The tenth and last child of American Revolutionary War veteran Samuel Emory Davis was born on June 3, 1808 in Christian (now Todd) County, Kentucky. Samuel named his son Jefferson, after Thomas Jefferson, who was the sitting President of the United States at the time of his son’s birth.
A few months later in February another baby boy named Abraham, was born in Kentucky. Decades later the two boys lives would connect – but it would be at opposing sides of a civil war.
Jefferson Davis is the subject of one of the two statues representing Mississippi in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the U.S. Capitol. The statue was placed in 1931. It wasn’t until 1978, that Jefferson Davis’ United States citizenship was restored by the U.S. Congress.
The Davis family settled on a plantation called Rosemont in Woodville, Mississippi when Jefferson was three. Jefferson Davis attended a Dominican boys’ school in Kentucky, and later entered Transylvania College, Lexington Kentucky. He was accepted at the United States Military Academy at West Point and graduated in 1828.
How sad, that many who attended the United States Military Academy at West Point at around the same time would end up on opposite sides of bloody battlefields in the years that followed. Among those trained at West Point were Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant.
After graduating from the Military Academy, Davis served in various posts in the army. One was under Colonel Zachary Taylor, yes, future U.S. President Zachary Taylor. Jefferson Davis met Taylor’s daughter Sarah Knox Taylor, and the two wanted to marry. Colonel Taylor wasn’t keen on the idea of his daughter marrying a military man. Jefferson resigned from the army so he could begin a career as a planter in Natchez, Mississippi.
The couple married in 1835, but Sarah (Knoxie, as she was known because she grew up at Fort Knox) died a few months later after contracting Malaria when she and Jefferson visited his sister in Louisiana. Jefferson had also contracted Malaria and nearly died. He would suffer bouts of the disease throughout his life.
Jefferson was devastated that his beloved wife had been taken from him. He pretty much lived in seclusion for several years, developing a plantation in the wilderness, and reading literature and constitutional law.
In 1845, Jefferson married Varina Anne Howell and won election to Congress. He soon resigned his seat to serve as Colonel of the First Mississippi Volunteers in the Mexican-American War. He achieved a level of fame for winning the Battle of Buena Vista, and was wounded quite badly. He returned to Mississippi and was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he became Chairman of the Military Affairs Committee.
President Franklin Pierce, made Jefferson Davis Secretary of War in 1853. In that position Davis strengthened the army and coastal defenses and was involved with the effort to extend the railroads to the Pacific. In 1857, after Pierce left office, Davis returned to the Senate.
The atmosphere in the United States at that time was not united. South Carolina withdrew from the Union in 1860, but although Senator Jefferson Davis believed it constitutional, he opposed secession. However, once Abraham Lincoln was elected, Mississippi seceded and Senator Davis made his farewell speech, pleading for peace.
Jefferson Davis was commissioned as a major general and thought his role would be in the military preparing for defense, however within two weeks Jefferson Davis was chosen to be provisional president of the Confederacy during the Confederate Convention in Montgomery, Alabama.
He was surprised by his selection, but accepted the duty. Jefferson Davis still hoped for a peaceful solution, and sent a peace commission to Washington D.C. But peace was not to be.
Davis chose Robert E. Lee as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, and gave him a broad scope to conduct the war. Davis sent agents to Europe to buy arms and ammunition. He also had battles to deal with other than those fought with guns. His vice president, Alexander H. Stephens and North Carolina Governor Zebulon Vance (both subjects of statues in the National Statuary Hall Collection that have been written up in my Blog Series) objected to many of his positions and decisions.
Soon after General Robert E. Lee surrendered, Jefferson Davis was captured and imprisoned for two years. He was indicted for treason, but never brought to trial. He was released in 1867. His health had deteriorated and had trouble making a living in the coming years. He wrote a memoir, that did not sell well and never took the oath of allegiance to regain his citizenship. Jefferson Davis died in New Orleans in 1889 of a bronchial ailment.
A 351-foot, concrete monument, stands in Kentucky, the place of Jefferson Davis birth. It was completed in 1924. A plaque is inscribed with this quote from a speech given by Jefferson Davis in 1888, less than a year before his death.
“The past is dead; Let it bury its dead, its hopes and aspirations; Before you lies the future. A Future full of golden promise; A future of expanding national glory, before which all the world shall stand amazed. Let me beseech you to lay aside all rancor, all bitter sectional feeling, and to take your places in the ranks of those who will bring about a consummation devoutly to be wished- A Reunited Country.”
Diana Erbio is a freelance writer and author of “Coming to America: A Girl Struggles to Find her Way in a New World”. Read more in her series Statues: The People They Salute visit The Table of Contents and the Facebook Page. (I’ll be adding to the Substack Table of Contents as I transfer the Blog Posts. Please subscribe to this Substack 😊🇺🇸🤓)
Well done. Always touchy writing on confederates and people need to realize they are Americans. They may have been wrong and misguided in many ways, but they should not be rewritten, forgotten and despised when most of them wanted to forget the ill advised war and move on to be one people again.
There were giants in the Earth in those days and Davis is one of the more gigantic. Your excellent biography is one of the best you have ever composed. Congratulations, Miss.