Biography:

Jefferson Davis was the president of the Confederate States of America, a position he took with some reluctance but in which he served for six years. Like Abraham Lincoln, Davis was born in Kentucky to a modest farming family. The Davis’s did own a few slaves, and when Jefferson was still very young the family moved to Louisiana Territory and then to Mississippi. Davis returned to Kentucky to attend Transylvania University, and then he studied at the US Military Academy at West Point from 1824 to 1828. After graduation he served in the infantry in the West. In 1835, he resigned from the military, married the daughter of Zachary Taylor, and moved to Mississippi, where his new wife soon died from malaria and he became a cotton planter along with his brother Joseph.
 
In the 1840s, Davis became active in politics, and in 1845 he both married Varina Howell and was elected to Congress. In politics, Davis became a strong advocate of territorial expansion and of states’ right to extend slavery to them. Davis left Congress to serve in the Mexican War, but returned to Congress when he was appointed to the Senate in 1847. He strongly opposed the Compromise of 1850. In 1851, Davis resigned from the Senate to run for governor of Mississippi. He lost that race but he returned to politics when he was appointed secretary of war by President Franklin Pierce. He served in that position until 1857, when he was again elected as a Democrat to the US Senate. Despite his strong state’s rights views, Davis hoped that the South could remain within the Union. Following Lincoln’s election, Davis did not immediately support secession. Because of his moderation in the secession crisis, he became an attractive candidate for the Confederacy’s presidency, since he was acceptable to the Upper South. Davis accepted his election to the presidency with some reluctance. He would have preferred to have a military command.
 
As Confederate president, Davis was an effective leader, building a strong central government in spite of his own, and the South’s, state’s rights convictions. Davis wielded strong executive power, instituting conscription, exerting considerable control over transportation infrastructure and the economy. He was also involved in military planning. A good administrative leader, Davis was not, however, an inspirational one, and the South suffered from problems of morale.
 
Jefferson Davis was captured on May 10, 1865, in Irwinville, Georgia, as he and his family fled Union troops. It was rumored that he was fled in woman’s dress, though he really only had thrown on his wife’s overcoat as he tried to escape approaching troops. He was jailed for two years at Fortress Monroe. He was indicted for treason but was paroled in 1867. He returned to Mississippi, where he wrote The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government. He died in New Orleans in 1889. In 1978, Davis’s citizenship was reinstated by a joint resolution of Congress.