Davis, Jefferson
ACHIEVEMENTS: President of the Confederacy during the US Civil War.
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: 3rdJune 1808, in Christian Country, KY.
DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH: 6thDecember 1889, in New Orleans, LA. Aged 81.
DISCIPLINE: Politician. FIELD: Politics.
EDUCATION: College of St Thomas Aquinas, Kentucky; Local schools, Mississippi;
Transylvania College, Lexington; US Military Academy, West Point.
MAJOR WORK: ‘The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government’, 1881.
LIFE AND TIMES:
Davis graduated from West Point in 1828 as a lieutenant in the infantry, in a peacetime army in which there was little chance of promotion. He resigned his commission in 1835. David decided to go into politics as a Democrat, determined to uphold states’ rights. In 1843 he failed in his bid for election to the State Legislature, but two years later he was elected to Congress.
At the outbreak of the Mexican-American War Davis resigned and joined the First Regiment of Mississippi Volunteers as a colonel. He took part in the capture of Monterrey then, in the battle of Buena Vista, in which he was praised for his tactics, he was wounded and returned home in 1847 a state hero. Nominated for the US Senate, he won the seat and went to Washington on crutches. There, he became a dedicated expansionist and agitated for the annexation of large areas of Mexican territory, as well as the acquisition of Cuba. On the subject of states’ rights, he argued that it was unconstitutional to ban slavery in territories which had yet to achieve statehood and receive their own constitutional powers. His opposition to the Missouri Compromise of 1850 (in which slavery was banned north of latitude 36o ^30'), was a vote-winner in the south.
In 1853, when President Franklin Pierce* appointed him Secretary of War, Davis set about reforming the army. He introduced the idea of promotion on merit, expanded the army and its arsenal and strengthened coastal defences, as well as pushing for a transcontinental railroad on the grounds of national security.
When South Carolina seceded from the Union, he supported its right to do so, but continued to speak against secession. Then, in 1861, when Mississippi seceded as well, Davis, still in favour of peace, resigned from the Senate. By now, the break-up of the Union was inevitable and Davis agreed to become President of the Confederacy.
As soon as Lincoln* became President of the Union, Davis sent envoys with a demand for independence for the Southern states. Lincoln refused to meet the envoys and, in April 1861, Davis sent troops against Fort Sumter, to drive the Union army out of what he saw as sovereign southern territory. This attack meant that the south was now at war with the north.
During the course of the Civil War, Davis formed a strong central government, but, although he was careful to act through Congress, he still took personal control when he felt it was needed. For strategic reasons he put state troops under central government control, refusing to allow each state to keep its troops for its own defence.
In 1862 he introduced conscription and suspended the writ of habeas corpus. He brought shipping and railroads under government control, in a move to ensure economic viability and political independence for the Confederacy. He created factories, set up salt mines and restored naval yards, and sent diplomats and agents to England and France to argue the southern case and to buy weapons. In a short time, the size of the Confederacy’s administration was greater per capita than that of the Union.
He promoted Lee* to the job of commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. Between them, they operated an aggressive defence strategy, with a commitment to moving the army to where the fighting should be, rather than setting up a defensive perimeter round the south. Their military strength was weakened, however, because of judgment errors in some of the appointments they made, and overall lack of commitment in the West. As a leader, Davis alienated many southerners by his lack of concern for people who lost everything as the war progressed. He insisted that the Confederacy couldn’t afford to support these people. He spent most of his time in Richmond and on the occasions when he traveled south, he failed to inspire.
Late in the war, Davis had the idea of freeing slaves and arming them to fight for southern independence and, eventually, the Confederate Congress agreed. Finally, in Appomattox in April 1865, General Lee surrendered to Union forces without the permission of Davis or Congress. Davis took the government south, with a plan to continue fighting until able to negotiate secession. He was captured in Georgia a month later by Union cavalry and held in Fort Monroe in Hampton Roads, Virginia. The prison environment there was harsh and Davis was kept for a while in leg-irons.
Released on bail after two years, Davis went to Canada to recover. Indicted for treason, he welcomed the possibility of a trial, and a number of northern lawyers, appalled by his treatment in prison, volunteered their services. The US government avoided bringing him to trial. He was included in the general amnesty of 1868, but would not take the oath of loyalty to the United States, so never regained his citizenship.
Over the next couple of years, Davis made several business trips to Europe, but was unsuccessful at getting any of his business proposals off the ground. In 1869, he took a job in Memphis as president of a life insurance company, resigning four years later. In his later years, he tried to get his plantation back, and to defend his presidential reputation from attack by former Confederates. He wrote his memoirs of the presidency, ‘ The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government’, published in 1881. He became more popular in the South for a while when he laid the cornerstone of a Confederate monument in Montgomery, Alabama in 1886.
ASSESSMENT: Davis was initially successful in establishing a strong lead, but failed to generate the teamwork necessary between government and army and he failed to inspire the south.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: Greeley* was a supporter.
Opposed Mississippi improvement bill advanced by Eads*
As Sec. of War for US, imported camels for cavalry.
ONELINER: Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Eaton, Clement, Jefferson Davis, The Free Press, New York, 1977.
Strode, Hudson, Jefferson Davis, 4 vols, 1955 to 1966.
LANGUAGE: English.
PARENTS: Father, Samuel Emory David, mother, Jane Cook.
SIBLINGS: 9.
SPOUSE: First, Sarah Taylor, second, Varina Howell.
CHILDREN: