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Jefferson Davis (June 3, 1808 – December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the only President of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He was a member of the Democratic Party who represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives prior to switching allegiance to the Confederacy. He was also the United States Secretary of War from 1853 to 1857, serving under President Franklin Pierce.
Davis was born in Fairview, Kentucky, to a moderately prosperous farmer, and grew up on his older brother Joseph's large cotton plantations in Mississippi and Louisiana. Joseph Davis also secured his appointment to the United States Military Academy. After graduating, Jefferson Davis served six years as a lieutenant in the United States Army. He fought in the Mexican–American War (1846–1848), as the colonel of a volunteer regiment. Before the American Civil War, he operated a large cotton plantation in Mississippi and owned as many as 74 slaves.[1] Although he argued against secession in 1858,[2] he believed that states had an unquestionable right to leave the Union.
Davis's first wife, Sarah Knox Taylor, died of malaria after three months of marriage, and he also struggled with recurring bouts of the disease.[3] He was unhealthy for much of his life. At the age of 36, Davis married again, to 18-year-old Varina Howell, a native of Natchez, Mississippi, who had been educated in Philadelphia and had some family ties in the North. They had six children. Only two survived him, and only one married and had children.
Many historians attribute some of the Confederacy's weaknesses to the poor leadership of Davis.[4] His preoccupation with detail, reluctance to delegate responsibility, lack of popular appeal, feuds with powerful state governors and generals, favoritism toward old friends, inability to get along with people who disagreed with him, neglect of civil matters in favor of military ones, and resistance to public opinion all worked against him.[5][6] Historians agree he was a much less effective war leader than his Union counterpart Abraham Lincoln. After Davis was captured in 1865, he was accused of treason and imprisoned at Fort Monroe. He was never tried and was released after two years. While not disgraced, Davis had been displaced in ex-Confederate affection after the war by his leading general, Robert E. Lee. Davis wrote a memoir entitled The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, which he completed in 1881. By the late 1880s, he began to encourage reconciliation, telling Southerners to be loyal to the Union. Ex-Confederates came to appreciate his role in the war, seeing him as a Southern patriot, and he became a hero of the Lost Cause in the post-Reconstruction South.[7]
Davis was born in Fairview, Kentucky, to a moderately prosperous farmer, and grew up on his older brother Joseph's large cotton plantations in Mississippi and Louisiana. Joseph Davis also secured his appointment to the United States Military Academy. After graduating, Jefferson Davis served six years as a lieutenant in the United States Army. He fought in the Mexican–American War (1846–1848), as the colonel of a volunteer regiment. Before the American Civil War, he operated a large cotton plantation in Mississippi and owned as many as 74 slaves.[1] Although he argued against secession in 1858,[2] he believed that states had an unquestionable right to leave the Union.
Davis's first wife, Sarah Knox Taylor, died of malaria after three months of marriage, and he also struggled with recurring bouts of the disease.[3] He was unhealthy for much of his life. At the age of 36, Davis married again, to 18-year-old Varina Howell, a native of Natchez, Mississippi, who had been educated in Philadelphia and had some family ties in the North. They had six children. Only two survived him, and only one married and had children.
Many historians attribute some of the Confederacy's weaknesses to the poor leadership of Davis.[4] His preoccupation with detail, reluctance to delegate responsibility, lack of popular appeal, feuds with powerful state governors and generals, favoritism toward old friends, inability to get along with people who disagreed with him, neglect of civil matters in favor of military ones, and resistance to public opinion all worked against him.[5][6] Historians agree he was a much less effective war leader than his Union counterpart Abraham Lincoln. After Davis was captured in 1865, he was accused of treason and imprisoned at Fort Monroe. He was never tried and was released after two years. While not disgraced, Davis had been displaced in ex-Confederate affection after the war by his leading general, Robert E. Lee. Davis wrote a memoir entitled The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, which he completed in 1881. By the late 1880s, he began to encourage reconciliation, telling Southerners to be loyal to the Union. Ex-Confederates came to appreciate his role in the war, seeing him as a Southern patriot, and he became a hero of the Lost Cause in the post-Reconstruction South.[7]
Jefferson Davis - Wikipedia
Posted from en.wikipedia.org
Birthday
American History
Civil War
Mexican American War
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
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Thank you my friend Maj Marty Hogan for making us aware that June 3 is the anniversary of the birth of USMA graduate of the class of 1828 as graduate #528 from the military academy Jefferson Davis who served as President of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865.
His only classmate to achieve general officer rank was CSA BG Thomas Drayton.
