The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government.

DAVIS, Jefferson.

Item Number: 102182

New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1881.

First edition of Jefferson Davis’ important history of the Confederacy, with 18 maps (14 folding) and 19 plates, including stipple-engraved portraits of Davis, members of the presidential staff, General Lee, and others. Thick octavo, original brown cloth gilt, patterned endpapers, with steel-engraved plates, including frontispiece portraits, wood-engraved plates, maps. In near fine condition. An exceptional example.

Jefferson Davis wrote most of the Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government at Beauvoir, the Biloxi, Mississippi plantation where he was living as a guest of the novelist and wealthy widow, Sarah Ellis Dorsey. Ill with cancer, in 1878 she made over her will and left the plantation to him before her death in 1879. She had already assisted him in his writing, notably with organization, editing and encouragement. Davis was also assisted by his wife, Varina, and his secretary Major W.T. Walthall. He corresponded voluminously with surviving Confederate statesmen and generals, including Judah Benjamin and Jubal Early, for fact checking and details on key issues.