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Jefferson Davis (June 3, 1808 – December 6, 1889) was an American soldier and politician. He served in the U.S. Congress and as a U.S. Secretary of War in the cabinet of President Franklin Pierce. He is most famous for serving as the first and only President of the Confederate States of America throughout the War Between the States. (For information on naming conventions about that war, please see the American Civil War page.)
Early life and military career - Jefferson Davis Biography
Jefferson Davis was born June 3, 1808 on a farm in Christian County, Kentucky, near the border with Todd County. Davis, the last of the ten children of Samuel Emory Davis and his wife, Jane, had come from a family of rich American history. The younger Davis's grandfather had immigrated to the United States from Wales and had lived in Virginia and Maryland, working as a public servant. His father, along with his uncles, had served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, his father serving with the Georgia cavalry and leading in the battle of Savannah as an infantry officer. His older brothers, too, served. During the War of 1812, three of Davis's brothers fought the British, two of them serving with and were commended by Andrew Jackson for bravery in the Battle of New Orleans.
During Jefferson Davis History and youth, his family moved several times, in 1811 to St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, and in 1812 to Wilkinson County, Mississippi.
In 1813, Davis began his education together with his sister Mary, attending a log cabin school a mile from their home. Two years later, Davis entered the Catholic school of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Washington County, Kentucky. He went on to Jefferson College at Washington, Mississippi in 1818, and to Transylvania University at Lexington, Kentucky in 1821. In 1824, Davis entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York as a cadet.
Jefferson Davis successfully completed his four-year term of study at West Point, and graduated as a Second Lieutenant in June 1828. He was assigned to the US 1st Infantry Division and stationed at Fort Crawford. His first assignment, in 1829, was to supervise the cutting of timber on the banks of the Red River for the repair and enlargement of the fort. Later the same year, he was reassigned to Fort Winnebago, Wisconsin. While supervising the construction and management of a sawmill in the Yellow River in 1831, he contracted pneumonia, causing him to return to Fort Crawford.
The next year, Davis was dispatched to Galena, Illinois at the head of a detachment assigned to remove miners from lands claimed by Native Americans. His first combat assignment was during the Black Hawk War of the same year, after which he escorted Black Hawk himself to prison — it is said that the chief liked Davis because of the kind treatment he had shown. Another of Davis' duties during this time was to keep miners from illegally entering what would eventually become the state of Iowa.
In 1833, Davis was promoted to First Lieutenant of the 1st Dragoon Division and made a regimental adjutant. 1834 saw his transfer to Fort Gibson. On June 17, 1835, Jefferson Davis married Sarah Knox Taylor at the house of her aunt near Louisville, Kentucky. Sarah's father, then-Colonel Zachary Taylor, would go on to become a General and later U.S. President. On June 30, 1835, Davis resigned from the U.S. Army.
Marriage, plantation life and politics - Jefferson Davis Biography
The marriage proved short. The newlyweds both contracted malaria, and Davis's wife died three months after the wedding at the Louisiana home of Jefferson's sister. Jefferson recovered, sailing for Havana, Cuba, and then to New York City. In 1836, he retired to Brierfield Plantation in Warren County, Mississippi.
The subsequent years proved uneventful, as Davis supervised the production of cotton at Brierfield, and studied political science. He decided to put his studies to use in 1843, by entering a career in politics. He ran for the Mississippi House of Representatives as a Democrat, and engaged in a debate with his opponent, Seargent S. Prentiss, on election day. However, Davis's efforts proved unsuccessful, and he lost the election. The next year, he traveled around Mississippi campaigning for James K. Polk and George M. Dallas in the presidential election of 1844.
1844 saw Jefferson Davis's first political success, as he was elected to the United States House of Representatives, taking office on March 4 of the following year."
He married again on February 26, 1845, this time to socially prominent Varina Howell.
Second military career - Jefferson Davis Biography
Statue of Jefferson Davis1846 saw the beginning of the Mexican-American War. Davis must have looked favorably upon the war, seeing that the United States stood to acquire a considerable amount of land south of the Missouri Compromise line into which Southern institutions could expand. He resigned his House seat in June, and rejoined the Army. On July 18 he was elected colonel of the first regiment of Mississippi riflemen, and sailed from New Orleans for the Texas coast three days later.
In September of the same year, he participated in the successful siege of Monterrey, Mexico. He also fought, and was wounded, at the next major battle, at Buena Vista, Mexico on February 22, 1847. In June, the Army offered him an appointment as a Brigadier General of a militia unit. In traditional Southern style, he declined the appointment on grounds of constitutionality and states' rights. The United States Constitution, he argued, gives the power of appointing militia officers to the states, not to the federal government.
In July 1847, Davis was mustered out of Mexico. He was appointed to the Senate, to serve out the remaining four years of the term of the late Jesse Speight. (Editor Note: Sources disagree as to this date). The Smithsonian Institution appointed him a regent in the end of December of that year.