- Joined
- Apr 1, 1999
- Location
- Martinsburg, WV
Jefferson Davis was born June 3, 1808, in what is now Fairview, Kentucky to Samuel and Jane Cook Davis. Jefferson’s father, uncles, and maternal grandfather all fought in the American Revolution. After the Revolution, Samuel moved to Mississippi.
Three of Jefferson’s older brothers fought in the War in 1812, two of them with Andrew Jackson during the Battle of New Orleans. Military service was literally in Davis’ blood so it wasn’t surprising that he eventually attended West Point as a cadet. Davis became known as an honorable, athletic young man. He graduated West Point in 1828 and was subsequently assigned to the First infantry with the rank of second Lieutenant.
Davis spent the next several years engaged in various Indian wars, including confrontations with the Blackhawk, Pawnee, and Comanche. He resigned from the military in 1835, partly at the urging of his family who felt his potential was better served in the public sector and partly to marry Sallie Knox Taylor, daughter of First Infantry commander, and future President, Colonel Zachary Taylor. Davis and Sallie contracted malaria on a trip and she died three months after their wedding. Davis recovered and after convalescing in Havana. Cuba, returned to Mississippi. He eventually remarried in February 1845 to 18 year-old Varina Banks Howell.
By that time Davis had become a successful plantation owner and deeply involved in Mississippi politics. He believed in States’ rights and decried Federal intrusion. In 1845 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He resigned the following year and reenlisted in the army to fight in the Mexican War, winning commendations for valiant service.
In January 1848 Davis took over the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Senator Jesse Speight. A typical Southern Democrat, he consistently voted against efforts to limit or abolish slavery. But he was no secessionist.
This was a man who loved his country and had proudly served in its military. He would later state:
“My devotion to the Union of our fathers had been so often and so publicly declared; I had on the floor of the Senate so defiantly challenged any question of my fidelity to it; my services, civil and military, had now extended through so long a period and were so generally known, that I felt quite assured that no whisperings of envy or illwill could lead the people of Mississippi to believe that I had dishonored their trust by using the power they had conferred on me to destroy the government to which I was accredited. Then, as afterward, I regarded the separation of the States as a great, though not the greater evil.”
Even though Davis was against Mississippi and other Southern states seceding, because he did not believe they could defeat the United States military, he still felt states had the right to secede, being sovereign entities. But when the Mississippi legislature voted to secede, he honored the decision and accepted the position of the state’s military leader. A month before Lincoln was inaugurated, Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the first President of the Confederate States of America.
Although Davis attempted to negotiate a peaceful secession, Lincoln would not accept a divided nation and rebuked all efforts at diplomacy. Davis’s order to attack Fort Sumter was the act that started the Civil War. Over the next four years, much of the south was decimated, both economically and structurally.
After the General Robert E. Lee surrendered, the Confederate States of America was dissolved. Davis and a handful of other Confederates were arrested and charged with treason. He spent two years in jail but the charges were eventually dropped.
Other than the two years in jail, Davis by and large suffered little consequence after the war. Most southerners considered him a hero. However, Davis remained unrepentant and bitter at his perceived trampling of states’ rights. He refused to swear allegiance to the United States so never regained his official American citizenship. Nor did he ever denounce his pro-slavery views.
Davis died December 6, 1889 and is interred at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.
Three of Jefferson’s older brothers fought in the War in 1812, two of them with Andrew Jackson during the Battle of New Orleans. Military service was literally in Davis’ blood so it wasn’t surprising that he eventually attended West Point as a cadet. Davis became known as an honorable, athletic young man. He graduated West Point in 1828 and was subsequently assigned to the First infantry with the rank of second Lieutenant.
Davis spent the next several years engaged in various Indian wars, including confrontations with the Blackhawk, Pawnee, and Comanche. He resigned from the military in 1835, partly at the urging of his family who felt his potential was better served in the public sector and partly to marry Sallie Knox Taylor, daughter of First Infantry commander, and future President, Colonel Zachary Taylor. Davis and Sallie contracted malaria on a trip and she died three months after their wedding. Davis recovered and after convalescing in Havana. Cuba, returned to Mississippi. He eventually remarried in February 1845 to 18 year-old Varina Banks Howell.
By that time Davis had become a successful plantation owner and deeply involved in Mississippi politics. He believed in States’ rights and decried Federal intrusion. In 1845 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He resigned the following year and reenlisted in the army to fight in the Mexican War, winning commendations for valiant service.
In January 1848 Davis took over the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Senator Jesse Speight. A typical Southern Democrat, he consistently voted against efforts to limit or abolish slavery. But he was no secessionist.
This was a man who loved his country and had proudly served in its military. He would later state:
“My devotion to the Union of our fathers had been so often and so publicly declared; I had on the floor of the Senate so defiantly challenged any question of my fidelity to it; my services, civil and military, had now extended through so long a period and were so generally known, that I felt quite assured that no whisperings of envy or illwill could lead the people of Mississippi to believe that I had dishonored their trust by using the power they had conferred on me to destroy the government to which I was accredited. Then, as afterward, I regarded the separation of the States as a great, though not the greater evil.”
Even though Davis was against Mississippi and other Southern states seceding, because he did not believe they could defeat the United States military, he still felt states had the right to secede, being sovereign entities. But when the Mississippi legislature voted to secede, he honored the decision and accepted the position of the state’s military leader. A month before Lincoln was inaugurated, Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the first President of the Confederate States of America.
Although Davis attempted to negotiate a peaceful secession, Lincoln would not accept a divided nation and rebuked all efforts at diplomacy. Davis’s order to attack Fort Sumter was the act that started the Civil War. Over the next four years, much of the south was decimated, both economically and structurally.
After the General Robert E. Lee surrendered, the Confederate States of America was dissolved. Davis and a handful of other Confederates were arrested and charged with treason. He spent two years in jail but the charges were eventually dropped.
Other than the two years in jail, Davis by and large suffered little consequence after the war. Most southerners considered him a hero. However, Davis remained unrepentant and bitter at his perceived trampling of states’ rights. He refused to swear allegiance to the United States so never regained his official American citizenship. Nor did he ever denounce his pro-slavery views.
Davis died December 6, 1889 and is interred at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.