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Today In History 1861: Jefferson Davis Elected President of the Confederate States Of America. Davis, a decorated War veteran of the Mexican-American War and the Black Hawk War, was also a Senator in Mississippi and Secretary of War under Franklin Pierce. . . Read Thread..
Let's learn a little about Jefferson Davis prior to the Civil War: Davis was born June 3, 1808, the youngest of 10 children in Fairview, KY. David graduated from West Point in 1828. One year before Robert E. Lee.
After graduation Davis served on frontier posts under General Zachary Taylor, whose daughter, Sarah Knox Taylor, he would marry. Unfortunately she would contract malaria and die shortly into their marriage, of malaria - About 3 months after. . .
After the loss of his beloved wife, Davis retired from the Military. For 10 years he tended to his cotton plantation, Brierfield. During this time David met, and married Varina Davis - A teenager half his age, and daughter of a prominent Mississippi family..
Davis then entered politics, being elected to the House of Representatives. When the Mexican-American war broke out, Davis resigned from congress, and entered the army as a Colonel in the Mississippi volunteers. .
Davis performed incredibly well in the Mexican-American war and gained a reputation as a great leader, most famously from his heroics at the Battle of Buena Vista, where he again served under General Zachary Taylor. After the war, Davis was elected to the US Senate. .
Davis would serve as Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce. In 1851 he returned to the Senate, where he'd stay until Mississippi seceded from the Union in January 1861. He was sworn in as the President of the Confederacy one month later. .
