Who was Jefferson Davis and what did he do?

Answer 1

Davis was an ex-Regular army officer who was made President of the Confederacy because he was thought to embody the Southern virtues at their highest.

It is true that he had a deep sense of feudal obligation, and treated his slaves so well that they didn't want their freedom. This was unusual as far South as Mississippi, where he farmed his estate, though he was a Kentuckian by birth.

When the war started, he had hoped to be made General-in-Chief of the Confederate armies, rather than President, and he acted like a missed-out General, always interfering with his appointed army commanders.

His miltary judgment was actually very flawed, and his decisions would lead to disaster. As a wartime President, he failed to tour the country giving morale-raising speeches, but stayed at home, just issuing appeals for loyalty.

As defeat loomed, his character failed the test, and he started talking wildly about carrying on the struggle somewhere across the Mississippi - a completely unrealistic notion. When the Union army came to arrest him, he tried to escape disguised as a woman - a final touch of indignity that was certainly not in the Confederate tradition.

Threatened with hanging for treason, he was jailed for two years and then released, living on to an old age, by which time he was viewed with affection as a symbol of the Lost Cause.

His memoirs were disappointingly dull, just a dry legal argument in defence of secession, and missed their opportunity to inspire.

Answer 2

Here is the story of the life of Jefferson Davis.Jefferson Davis was born in 1808.In 1835 he married Sarah Taylor.She was the daughter of Zachary Taylor who became the 12th president of the United States in 1849.Just a few months after Davis married Sarah Taylor she died.In 1861 Jefferson Davis became the president of the Confederate States Of America when the south left the union.Jefferson Davis died in 1889.

Answer 3

Jefferson Davis was president of the Confederate States of America.His first wife Sarah Taylor died of malaria only three months after they were married.He was also a senator from Mississippi.

Answer 4

He was a former slave owner, West Point graduate, and a US senator of Mississippi. He fought in the Mexican-American war as colonel of a volunteer regiment and became US Secretary of War under former president Franklin Pierce. He was also an American statesman during Civil War as the President of the Confederate States of America.

Answer 5

A man who looked like a symbol of the Confederate virtues - a Southern aristocrat with a strong sense of feudal obligation to his slaves (he treated them so well, they didn't want their freedom), and a respectable record as a Colonel in the Mexican War.

In fact, he was out of his depth, both as a politician and as a notional General-in-Chief - unable to control either his army commanders or his cabinet. When it came to the test, he showed little insight into military or political problems.

After the war, and certainly after the early death of Robert E. Lee, he was regarded as a symbol of the Lost Cause, and in his old age, he came to be viewed with affection, but never respect.

Answer 6

Jefferson Davis was the president of the Confederacy. Like Lincoln, he was born in Kentucky. Unlike Lincoln, Davis had a strong military background which may or may not have been an asset. Nevertheless, Davis was a West Point graduate, a Mexican War hero and a former Secretary of War in the US. Davis moved south from Kentucky and he and his family were part of the Southern landed aristocracy. He also served as a congressman as well as his aforementioned Secretary of War position.

Answer 7

The first President of the Confederate States of America.

Answer 8

Jefferson Davis was the President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.

Answer 9

Jefferson Davis was a true southerner and fully believed in slavery. He fought the war because he believed that it was the only way to