History Commons^™

“A Debt Of Honor”: The Hegemonic Benevolence Of Richmond’S Female Elites At The “Last Confederate Christmas” Of 1864, Ashley M. Whitehead

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

In poignant remembrance of the last Christmas in the Confederate White House, Varina Davis, First Lady of the Confederacy, reflected upon that special event in an extended article for the New York Sunday World, some thirty-two years after the Confederacy’s final Christmas. Davis recounted the event fondly and praised the transformation of her female peers into perfect models of Confederate endurance under the extreme duress of civil war. In re-creating the dramaturgy of the three-part event, which was organized and hosted in large part by the Confederacy’s First Lady, Davis opened a critical window into southern sensibilities and the cultural …