Varina Anne "Winnie" Davis (1864-1898) was the second daughter and sixth child, of Jefferson and Varina Howell Davis. The youngest, she was the only one who was allowed to visit her father in Fort Monroe with her mother, during his two years of imprisonment following the War.
In her early years she was home schooled, and then sent to Germany to study at the age of twelve, where she stayed for more than five years. Later she attending boarding school in Paris. Interestingly, in later years, she wrote a biography in which she declared it folly to send children to Europe to be educated. Wow, I was just thinking how much fun that must have been, oh well.
On a visit in Atlanta in 1886, the Governor anointed her as"The Daughter of the Confederacy". This title stuck and she became an icon for Confederate Veteran groups. Along with her aging father, she made public appearances and speeches and acted as his representative.
She was engaged once, to a man from NYC. When she announced her engagement to the "Yankee" an outcry in the South dampened the romance and it soon ended. In 1891 she and her widowed mother moved to New York where they worked as correspondents for the New York World paper.
She died at the age of 34 of malaria and was buried with military honors in Richmond, next to her Father's grave.
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