Gordon Cotton, above, addresses the audience at Vicksburg’s floodwall as the Jefferson Davis mural is unveiled Thursday. (Jon Giffin The Vicksburg Post)

[6/4/04]The great-granddaughter and great-great-grandson of Jefferson Davis were among about 120 people Thursday who attended the unveiling of the 10th historic Vicksburg mural.

The latest work by Louisiana artist Robert Dafford depicts Davis on the day in February 1861 when he learned that he had been elected president of the Confederate State of America. The painting shows Davis standing outside Brierfield, his home in south Warren County, between his wife and the courier who delivered the news.

To Davis’ right, a storm approaches from the same direction as the messenger.

“Robert, you have done an outstanding job,” said Jefferson Davis Webb, a great-great-grandson of Davis who was visiting from his home in Alaska. “Thank you very, very much.”

The day of the mural unveiling was picked because June 3 was Davis’ birthday.

The mural was sponsored by the Vicksburg and Warren County Historical Society and friends of the Old Court House Museum. Gordon Cotton, curator of the museum, said the depiction captured the event exactly as it was later described by Davis’ wife, Varina Howell Davis.

“(Davis) was a man who always responded to the call of duty and he heard the call that day,” Cotton said.

Davis had lived on his plantation southwest of LeTourneau at present day Davis Island. His home there burned in 1931, and the land was cut off from Warren County when the river changed course a century ago.

“He made his first public speech as president-elect right down the street from here around the foot of Jackson Street,” Cotton said. After the courier left, Davis boarded a steamer headed upriver to Vicksburg and headed to the Confederate capital.

After the war, Davis lived out the rest of his life on the Mississippi Coast at Beauvoir. He died in 1889 in New Orleans.

The floodwall mural is part of a series depicting events in and around Vicksburg. Others in the series illustrate railroad traffic in the 1800s, downtown Vicksburg and river traffic.

Others planned for the wall include, “The Early Beginning,” “The Sultana,” “The Civil War” and “The National Military Park.”

Not everyone there Thursday was pleased with the mural unveiling. Outspoken city resident John Shorter said he was disappointed that a quote suggested for the mural was cut short. He had complained that the mural depicted Davis in too positive a manner. The quote by Davis after the Civil War he had asked be added is, “The past is dead. Let it bury its dead, its hopes and its aspirations. Before you lies the future. A future of golden promises. A future of expanding national glory before which all the world will stand amazed.”

The last two sentences of the quote were included on a plaque placed at the foot of the mural.

“It changes the whole meaning,” Shorter said.

He also said that the quote should have been placed on the mural instead of on the plaque. Mural committee chairman Nellie Caldwell said that would not have been possible.

The only other murals with writing on them are one on the river side of the wall welcoming people to Vicksburg and a second mural showing the early development of the city.

Cotton spoke at the dedication, reading from the obituary written about Davis by John G. Cashman the day after Davis died in New Orleans in 1889. He also thanked private donors who provided the $15,000 for the mural plus other costs.

The Cashman obituary said, in part, that no telling of the story of America would be complete without including the role of Jefferson Davis.