Jefferson Davis raised the volunteer 155th Infantry Regiment "Mississippi Rifles":" and led them as a Colonel in the Mexican American War where he was wounded in the foot.
Image: 155th Infantry Regiment fighting in Buena Vista, Mexico, February 23, 1847
Who was Jefferson Davis Really? (Jerry Skinner Documentary)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHPaAnKK6Kw
Images:
1. Wedding photograph (a daguerrotype) of Jefferson Davis and Varina Howell, 1845
2. 155th Infantry Regiment fighting in Buena Vista, Mexico, February 23, 1847
3. Jefferson Davis Confederate State of America postage stamps
4. Jefferson Davis President of the Confederate States of America
Background from {[https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/jefferson-davis]}
"Jefferson Finis Davis, the first and only President of the Confederate States of America, was a planter, politician and soldier born in Kentucky and raised in Mississippi. Davis was the tenth and youngest child of Revolutionary War soldier Samuel Davis and his wife Jane Cook Davis (Finis in Latin means final—the couple wanted no more children after Jefferson). Born June 3, 1808, he was heavily influenced by his oldest brother, Joseph, who saw to it that he was well educated. Davis attended college in Kentucky at Transylvania before entering the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1824.
As a military cadet, Davis’ performance was only adequate. When he graduated in 1828 he placed twenty-third in a class of thirty-four. He went on to serve briefly in the Black Hawk War in 1832. While stationed under Colonel Zachary Taylor (future President of the United States) the following year, he met the colonel’s daughter, Sarah. Jefferson Davis married her in 1835 against her father’s wishes. Sadly, the couple came down with bad cases of malaria only three months after the wedding, and the young bride died.
Jefferson Davis led a secluded life for the next eight years on his cotton plantation at Davis Bend, Mississippi. A slaveholder, Davis firmly believed in the importance of the institution of slavery for the South. In 1845 he married his second wife, Varina Howell, a young woman eighteen years old. Jefferson and Varina Davis eventually had six children—two girls and four boys—but only their daughters lived into adulthood.
In the same year, 1845, Mississippi sent Davis to the U.S. House of Representatives. His Congressional term was short, however. He resigned in June 1846 to fight in the Mexican War where he led his troops valiantly at the battles of Monterrey and Buena Vista. He was offered a promotion to brigadier general in 1847 but refused it when he was elected to the U.S. Senate.
In 1853, President Franklin Pierce appointed Davis U.S. Secretary of War where he served with distinction and was recognized as one of the most capable administrators to hold the office. In 1857, Davis returned to the Senate as a vocal proponent of states rights. He formally withdrew from the U.S. Senate on January 21, 1861 after Mississippi seceded from the Union.
One month later, the Confederate Congress in Montgomery, Alabama selected Jefferson Finis Davis to become the provisional President of the Confederacy. He was inaugurated for a six-year term as President on February 22 of the following year. Davis’ appointment was largely political; he was a compromise candidate chosen to appease both the moderate and radical factions in the Congress. Davis, however, did not want the job. He had hoped for a military command.
Initially, Davis was a popular President with the Southern people. He had a dignified bearing, a distinguished military record, extensive experience in political affairs, and—most importantly—a dedication to the Confederate cause. Unfortunately for Davis, these attributes were not enough to triumph over the harsh challenges posed by his new position. His early popularity was a result of war fervor and he did not have the personality necessary to sustain it. He was impatient with people who disagreed with him, and he had the unfortunate habit of awarding prominent posts to leaders who appeared unsuccessful. Davis’ loyalty to these people led to bickering and quarrels throughout his administration. In addition, he was plagued by chronic illness.
Davis’ popularity and effectiveness were not enhanced by the growing numbers of Confederate defeats in the latter years of the War. On April 2, 1865, he and the other members of the Confederate government were forced to flee from Richmond before the advancing Union Army. The Confederate President was captured by Northern soldiers near Irwinville, Georgia on May 10, 1865.
Jefferson Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe, Virginia for two years. He was never tried for treason, but was released on bond in May 1867. After being released, Davis and his family traveled for some time in Europe before returning to the American South. They first took up residence in Tennessee then relocated to the Mississippi gulf coast where Davis lived out his retirement years at an estate called Beauvoir near Biloxi. Mississippi tried to return him to the U.S. Senate, but he was not legally qualified to serve since he refused to request an official pardon from the United States for his role in the Civil War. Like many of his contemporaries, Davis wrote about his wartime experiences. Entitled The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (vol 1, vol 2), his two-volume book was published in 1881.
