PEARCE MUSEUM - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- President of the Confederates States of America
Jefferson Davis was born in Kentucky on June 3, 1808. At 16m, he entered the U.S. Military Academy, graduating in 1828. Davis served in the army for seven years. He fought in campaigns against Indian removal after the Black Hawk War. In 1835, Davis married Sarah Taylor. They moved to Mississippi to manage his cotton plantation. When his wife died, Davis traveled for a year and studied the U.S. Constitution. He continued to manage his plantation and become wealthy.
Davis became a U.S. Congressman in 1845. That same year, he married Varina Howell. He resigned from Congress in 1846 to become a colonel in a regiment of Mississippi volunteers in the Mexican War. In 1847, the governor of Mississippi appointed Davis to fill out the term of a U.S. Senator who had died. In 1850, Davis resigned from the senate to run for governor. He lost the election and retired to his plantation. In 1853, President Pierce appointed him Secretary of War. After his term expired, Davis was reelected to the Senate and served as a spokesman for the South. He believed strongly in states' rights and demanded that Congress protected slavery.
After Abraham Lincoln was elected president, the state of Mississippi seceded from the Union. Davis resigned for the Senate again, and was named President of the Confederate States of America. He ran the government from its capital in Richmond, Virginia. He was a good administrator, but poor planner. He had difficulties with his Congress and was considered inflexible. As president, he insisted on a strategy of defending all Southern territory equally, which was too expensive. This strategy also allowed Union forces to hit hard invulnerable areas such as New Orleans and Atlanta. When the South lost the war, Davis was taken prisoner. A grand jury indicted him for treason, and he was held in prison for two years, awaiting trial. A Northerner paid his bail, and Davis was released. He was never tried. Davis spent his last years writing about his war experiences.
Jeff Davis has been captured and will arive in Washington in about a week there is no Honour in him he must have been very much Scared when he tried to disguise himself in his wife's cloack he forgot the Boots well he did. how true that the way of Transgresors is hard. he is a bad man dear knows what they will do with him they must have had Some Strong Proof against him to offer So large a Reward.
Job Titles:
- Samuel Elder Letter, Pg 1