Jefferson Davis

Birth Date

1808-06-03

Death Date

1889-12-06

Gender

Race Description

White

Entity Type

Person

President of the Confederate States. Christian County, Kentucky, native. Son of Samuel Davis and Jane Davis. Married to Sarah Knox Taylor Davis in 1835. Married to Varina Banks Howell Davis in 1845. Father of Samuel Emory Davis, Margaret Howell Davis Hayes, Jefferson Davis, Jr., Joseph Evan Davis, William Howell Davis, and Varina Anne Davis. Educated at St. Thomas College in Springfield, Kentucky. Educated at Jefferson College in Adams County, Mississippi. Educated at Wilkinson County Academy in Woodville, Mississippi. Educated at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. Graduated from the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, in 1828. Served in the U.S. Army in Missouri, Illinois, Iowa Territory, and Wisconsin Territory. Served as state Democratic presidential elector in 1844. Member of the United States House of Representatives for an at-large district of Mississippi from 1845 to 1846. Served in the 1st Mississippi Regiment as colonel, during the Mexican-American War, from 1846 and 1847. Member of the United States Senate from the State of Mississippi from 1847 to 1851 and 1857 to 1861. Secretary of War of the United States from 1853 to 1857. President of the Confederate States of America from February 9, 1861, to May 5, 1865. Captured by Federal forces in Irwinville, Georgia, on May 10, 1865.

The Papers of Jefferson Davis, s.v. “About Jefferson Davis: Chronology,” https://jeffersondavis.rice.edu (accessed October 24, 2016).
The Papers of Jefferson Davis, s.v. “Geneaology of the Davis Family,” https://jeffersondavis.rice.edu/Genealogy.aspx (accessed October 24, 2016).
William J. Cooper, Jefferson Davis, American (New York: Knopf, 2000).
Joan Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 2006).

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