Jefferson Finis Davis died in New Orleans, Louisiana on December 6, 1889. The year before his death the former President of the Confederate States of America beseeched the young men of Mississippi to “lay aside all rancor, all bitter sectional feeling, and to make your places in the ranks of those who will bring about a consummation devoutly to be wished—a reunited country.”
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC Orlando Illi Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price CPT Jack Durish Capt Tom Brown MSG Andrew White SFC William Farrell SGT (Join to see) Sgt Albert Castro SSG David Andrews Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. CPL Dave Hoover SGT Mark Halmrast SPC Margaret Higgins SrA Christopher Wright PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
His only classmate to achieve general officer rank was CSA BG Thomas Drayton.
Jefferson Davis raised the volunteer 155th Infantry Regiment "Mississippi Rifles":" and led them as a Colonel in the Mexican American War where he was wounded in the foot.
Image: 155th Infantry Regiment fighting in Buena Vista, Mexico, February 23, 1847
Who was Jefferson Davis Really? (Jerry Skinner Documentary)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHPaAnKK6Kw
Images:
1. Wedding photograph (a daguerrotype) of Jefferson Davis and Varina Howell, 1845
2. 155th Infantry Regiment fighting in Buena Vista, Mexico, February 23, 1847
3. Jefferson Davis Confederate State of America postage stamps
4. Jefferson Davis President of the Confederate States of America
Background from {[https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/jefferson-davis]}
"Jefferson Finis Davis, the first and only President of the Confederate States of America, was a planter, politician and soldier born in Kentucky and raised in Mississippi. Davis was the tenth and youngest child of Revolutionary War soldier Samuel Davis and his wife Jane Cook Davis (Finis in Latin means final—the couple wanted no more children after Jefferson). Born June 3, 1808, he was heavily influenced by his oldest brother, Joseph, who saw to it that he was well educated. Davis attended college in Kentucky at Transylvania before entering the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1824.
As a military cadet, Davis’ performance was only adequate. When he graduated in 1828 he placed twenty-third in a class of thirty-four. He went on to serve briefly in the Black Hawk War in 1832. While stationed under Colonel Zachary Taylor (future President of the United States) the following year, he met the colonel’s daughter, Sarah. Jefferson Davis married her in 1835 against her father’s wishes. Sadly, the couple came down with bad cases of malaria only three months after the wedding, and the young bride died.
Jefferson Davis led a secluded life for the next eight years on his cotton plantation at Davis Bend, Mississippi. A slaveholder, Davis firmly believed in the importance of the institution of slavery for the South. In 1845 he married his second wife, Varina Howell, a young woman eighteen years old. Jefferson and Varina Davis eventually had six children—two girls and four boys—but only their daughters lived into adulthood.
In the same year, 1845, Mississippi sent Davis to the U.S. House of Representatives. His Congressional term was short, however. He resigned in June 1846 to fight in the Mexican War where he led his troops valiantly at the battles of Monterrey and Buena Vista. He was offered a promotion to brigadier general in 1847 but refused it when he was elected to the U.S. Senate.
In 1853, President Franklin Pierce appointed Davis U.S. Secretary of War where he served with distinction and was recognized as one of the most capable administrators to hold the office. In 1857, Davis returned to the Senate as a vocal proponent of states rights. He formally withdrew from the U.S. Senate on January 21, 1861 after Mississippi seceded from the Union.
One month later, the Confederate Congress in Montgomery, Alabama selected Jefferson Finis Davis to become the provisional President of the Confederacy. He was inaugurated for a six-year term as President on February 22 of the following year. Davis’ appointment was largely political; he was a compromise candidate chosen to appease both the moderate and radical factions in the Congress. Davis, however, did not want the job. He had hoped for a military command.
Initially, Davis was a popular President with the Southern people. He had a dignified bearing, a distinguished military record, extensive experience in political affairs, and—most importantly—a dedication to the Confederate cause. Unfortunately for Davis, these attributes were not enough to triumph over the harsh challenges posed by his new position. His early popularity was a result of war fervor and he did not have the personality necessary to sustain it. He was impatient with people who disagreed with him, and he had the unfortunate habit of awarding prominent posts to leaders who appeared unsuccessful. Davis’ loyalty to these people led to bickering and quarrels throughout his administration. In addition, he was plagued by chronic illness.
Davis’ popularity and effectiveness were not enhanced by the growing numbers of Confederate defeats in the latter years of the War. On April 2, 1865, he and the other members of the Confederate government were forced to flee from Richmond before the advancing Union Army. The Confederate President was captured by Northern soldiers near Irwinville, Georgia on May 10, 1865.
