The 13-acre
Jefferson Davis Monument Park at Irwinville, Georgia, features the
Jefferson Davis Memorial Museum built in 1939 as a project of the Works
Progress Administration. A fierce opponent of FDR, Governor Eugene
Talmadge ensured that Georgia would receive credit for building the
museum. The land was deeded to the State by Judge Reuben Walton
Clements with the wish that “no Yankee ever own this hallowed ground.”
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
Jefferson Davis Memorial Park
“[Near]
Irwinville [is the] Jefferson Davis Memorial State Park . . . an area
of some twelve acres commemorating the site where the President of the
Confederacy was taken prisoner by Federal troops at the close of the
war. After seeing Davis arrested, the father of James D. Clements (who
was later one of the actual donors of the park site) vowed to commit the
land to the people of South. A stone marker designates the exact spot
on which Davis was captured.
The
Confederate Museum, of modified Southern Colonial [architectural]
style, contains a collection of documents relating to the Confederacy
and relics of the War between the States. A superintendent is on duty to
answer questions.
The
site of the park is pleasingly located near a trailing brook in a grove
of Georgia longleaf pine. Paths interlace the adjoining woodland which
is in the center of some of the finest farmlands in Georgia.
The
Davis Monument, a granite shaft surmounted with a bronze bust of Davis,
bears on its side a bas-relief panel depicting his capture. Davis had
left Washington, Georgia, where his last cabinet meeting was held, and
with his family was on the way to a Southern port. Early in the morning
of May 10, 1865, he was overtaken by Union soldiers and sent to Fortress
Monroe.
To
the right of the monument a small stream can be crossed to the skirmish
ground, a hillside covered with a growth of wiregrass and tall yellow
pines. A brief engagement occurred here in the early morning of May 10
between a detachment of the Michigan cavalry, attempting to cut off the
Davis party, and a body of Wisconsin cavalry on the same mission. Each
mistaking the other for Confederate forces, opened fire, and harm was
done before daylight permitted identification. A marker indicates this
spot.”
(Georgia, A Guide to its Towns and Countryside, George G. Leckie, Tupper & Love, 1940, pp. 212-213)
