Davis, Jefferson (1808–1889)

US politician, president of the short-lived Confederate States of America 1861–65. He was a leader of the Southern Democrats in the US Senate from 1857, and a defender of ‘humane’ slavery; in 1860 he issued a declaration in favour of secession from the USA. During the Civil War he assumed strong political leadership, but often disagreed with military policy. He was imprisoned for two years after the war, one of the few cases of judicial retribution against Confederate leaders.

Davis sat in the US Senate 1847–51, was secretary of war 1853–57, and returned to the Senate in 1857. During the Civil War, his fiery temper and self-righteousness hindered efforts to achieve broad unity among the Southern states. His call for conscription in the South raised protests that he was a military dictator, violating the ideals of freedom for which the Confederacy was supposed to be fighting.

Davis was born in Fairview, Kentucky, and graduated from West Point military academy 1828. He served in the US army for seven years, seeing action in the Black Hawk War 1833, before becoming a cotton planter in Mississippi. He was elected to the national House of Representatives 1845, but gave up his seat on the outbreak of the Mexican War and served as colonel of a volunteer regiment, the Mississippi Rifles.

When Richmond, the Confederate capital, fell into Union hands, Davis moved first to Danville, Virginia, then to Greensboro, North Carolina, and was finally captured near Irwinville, Georgia, 10 May 1865, and confined in Fortress Monroe, Virginia. Two indictments for treason were found against him and for two years he was refused trial or bail. This harsh treatment aroused the sympathy of the people of the South, who looked upon Davis as a martyr to their cause. When, in 1867, he was finally given bail, many of his former political opponents stood as sureties. The matter was due to be heard in the Supreme Court, but the administration dismissed the prosecution and discharged Davis, who went to Canada and then to England. After a general amnesty 1868, he retired to Mississippi.

A $4.5 million Jefferson Davis Presidential Library, containing over 6,000 items, opened in 1998 in Biloxi, MS.