1201 E Clay St
Richmond, VA 23219, USA

National Register of Historic Places - White House of the Confederacy (Brockenbrough Mansion;Museum of the Confederacy;Dr. John Bro)

Statement of Significant:

The White House of the Confederacy served as Executive Mansion for the Seceding States 1861-65. President Jefferson Davis and his family lived here throughout their residence in Richmond. Many of the decisions which were critical in determining the course of the war were undoubtedly made here.

Biography
Jefferson Davis (1808-1889), U.S. statesman and only president of the Confederate States of America, lived in the Richmond White House from 1862 until the end of the Civil War.
Davis was a reluctant secessionist who nevertheless resigned his Senate seat to accept the Confederate presidency in February 1862. Negotiations for peaceful separation were proposed but never begun; on April 13, the bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor-initiated hostilities.
The Confederate states were in poor condition to withstand invasion. Their white population was one-fourth that of the Union states; they had no navy, no powder mill, and an industrial capacity a fraction that of the North's. Davis was very energetic in his efforts to create factories, restore naval yards, and purchase arms and ammunition from abroad. Most important were his attempts at gaining diplomatic support from France and England. Davis hoped that their need for cotton would induce them to recognize Confederate independence, if not actually join in a military alliance. The repulse of the Confederate army at Antietam in August 1862, provided President Lincoln with the opportunity for issuing his Emancipation Proclamation. The transformation of the war from one fought for the Union into one fought for "freedom" foreclosed any possibility of foreign intervention.
Davis only other hope for achieving Southern independence was to maintain the Confederacy as a functioning economic and military force until the presidential election of 1864. George MacClellan, a war hero and peace candidate, was opposing Lincoln on the Democratic ticket. When the Union General W. T. Sherman routed the defending Confederate army and entered Atlanta September 1, 1864, Lincoln's reelection was assured. On April 9, 1865, Lee's Army of Northern Virginia surrendered at Appomattox. Davis planned to continue resistance from west of the Mississippi, but was captured near Irwinville, Georgia, on May 10, 1865.

Davis as President was far too prone to involve himself in the finer points of military strategy; his interference contributed to several decisive Confederate defeats. But he was the only Confederate statesman of sufficient stature to hold a loose amalgam of semi-independent states together through four years of total war. It is doubtful whether any other man in the South possessed the strength, integrity, and experience necessary to begin a new nation and, simultaneously, wage war with one of the great military powers in the world at that time. After the war, Davis became a symbol of Southern pride. Sen. John Daniel of Virginia wrote in 1890: "Had a man less sober-minded and less strong than Davis been in his place the Confederacy would not only have gone down in material ruin--it would have been buried in disgrace." Davis died December 6, 1889, and was buried in Richmond, Virginia.

Dr John Brockenbrough House, 1201 East Clay St Richmond, Independent City, VA

The White House of the Confederacy served as the Executive Mansion for Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his family from August 1861 to April 1865.