Jefferson Davis Memorial Historic Site

File:Jefferson Davis Memorial left marker, Irwin County, GA, US.jpg

File:Jefferson Davis Memorial right marker, Irwin County, GA, US.jpg

File:Site of Jefferson Davis Capture FSA 1936.jpg

Confederate States President Jefferson Davis fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, on April 2.Robert M. Dunkerly, To the Bitter End: Appomattox, Bennett Place, and the Surrenders of the Confederacy (Savas Beatie, 2015), p. 63-64. From April 3 through 10, Danville, Virginia served as the capital of the rapidly collapsing Confederacy.Dunkerly, p. 63. Accompanied by several members of his Cabinet (John H. Reagan, Judah P. Benjamin, and John C. Breckinridge), and his aide Burton Harrison, along with a military escort,[https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/capture-jefferson-davis Capture of Jefferson Davis], Georgia Encyclopedia (last updated June 6, 2017). the remnants of the Confederate government fled further south, passing through Greensboro and Charlotte in North Carolina and

Fort Mill, York, Abbeville, and Washington in South Carolina.Dunkerly, pp. 63-69.Michael B. Ballard, A Long Shadow: Jefferson Davis and the Final Days of the Confederacy (University of Georgia Press, 1985) (published in 1997 by Brown Thrasher), p. 115-19. Davis was informed of the surrender at Appomattox on April 13 and of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 18.Dunkerly, p. 66.

Davis and his remaining members of his party crossed the Savannah River into Georgia on May 3, 1865,{{cite web |url=http://gastateparks.org/JeffersonDavisMemorial |title=Jefferson Davis Memorial Historic Site |publisher=Georgia Department of Natural Resources}} headed for the Western and Trans-Mississippi theaters, where Davis hoped to regroup the Confederate military and continue the war.Dunkerly, p. 68. Davis arrived in Washington in Wilkes County on the same day, and dissolved the Confederate government there.Ballard, p. 116. By May 6, Davis reached Sandersville, and on May 7 he met his wife, Varina, and their children. With Union troops in close pursuit, Davis and his family fled through Wilcox County.

On the evening of May 9, Davis and his party reached Irwinville, in Irwin County, and camped in a pine forest (present-day Jefferson Davis Memorial Historic Site), unaware that Union soldiers were nearby. At dawn the next day, they were surrounded by the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry and the 4th Michigan Cavalry. The two Union regiments were unaware of each other's presence and engaged in a brief firefight (in which two cavalrymen died) before the forces realized that they had been shooting at one another. Davis attempted to flee to a nearby creek before being arrested by a Michigan cavalryman. Captured along with Davis and his wife were his private secretary Harrison, Postmaster General John Henninger Reagan, several other aides, and supply weapons and ambulances.[https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/e5a550b3-0a9b-4548-900e-def0ca908dc0?branding=NRHP National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form], Jefferson Davis Capture Site.

Davis was charged with treason and held in Fort Monroe, Virginia for two years, before being released.

The site was owned by Judge James Bagley Clements (1869-1936), who deeded four acres to the State of Georgia in 1920, "for the purposes of creating a state park." His father had bought the land after the war to ensure that "no Yankee would ever own it."Milton N. Hopkins, Jr., Around Fitzgerald, Georgia in Vintage Postcards (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2001), p. 48. Clements wrote a history of Irwin County, which included a chapter on the Davis capture and site.James B. Clements, History of Irwin County (Atlanta: Foote & Davies Co., 1932), pp. 138-145.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy erected a monument on the exact spot where Davis was captured.Dunkerly, p. 70. It consists of a granite stele set upon a stepped granite base, the stele features relief panels and inscriptions, and atop it is a bronze bust of Davis modeled by Atlanta sculptor Laurence Tompkins.[https://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=16J5L09583X81.2776&profile=ariall&source=~!siartinventories&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001~!338762~!1&ri=1&aspect=Keyword&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Georgia&index=.GW&uindex=&oper=&term=Jefferson+Davis&index=.TW&uindex=&aspect=Keyword&menu=search&ri=1 Jefferson Davis Memorial (sculpture)] from SIRIS. The relief on the front depicts a captured Davis flanked by two Union soldiers; the relief on the back depicts a battle scene; the reliefs on the sides depict the Confederate flag. The monument was dedicated on June 3, 1936.

The Works Progress Administration built the memorial's Civil War Museum, completed in 1939. Additional parcels of land were added, bringing the size of the park to nearly 13 acres by 1952.

The site ceased to be a Georgia state park in the mid-1970s, and was deeded to Irwin County in 1976. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

The monument is now surrounded by a square bed of gravel and enclosed by a low iron fence.

• Civil War Museum - film and artifacts
• Thirteen picnic sites
• Group shelter (seats 100)
• Nature trail, 1/3 mile long
• Monument
• Gift shop
• Playground

==Gallery==

{{gallery |width=296 |height=196 |Image:Jefferson Davis Memorial entrance gate.jpg|Entrance to the site from Jeff Davis Park Road

|File:Jefferson Davis Memorial museum.jpg|Civil War Museum at the Jefferson Davis Memorial

|File:19-23-001-davis.jpg|Bust of Davis inside the museum

|Image:Jefferson Davis Memorial group shelter.jpg|Group shelter at the Jefferson Davis Memorial}}

{{Portal|American Civil War|National Register of Historic Places}}

• List of Georgia state parks
• List of memorials to Jefferson Davis
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Irwin County, Georgia

{{reflist}}

{{Sister project links|display=Jefferson Davis Memorial
Historic Site|wikt=no|commonscat=yes|n=no|q=no|s=no|author=no|b=no|v=no|d=Q6175458}}

; Government

• {{Official website|http://www.jeffdavispark.com/}}
• [http://gastateparks.org/JeffersonDavisMemorial Jefferson Davis Memorial Historic Site] at Georgia Department of Natural Resources
• [https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/e5a550b3-0a9b-4548-900e-def0ca908dc0?branding=NRHP National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form], Jefferson Davis Capture Site

; General information

• [http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/topics/historical_markers/county/irwin/jefferson-davis-memorial-state-park1 Jefferson Davis Memorial State Park] at GeorgiaInfo (georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu)
• [http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/file/13142 Jefferson Davis Memorial Historic Site] at New Georgia Encyclopedia
• {{YouTube|hywQwUS_N8Y|Jefferson Davis Memorial Historic Site}}

{{Georgia state parks}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1920 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)

Category:American Civil War museums in Georgia (U.S. state)

Category:American Civil War on the National Register of Historic Places

Category:American Civil War sites in Georgia (U.S. state)

Category:Confederate States of America monuments and memorials in Georgia

Category:Monuments and memorials on the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia (U.S. state)

Memorial Historic Site

Category:Museums in Irwin County, Georgia

Category:National Register of Historic Places in Irwin County, Georgia

Category:Protected areas established in 1920

Category:Protected areas of Irwin County, Georgia

Category:State parks of Georgia (U.S. state)

Category:Works Progress Administration in Georgia (U.S. state)