In late April of 1886, the State of Alabama was preparing to lay the cornerstone of a monument to its Confederate dead at the Capitol in Montgomery, close to the spot where Jefferson Davis had been sworn in as the Provisional President of the Confederacy. Mr. Davis had been invited as the guest of honor at the ceremony.

When it was announced that the ex-President would make a public appearance in Montgomery, other cities, including Charleston and Richmond, clamored for a visit of honor. Atlanta wanted him to attend the unveiling of a statue to the late Senator Benjamin H. Hill, who had been Davis's ever loyal friend and advocate. Henry W. Grady, golden-tongued orator and a leader of the New South, promised a special train to fetch him to Atlanta.

Savannah begged him to speak at the unveiling of a monument to Nathanael Greene, the Revolutionary hero from Rhode Island who had spent the last years of his life in Georgia. Davis finally accepted the Atlanta and Savannah invitations. He regarded Hill as the best of the Georgians and his father had fought under General Greene, who was somehow related to Davis's mother Jane Cook.