What was Jefferson Davis' strategy in the civil war?

Answer 1

The Confederacy's strategy was mostly defensive. One was to harass the Union like George Washington did to the British; like the British, the Union had more soldiers and were better equipped than the Confederacy. Like the U.S. did, they also tried to ally with England and France.
During the American Civil War, one of the basic (and most important) strategies of the Confederacy was to defend its territory. While perhaps appearing to be simplistic, this strategy, if accomplished, would ensure a Southern victory. By contrast, the North was compelled to take to the offensive and occupy Southern territory -- a much riskier proposition -- in order to achieve victory.

Answer 2

In the early stage of war Jefferson Davis's strategy was essentially based upon political purposes, that is it was conceived to take account of the public opinion choice to preserve the whole territory of the Confederacy at every point along its perimeter. That meant the stationing of military forces at the borders, which would have given battle to beat back every attempt of invasion.

Then he proposed the "offensive-defensive strategy" that is: places of secondary importance were not to be defended, the scattered forces on the border had to be regrouped and moving through "interior lines" by railroad, sent to match the Northern armies as soon as they would come up. This allowed he Confederacy to have larger forces at disposal to set up offensive operations against the invaders as opportunity offered.