Jefferson Davis

Jefferson Finis Davis (June 3, 1808 - December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. As a member of the Democratic Party, he represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives before the American Civil War. He previously served as the United States Secretary of War from 1853 to 1857 under President Franklin Pierce. Davis was born in Fairview, Kentucky, to a moderately prosperous farmer, the youngest of ten children. He grew up in Wilkinson County, Mississippi, and also lived in Louisiana. His eldest brother Joseph Emory Davis secured the younger Davis's appointment to the United States Military Academy.

The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government - Volume I (Esprios Classics)

Mark Sceurman

Al Eufrasio

The Pacific Northwest teems with colorful history and unique legends--and this tour of the Beaver State is no exception. Discover the "city" in eastern Oregon with a year-round population of zero to two, and much, much more. Can it get any weirder than this?

Your Travel Guide to Oregon's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets

Weird Oregon

Andrew Podnieks

Following on the heels of the successful "Hello Hockey Fans from Coast to Coast", the authors present their second book of obscure hockey lists. Photos.

More Amazing Hockey Lists for Trivia Lovers

The Three Stars and Other Selections

Abraham Lincoln

Raphael Semmes

William Sherman

Ulysses Grant

Madison & Adams Press presents the collection of Civil War memoires, diaries and journals. This meticulous selection of the firsthand accounts, memoirs and diaries is specially comprised for Civil War enthusiasts and all people curious about the personal accounts and true life stories of the key personalities of the Civil War including Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, William Sherman, Jefferson Davis, Raphael Semmes and many more. Contents: History of Civil War, 1861-1865 Leaders & Commanders of the Union Abraham Lincoln Ulysses S. Grant Charles Anderson Dana William Tecumseh Sherman Philip Henry Sheridan John Beatty John Alexander Logan Thomas Wentworth Higginson Lemuel Abijah Abbott Leaders & Commanders of the Confederation Jefferson Davis – A Short History of the Confederate States of America James Longstreet Raphael Semmes Gilbert Moxley Sorrel Richard "Dick" Taylor Isaac Hermann John Singleton Mosby Heros Von Borcke

First Hand Accounts from the Key Personalities of the Civil War: Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, William Sherman, Jefferson Davis, Raphael Semmes

The Memoirs of the Civil War Commanders

in large print

Speeches of the Hon. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi; Delivered During the Summer of 1858, Biography

A history of the Confederate States of America and an apologia for the causes that the author believed led to and justified the American Civil War.

The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government

A Short History of the Confederate States of America

The final volume of The Papers of Jefferson Davis follows the former president of the Confederacy through the completion of his two monumental works on the history of the Confederate States of America. In the first, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (1881), Davis sought to recast the Confederacy as a just and moral nation that was constitutionally correct in standing up for its rights. Himself the subject of heated debates about why the Confederacy lost, Davis also used the book to castigate Confederate government and military officials who he believed had failed the cause. Later, A Short History of the Confederate States (1890) attempted to burnish the image of the former Confederacy and to refute accusations of intentional mistreatment of Union prisoners. While completing these books, Davis attended and spoke at numerous Confederate memorial services and monument dedications, all the while waging a bitter feud with two of his former top generals-Joseph E. Johnston and P. G. T. Beauregard-over the reasons for the fall of the Confederacy. In late 1889, having returned to New Orleans from a trip to his plantation, Brierfield, Davis succumbed to pneumonia. His funeral procession attracted an estimated 150,000 mourners, a testament to the lasting popularity of the Confederacy's only president. In volume 14 of The Papers of Jefferson Davis, the editors have drawn from over one hundred manuscript repositories and private collections, in addition to numerous published sources, to offer a compelling portrait of Davis over the last decade of his life.

1880-1889

The Papers of Jefferson Davis

Volume 6 of The Papers of Jefferson Davis, spanning the five crucial years before 1861, chronicles Davis’ last year as secretary of war and his return to the Senate, capstone of his long career of public service to the United States. Volume 6 includes 116 letters printed in full with annotation, a calendar of over 6,000 items, and summaries of 53 recently discovered documents dating from 1845 through 1855, as well as illustrations and maps prepared especially for the volume. Davis’ correspondence and his final report to Franklin Pierce mirror the concerns of his last months as head of the War Department—turmoil in Kansas, protection of western settlements, construction of the Washington Aqueduct, the Capitol extension and new dome, surveys for the Pacific Railroad, Indian relations, the camel experiment, army reorganization, and advances in weaponry. All these issues followed Davis to the Senate in March, 1857, but other questions soon claimed equal attention. As debates on abolition, state rights, fugitive slaves, and slavery in the territories became more frequent and more divisive, Davis found himself a major spokesman for his region. He was caught up in the momentous events testing the nation during James Buchanan’s administration: “bleeding Kansas,” Preston Brook’s attack on Charles Sumner, John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, the 1860 Democratic conventions, the election of a Republican president, and the secession of South Carolina. He debated at length with Stephen A. Douglas and others over “squatter sovereignty” and offered his own resolutions on the relations of states as the basis for the Democratic platform in 1860. Personal correspondence gives revealing word pictures of Varina Davis and the children, the family’s sojourn in New England during the Summer of 1858, disastrous flooding at Brierfield in 1859, and Davis’ persistent, debilitating illnesses. Volume 6 covers fateful years for the nation and for Jefferson Davis, a man moving toward a destiny that he is both creating and hoping to avoid.

1856–1860

Speeches ... Delivered During the Summer of 1858 ..

During the last nine months of the Civil War, virtually all of the news reports and President Jefferson Davis’s correspondence confirmed the imminent demise of the Confederate States, the nation Davis had striven to uphold since 1861. But despite defeat after defeat on the battlefield, a recalcitrant Congress, nay-sayers in the press, disastrous financial conditions, failures in foreign policy and peace efforts, and plummeting national morale, Davis remained in office and tried to maintain the government—even after the fall of Richmond on April 2—until his capture by Union forces on May 10, 1865. The eleventh volume of The Papers of Jefferson Davis follows these tumultuous last months of the Confederacy and illuminates Davis’s policies, feelings, ideas, and relationships, as well as the viewpoints of hundreds of southerners—critics and supporters—who asked favors, pointed out abuses, and offered advice on myriad topics. Printed here for the first time are many speeches and a number of new letters and telegrams. In the course of the volume, Robert E. Lee officially becomes general in chief, Joseph E. Johnston is given a final command, legislation is enacted to place slaves in the army as soldiers, and peace negotiations are opened at the highest levels. The closing pages chronicle Davis’s dramatic flight from Richmond, including emotional correspondence with his wife as the two endeavor to find each other en route and make plans for the future in the wreckage of their lives. The holdings of seventy different manuscript repositories and private collections in addition to numerous published sources contribute to Volume 11, the fifth in the Civil War period.

Jefferson Davis

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