Brierfield

Davis Bend, Mississippi

Brothers Jefferson and Joseph Davis had adjacent plantations on what was known as Davis Bend (now Davis Island), about twenty miles down the Mississippi River from Vicksburg. Joseph built his "Hurricane" estate in the 1820s, and Jefferson began clearing "Brierfield" in 1835. The modest main house (pictured here in a drawing from Davis' Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government) was constructed in 1848 after Davis returned from the Mexican War. After the Civil War, Davis had to sue the heirs of Joseph E. Davis to regain possession of the plantation, which he did in 1878. The house was destroyed by fire in 1931, and the grounds are currently a private hunting reserve, inaccessible by land transportation.

For more information, see Frank E. Everett, Jr., Brierfield: Plantation Home of Jefferson Davis (1971), and the published volumes of The Papers of Jefferson Davis.