When did Jefferson Davis become a military officer?

Answer 1

Davis graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point in 1828, and was commissioned as an officer in the Army. After serving about seven years he resigned, because he wanted to marry the daughter of his commanding officer, Colonel (later President) Zachary Taylor. Taylor objected, because he did not want the life of an officer's wife for his beloved daughter - living at one lonely, isolated frontier outpost after another. So Davis resigned, and his much older half-brother set him up with land and slaves to start a molasses plantation in Mississippi. He took his new bride there, and she caught malaria and died within a few months. Davis made no crop two out of the three years he was trying to run this plantation (a hurricane wiped out his crop one year), and the land and slaves were foreclosed on by his creditors.

In 1845 when the Mexican War started Davis was elected Colonel of the First Mississippi Volunteer Regiment, and saw service in Mexico. He was wounded, and became nationally famous for his heroics. After that war was over the regiment was disbanded and Davis went back to politics, and was never again a military officer.

Davis was disappointed to be named President of the Confederacy in 1861. He had hoped to be named commanding general of the Confederate army.