Jefferson Davis

Background

Jefferson Finis Davis was a renowned American politician that will always be in the history books. He was born on June 3, 1808, in Fairview, Kentucky to a moderately prosperous farmer — the youngest of 10 children. Davis was a Gemini and of English descent. His family moved to Wilkinson County in Mississippi from Louisiana, and he was schooled at the Wilkinson Academy.
When Davis was 16, his father died, and his elder brother, Joseph, arranged for him to attend the U.S. Military Academy. He began his studies at the academy in 1824 and graduated in 1828. He was stationed at Fort Crawford in the Michigan Territory of Prairie du Chien. He returned to Mississippi on furlough in March 1832. Davis was a colonel under his first father-in-law, General Zachary Taylor, during the Mexican-American War in 1846. He took part in the Battle of Monterrey in September 1846 and the Battle of Buena Vista in 1847 — during which he was shot in the foot.

Following his success in service, Davis was appointed a U.S. Senator. He was a Democrat and assumed this office in December 1847. The Senate appointed Davis to the Committee on Military Affairs in December 1849. The Mississippi legislature elected Senator Davis to a six-year term. He resigned from this job a few months later — intending to run for Governor of Mississippi. Davis lost the election by 999 votes and resumed his political career without holding a position. After Franklin Pierce was elected president in 1853, he appointed Davis ‘Secretary of War.’ While in this post, Davis facilitated the “Gadsden Purchase” of southern Arizona from Mexico. Davis boosted army morale by introducing the general use of weapons he employed during the Mexican-American War, in addition to other effective mandates.

After his U.S. Senate resignation, Davis was inaugurated as provisional President of the Confederate States in February 1861. He was appointed general P.G.T. Beauregard and had the liberty to command all Confederate troops in Charleston, South Carolina. Davis was a great politician, but he had his weaknesses, some of which included reluctance to delegate responsibility, favoritism towards friends, inability to work with those who disagreed with him, and several more. Davis was married twice — first, to Sarah Knox Taylor, who died of malaria in 1835, a few months into the marriage, and second to Varina Banks Howell in 1845, who bore him six children — only two of these children survived.