“He looked bronzed and somewhat careworn, but hardy and vigorous.”
—Jefferson Davis Heritage Trail —
The Lanier House, for decades Macon's premiere hotel, opened on June 12, 1850 at this location. Macon native and poet Sidney Lanier was a member of the inn-keeping family. With additions the hotel stretched 135 feet on Mulberry Street with a cast iron balcony running its entire length. It stood four stories tall with a cupola above and included two stores, a barbershop and a "bathing room." The structure was demolished in the 1970s.
When word reached Macon on December 20, 1860, that South Carolina had seceded from the Union a celebratory crowd of 1,500 marched through the streets to the Lanier House. There they heard stirring speeches by some of the town's leading citizens. Walter A. Clark recalled, "
The streets were packed with a solid mass of excited, fevered, yelling humanity. The people were simply wild for Southern independence."
During the war the Lanier House was a stop for thousands passing through Macon, a transportation and supply center for the Confederacy. One visitor was President Jefferson Davis who spoke from the second floor balcony on October 30, 1863, prior to a reception held in his honor at the hotel. Another guest was Eliza Frances Andrews, whose memoir
War Time Journal of a Georgia Girl includes an account of life at the hotel. As Federal cavalry approached Macon in mid-April 1865
Andrews wrote about the panic along Mulberry Street in front of the hotel, "
everything and everybody seems to be in the wildest excitement."
Upon the occupation of Macon by Federal troopers on April 20, 1865, Major General James H. Wilson took residence at the Lanier House where he temporarily set up his headquarters. On Saturday, May 13, 1865, Jefferson Davis and the other Confederates captured three days earlier near Irwinville arrived in town. Davis was specifically brought to the hotel for an interview with Wilson. The local newspaper reported, "
At every step the crowd increased. From all parts of the city, men, women, and children... flocked to the sidewalks and blocked up the way." Guards lined the entrance to the Lanier House. After resting, Davis, his wife Varina and their children were served dinner.
After dining Jefferson Davis had a cordial conversation with General Wilson in the latter's suite. Although 30 years apart in age they were both West Point graduates. The two men had crossed paths there before the war, when Davis was a visiting U.S. Senator and Wilson a cadet. In a letter Wilson wrote from the Lanier House he described Davis as being "
quite cheerful and talkative" yet divorced from reality. Years later in his memoirs Wilson added that Davis "
looked bronzed and somewhat careworn, but hardy and vigorous."
Later that evening, Jefferson Davis, his family, personal secretary Burton Harrison, former Confederate Postmaster General John H. Reagan and others began a long trek north. They were sent under guard by train to Atlanta and Augusta, then by boat to Savannah before boarding a ship steaming north. Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe, Virginia for two years.
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photo captions)
· The Lanier House (aka. Hotel Lanier), circa 1900
· Jefferson Davis, after his release from prison
· Arrival of Jefferson Davis at the Lanier House, May 13, 1865
· The ambulance (wagon) carrying Jefferson Davis outside the Lanier House, May 13, 1865
· Union Major General James H. Wilson
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