Jefferson Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe, Virginia for two years. He was never tried for treason, but was released on bond in May 1867. After being released, Davis and his family traveled for some time in Europe before returning to the American South. They first took up residence in Tennessee then relocated to the Mississippi gulf coast where Davis lived out his retirement years at an estate called Beauvoir near Biloxi. Mississippi tried to return him to the U.S. Senate, but he was not legally qualified to serve since he refused to request an official pardon from the United States for his role in the Civil War. Like many of his contemporaries, Davis wrote about his wartime experiences. Entitled The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (vol 1, vol 2), his two-volume book was published in 1881.
Jefferson Finis Davis died in New Orleans, Louisiana on December 6, 1889. The year before his death the former President of the Confederate States of America beseeched the young men of Mississippi to “lay aside all rancor, all bitter sectional feeling, and to make your places in the ranks of those who will bring about a consummation devoutly to be wished—a reunited country.”
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC Orlando Illi Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price CPT Jack Durish Capt Tom Brown MSG Andrew White SFC William Farrell SGT (Join to see) Sgt Albert Castro SSG David Andrews Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. CPL Dave Hoover SGT Mark Halmrast SPC Margaret Higgins SrA Christopher Wright PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
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LTC Stephen F.
What is your point PO1 Henry Jackson? This post was focused on his birthday. I did some research since I am a graduate of USMA and interested in history. He was a product of his age who was heroic in the Mexican American War. He was selected to be the first and thankfully only President of the CSA. That in itself indicates many thought he would be a great leader. I did not like most of what he decided but that does not mean he was not great in his own time.
What do you think? Maj William W. "Bill" Price Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown 1stSgt Eugene Harless MSG Andrew White SFC William Farrell SSgt Robert Marx SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4"SCPO Morris Ramsey SGT Michael Thorin SGT (Join to see) SGT Robert George SGT John " Mac " McConnell SP5 Mark Kuzinski SP5 Robert Ruck SP5 Dave (Shotgun) Shockley SPC Margaret Higgins SrA Christopher Wright Maj Marty Hogan
What do you think? Maj William W. "Bill" Price Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown 1stSgt Eugene Harless MSG Andrew White SFC William Farrell SSgt Robert Marx SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4"SCPO Morris Ramsey SGT Michael Thorin SGT (Join to see) SGT Robert George SGT John " Mac " McConnell SP5 Mark Kuzinski SP5 Robert Ruck SP5 Dave (Shotgun) Shockley SPC Margaret Higgins SrA Christopher Wright Maj Marty Hogan
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LTC Stephen F.
The Perfect Man: The Rise and Fall of Jefferson Davis
A short history of the life of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Featuring footage from a documentary about a Civil War Reenactment, the Sons of Confede...
"The Perfect Man: The Rise and Fall of Jefferson Davis"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW1lHY7P9qo
FYI Maj Robert Thornton SFC (Join to see) SGT Steve McFarland LTC Greg Henning SGT Gregory Lawritson SP5 Mark Kuzinski SGT John " Mac " McConnell Col Carl Whicker 1SG Walter Craig SP5 Jeannie Carle TSgt David L.PO1 Robert George SGT Philip RoncariCWO3 Dennis M. SFC William FarrellCapt Rich BuckleyCW4 G.L. SmithSPC Nancy Greene1stsgt Glenn Brackin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW1lHY7P9qo
FYI Maj Robert Thornton SFC (Join to see) SGT Steve McFarland LTC Greg Henning SGT Gregory Lawritson SP5 Mark Kuzinski SGT John " Mac " McConnell Col Carl Whicker 1SG Walter Craig SP5 Jeannie Carle TSgt David L.PO1 Robert George SGT Philip RoncariCWO3 Dennis M. SFC William FarrellCapt Rich BuckleyCW4 G.L. SmithSPC Nancy Greene1stsgt Glenn Brackin
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Maj Marty Hogan, Davis appears along with Lee and Jackson on Stone Mountain (GA) in the largest bas-relief in the world. LTC Stephen F. MSgt Richard Randall SMSgt Lawrence McCarter
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Cool. Jefferson Davis married Sara Knox Taylor, Zachary Taylor’s daughter. Zachary Taylor is my 3rd cousin 7x removed so that makes Sara my 4th cousin. I knew she died young but I didn’t know she was Jefferson Davis’ first wife. More stuff to put in my family tree!
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