CIVIL WAR JEFFERSON DAVIS

Jefferson Finis Davis was an American politician who served as the President of the Confederate States of America for its entire history, which was almost entirely during the American Civil War. He was born on June 3, 1808 and died on December 6, 1889.

Davis had graduated from West Point, and fought in the Mexican-American War as a colonel of a volunteer regiment, and was the US Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce. Before and after his tenure in the Pierce Administration, he was a US Senator from Mississippi. As a senator, he was against secession but believed each state was sovereign and had an unquestionable right to succeed.

Jefferson Davis resigned from the Senate in January of 1861. He had received word that Mississippi had seceded from the Union. The next month he was appointed as provisional president of the Confederate States of America. He was elected to his first (and only) six year term that November. During Davis’ presidency, the Confederacy succumbed to the industrial might of the Union in the Civil War.

David had been elected to a six-year term as President of the Confederacy on November 6, 1861. He had never served a full term in any office; the CSA was no exception to this.

He was inaugurated on February 22, 1862. In June 1862, he assigned General Robert E Lee to command the Confederate army in northern Virginia. Davis largely made the main strategic decisions of the war on his own, or signed off on decisions made by General Lee. He had a very small circle of military advisors. After the Civil War was over, Davis advocated the acquisition of Cuba.

When Davis was captured in 1865, he was charged with treason. He wasn’t convicted, but was stripped of his eligibility to run for public office.