President’s Mansion

President’s Mansion. White House of the Confederacy. This house was the executive mansion of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his family from August 1861 until April 2, 1865. A West Point graduate, former U.S. senator from Mississippi, and former U.S. secretary of war, Davis was the Confederacy’s only president. He worked long hours here, meeting with Confederate civilian and military leaders. On April 14, 1862, he held a council of war here with Secretary of War George W. Randolph, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, Gen. Robert E. Lee, and other officers to discuss the Confederacy’s defense against Union Gen. George B. McClellan’s advancing army., More often, the house was the site of official receptions and unofficial parties. One observer declared Confederate First Lady Varina Davis “to be a woman of warm heart and impetuous tongue, witty and caustic, with a sensitive nature underlying all; a devoted wife and mother, and a most gracious mistress of a salon.”, The Davises’ young family enlivened the White House. “Statesmen passing through the halls on their way to the discussion of weighty things were likely to hear the ringing laughter of the care-free and happy Davis children issuing from somewhere above the stairs or the gardens,” remembered a family friend. Two Davis children, William and Varina Anne, were born in this house; one, Joseph, died here from a fall on April 30, 1864., On April 4, 1865, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln visited here ten days before his assassination and less than 48 hours after Davis departed. Here, Lincoln began meeting with prominent Virginians to discuss the state’s reconstruction.