February 18, 1861 - Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as the
first president of the Confederate States of America.
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Jefferson Davis was born in Christian (now Todd) County, Kentucky, on June 3, 1808. His father, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, moved the Davis family to Mississippi. Young Jefferson was taught at home. He then attended Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. Upon completion at the university in 1824, Davis was appointed to West Point by President Monroe. One of his classmates at West Point was Robert E. Lee. Davis graduated West Point in 1828, at the age of twenty. He was commissioned as a second-Lieutenant and sent to the Northwest with the First Infantry. During his time in the Infantry, he fought in the Black-Hawk War.Davis suddenly resigned from military service in June of 1835. He married Sallie Knox Taylor, Colonel Zackary Taylor's daughter, and returned to Mississippi to be a cotton planter. His married life, however, was cut short. Sallied died three months after their marriage from malaria. He remarried Varnia Howell ten years later.
In 1843, Davis stepped into politics. His speeches at the democratic convention impressed those who heard him. On December 8, 1845, Davis took his seat in the United States Senate. Nine months after taking his senate seat, Davis vacated it to help fight the Mexican War. He regained it again in 1847 when he was appointed to Senate after the death of the former senator.
When the next Mississippi gubernatorial race was held in 1851, Davis ran. He was defeated, however. At the same time, Davis became ill and was forced to resign from public office. He returned to private life for a short time. In 1852, the newly elected President Pierce called upon Davis' services. Upon much consideration, Davis accepted the office of the secretary of war.
Davis entered the U.S. Senate once again on March 4, 1857. When the people of Mississippi voted to secede from the Union on January 9, 1861, Davis knew he no longer had a job. While Davis was been a strong proponent of states rights, he was not an advocate of speeding up secession. However, he understood the reasons for secession and publicly backed Mississippi in their decision. Davis returned to Mississippi where he was elected to be put in command of the state forces. But he only held the office for a few weeks before he was elected President of the Confederate States of America.
Davis did not have confidence in his ability to carry out such a job. When he first received word of his election, his wife later said Davis "looked so grieved that I feared some evil had befallen our family." Davis did not shrink back from the new and daunting challenge before him. He realized the struggles challenges that forming a new country would bring. Davis said, "Upon my weary heart was showered smiles, plaudits, and flowers, but beyond them I saw troubles innumerable. We are without machinery, without means, and threatened by powerful opposition but I do not despond and will not shrink from the task before me."
Some of Davis' war strategies and appointments were criticized because of their lack of success or poor appointments. His own vice president, Alexander Stephens, did not like Davis' management. After the end of the Civil War, Davis was captured and held in prison for two years before being released. He was never brought to trial for the alleged crimes he had committed. Davis returned to Mississippi, where he retired and eventually died in 1889.
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For more information about Jefferson Davis, visit...
civilwarhome.com
Jefferson Davis' farewell Senate speech
americancivilwar.com
jeffersondavis.rice.edu
tulane.edu
Jefferson Davis Home and Presidential Library
spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
history.com
