If the Confederacy fails, there should be written on its tombstone: Died of a Theory.

This includes his reluctance to resolve a dispute between Leonidas Polk a personal friend and Braxton Bragg who was defeated in important battles and distrusted by his subordinates. By the late 1880s Davis began to encourage reconciliation telling Southerners to be loyal to the Union. On about April 12 he received Robert E.

He was aided in the last decade of his life by the generosity of Sarah Anne Ellis Dorsey a wealthy widow. S. Historians have criticized Davis for being a much less effective war leader than his Union counterpart Abraham Lincoln which they attribute to Davis being overbearing controlling and overly meddlesome as well as being out of touch with public opinion and lacking support from a political party (since the Confederacy had no political parties).