The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
CSA President Jefferson Davis
Monday is a state holiday in Alabama as the state honors the legacy of the President of the Confederate States of America. State offices, county court houses, and most schools will be closed for the official state. Federal offices, post offices, and most banks will be open.
Davis was inaugurated in Montgomery – the first capital of the Confederacy. The first White House of the Confederacy, where President Davis and his family lived is maintained across the street from the historic 1859 Capitol Building where delegates first voted to secede from the United States, chose Davis as the CSA's president, and the capitol steps where Davis took the oath of office as President of the Confederacy.
Davis was born on June 3, 1808. Davis was the tenth and youngest child of Revolutionary War veteran Samuel Davis and his wife Jane Cook Davis. At 7 Davis was sent to study with the Dominicans in Kentucky for three years. At age 13 he enrolled at Transylvania College in Kentucky. At age 16 he transferred to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1824.
Davis graduated in 1828 and joined the U.S. Army. He served in the Black Hawk War in 1832. He married the daughter of commanding officer Colonel Zachary Taylor (future President) against Colonel Tayler's wishes. She died of malaria.
Davis left the army and spent eight years as a cotton planter in Mississippi. In 1845 he married Varina Howell. They had two daughters and four sons. Only the two daughters survived to adulthood. Davis was elected to Congress in 1845.
In 1846 he resigned his post to reenlist in the Army to fight in the Mexican War. He distinguished himself in the battles of Monterrey and Buena Vista. The Army offered him a promotion to brigadier general in 1847. Davis declined the promotion when Mississippi elected him to the U.S. Senate.
In 1853, President Franklin Pierce appointed Davis as the U.S. Secretary of War.
In 1857, Davis went back to the Senate. He resigned on January 21, 1861 after Mississippi seceded from the Union.
The Confederate Congress in Montgomery chose Davis to become the provisional President of the Confederacy. A year later he was inaugurated for a six-year term as President. Davis did not want to be President of the Confederacy as he had hoped for a military command.
The war did not go well for the Confederacy and by April 2, 1865, the Confederate government was forced to flee from Richmond. General Robert E. Lee's surrender later that month effectively doomed the CSA. Davis was captured by Union soldiers near Irwinville, Georgia on May 10, 1865.
Following the war, Davis spent two years in prison at Fort Monroe, Virginia. After his being release, Davis and his family traveled in Europe. Returning to the USA, Davis settled in Tennessee before relocating to an estate on the Mississippi gulf coast called Beauvoir near Biloxi. Mississippi attempted to send him back to the U.S. Senate, but Davis refused to request an official pardon from the President thus he was not legally qualified to serve.
In retirement, Davis wrote 'The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (vol 1, vol 2), his two-volume book was published in 1881.
Jefferson Davis died in New Orleans on December 6, 1889.
On Monday Beauvoir will be holding a 214th birthday celebration for Davis from 9:00 am - 2:00 pm inside the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library Building. Cupcakes will be served. You can tour the museum and library, with period-dressed tour guides to show you around the house every hour. They will also have Living Historians out and about on the property giving you a glimpse into what life was like when President Davis lived there.
General Admission for adults is $13. Children ages 6 to 17 get in for $7; while children less than ages 6 are admitted free.
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