Jefferson Davis: Unconquerable Heart (Shades of Blue and Gray)

Preeminent Civil War historian Frank Vandiver always longed to see an interpretive biography of Jefferson Davis. Finally more than twenty years after Vandiver expressed that wish publication of Jefferson Davis Unconquerable Heart makes such an interpretive biography available. Felicity Allen begins this monumental work with Daviss political imprisonment at the end of the Civil War and masterfully flashes back to his earlier life interweaving Daviss private life as a schoolboy a Mississippi planter a husband a father and a political leader. She follows him from West Point through army service on the frontier his election to the U.S. House of Representatives his regimental command in the Mexican War his service as U.S. secretary of war and senator and his term as president of the Confederate States of America. Although Daviss family is the nexus of this biography friends and enemies also play major roles. Among his friends intimately met in this book are such stellar figures as Andrew Jackson John C. Calhoun Zachary Taylor Franklin Pierce Albert Sidney Johnston and Robert E. Lee. With the use of contemporary accounts and Daviss own correspondence Jefferson Davis Unconquerable Heart casts new light upon this remarkable man thawing the icy image of Davis in many previous accounts. Felicity Allen shows a strong yet gentle man; a stern soldier who loved horses guns poetry and children; a master of the English language with a dry wit; a man of powerful feelings who held them in such tight control that he was considered cold; and a home-loving Mississippian who was drawn into a vortex of national events and eventual catastrophe. At all times "duty honor country" ruled his mind. Daviss Christian view of life runs like a thread throughout the book binding together his devotion to God his family and the land. Jefferson Davis Unconquerable Heart brings Davis to life in a way that has never been done before. The variety of his experience the breadth of his learning and the consistency of his beliefs make this historical figure eminently worth knowing.