A Short History of the Confederate States of America A Short History of the Confederate States of America A Short History of the Confederate States of America is a memoir written by Jefferson Davis, completed shortly before his death in 1889. Davis wrote most of this book while staying at Beauvoir along the Mississippi Gulf Coast near Biloxi, Mississippi. The book is much less a Davis memoir than an articulation of the secession argument. In Davis' earlier work, "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government", he had written what is probably the most thorough exegesis of the compact theory of the United States Constitution in existence, devoting the
Great Seal of the Confederate States of America Great Seal of the Confederate States of America The Great Seal of the Confederate States of America, formally the Seal of the Confederate States, was used to authenticate certain documents issued by the C.S. government. The phrase is used both for the physical seal itself (which was kept by the C.S. Secretary of State), and more generally for the design impressed upon it. On May 20, 1863, Secretary of State Judah Benjamin instructed James Mason to arrange for its manufacture in London. It was first used publicly in 1864. The seal prominently features George Washington on horseback, in the same