on the docket by Mrs. Varina Davis, he wrote a complimentary letter to Confederate President Jefferson Davis regarding the right of secession of the southern states.

Beauvoir was the last home of Jefferson Davis and it was the site of his retirement. The house was started in late 1848, and was completed in 1852.

The death and burial of former Confederate President Jefferson Davis:

In November 1889, Jefferson Davis left his home, Beauvoir, in Harrison County, Mississippi, and embarked on a steamboat at New Orleans in a cold rain to visit his Brierfield plantation. He fell ill during the trip, but refused to send for a doctor. An employee at Brierfield telegraphed Mrs. Davis, who took a steamer and was transferred to his vessel in mid-river. He finally got medical care and was diagnosed with acute bronchitis and malaria. When he returned to New Orleans, Davis's doctor, Stanford E. Chaille, pronounced him too ill to travel and he was taken to the home of Charles Erasmus Fenner, the son-in-law of his friend J.M. Payne. Davis remained bedridden, but stable, for the next two weeks. He then took a turn for the worse in early December, and died at 12:45 a.m. on Friday, December 6, 1889, in the presence of several friends and holding Varina's hand.

Jefferson Davis's body lay in state at the New Orleans City Hall from December 7-11, 1889. During this period the prominence of the United States flag above that of the Confederate flag emphasized Davis's relationship to the United States, but the hall was decorated by crossed U.S. and Confederate flags. Davis's funeral was one of the largest held in the South; over 200,000 mourners were estimated to have attended. During the funeral his coffin was draped with a Confederate flag and his sword from the Mexican War was placed on top. The coffin was transported on a two-mile journey to the cemetery in a four-wheeled caisson to emphasize his role as a military hero. The ceremony was brief; a eulogy was pronounced by Bishop John Nicholas Galleher, and the funeral service was that of the Episcopal Church.

After Davis's funeral, various Southern states requested to be the final resting place for the Confederate president's remains. Mrs. Davis decided that her husband should be re-buried in Richmond, once the thriving capital city of the Confederacy. She saw this as the most appropriate resting place for dead Confederate war heroes, and decided that he would be interred at Hollywood Cemetery. In May 1893, Davis's remains traveled from New Orleans to Richmond. Along the way, the train stopped at various cities, receiving military honors and visits from governors, and other officials. The coffin was allowed to lie in state in three state capitols: Montgomery, Alabama; Atlanta, Georgia; and Raleigh, North Carolina. After President Davis was reburied, his children were re-interred by his side as Varina requested, and when she died in 1906, she too was buried beside him.