The person who sent me the info about the destruction at Beauvoir has a website where he will be posting information about other WBtStates site damage. http://civilwarinteractive.com/ (click on Breaking News) I have permission to cross post this. Jane Foley > Those of us who endulge our interest in genealogy have a deep core of > respect for history. I received this email today about the fate of Beauvoir, Jefferson Davis' home. > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > Jefferson Davis' Biloxi Home Beauvoir > Reported "Demolished" by Hurricane > > Beauvoir, the last home of Jefferson Davis, was reported late Tuesday to > be "virtually demolished" by Hurricane Katrina. The Jackson, MS, Clarion > Ledger said that the historic building has been "reduced to rubble and a > frame of a house." > > The house was located on the north side of Beach Boulevard, across from a > number of "barge style" casinos. One of the closest, the President Casino, > was lifted whole from its mooring pillars and transported across the > highway where it came to rest crushing a Holiday Inn. > > The house, constructed in 1854, was dedicated in 1998 as the "Jefferson > Davis Presidential Library and Museum." > > After Davis' death Beauvoir evolved first into the Jefferson Davis > Soldiers' Home, serving as a hospital and residence for disabled > Confederate veterans and their dependents. > > The Beauvoir Confederate Cemetery is located at the extreme northwest > corner of the estate and contains over 750 graves. One of them is Sam > Davis, father of Jefferson Davis, whose body was moved there when the > Mississippi River threatened his original gravesite at Hurricane > Plantation. > > The Beauvoir cemetery is also the home of the Grave of the Unknown > Confederate Soldier in an above-ground granite shrine. No reports on its > condition are available. > > Another nearby burial ground, Southern Memorial Park, had its mausoleum > torn open by the force of the onrushing water, and witnesses told the > Clarion-Ledger that numerous caskets were strewn about the grounds. Most > "burials" in the area are above-ground entombments due to difficulties > with the high water table. > > The home and grounds have been open to the public since 1957. In 1969 > Beauvoir survived Hurricane Camille but the museum, at that time in the > basement of the house, was severely flooded. The Library cottage suffered > severe damage from that storm. Both had since been rebuilt.