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Jefferson Davis biography

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Quick Facts

  • NAME: Jefferson Davis
  • OCCUPATION: Government Official
  • BIRTH DATE: June 03, 1808
  • DEATH DATE: December 06, 1889
  • EDUCATION: Transylvania University, United States Military Academy at West Point
  • PLACE OF BIRTH: Christian County, Kentucky
  • PLACE OF DEATH: New Orleans, Louisiana
  • Full Name: Jefferson Finis Davis
  • AKA: Jefferson F. Davis
  • AKA: Jefferson Davis

Best Known For

Jefferson Davis was a 19th century U.S. senator best known as the president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.

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In 1853, Davis was appointed secretary of war by President Franklin Pierce. He served in that position until 1857, when he returned to the Senate. Although opposed to session, while back in the Senate, he continued to defend the rights of southern slave states. Davis remained in the Senate until January 1861, resigning when Mississippi left the Union.

In conjunction with the formation of the Confederacy,

Davis became was named president of the Confederate States of America on February 18, 1861. On May 10, 1865, he was captured by Union forces near Irwinville, Virginia, and charged with treason. Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe in Virginia from May 22, 1865, to May 13, 1867, before being released on bail paid partly by abolitionist Horace Greely.

Later Life and Death

Following his term as president of the Confederacy, Davis traveled overseas on business. He was offered a job as president of Texas A&M University, but declined. He was also elected to the Senate a third time, but was unable to serve due to restrictions included in the 14th Amendment. In 1881, he wrote The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government in an effort to defend his political stance. Davis lived out his retirement years at an estate called Beauvoir in Mississippi.

Around 1 a.m. on December 6, 1889, Jefferson Davis died of acute bronchitis in New Orleans, Louisiana. His body was temporarily interred at New Orleans’s Metairie Cemetery. It was later relocated to a specially constructed memorial at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.

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