At the end of the Civil War, Jefferson Davis's life and reputation sunk to a seemingly-unredeemable low. The shackles and chains of Fort Monroe, where he awaited trial for treason, were a far cry from the successful political career and national recognition he enjoyed before the war. However, in the last years of his life and the first three years after his death, Davis's public image was resurrected to a stage of near adulation and his fellow southerners recognized him as one of the most important men of the south.

In this long-awaited work, Donald E. Collins explores the rise in Davis's status and the changing image of the Civil War in the North and South following the conflict. Highlighting this conversion is the three-year competition between southern cities for the honor of becoming Davis' final resting place-culminating in a thousand-mile procession from his temporary vault in New Orleans to a second state funeral in Richmond. By recounting the public mourning and political maneuvering that accompanied Jefferson Davis's two funerals and final monument, Collins adds an essential piece to the legacy of Davis and the Civil War.