JEFFERSON DAVISBy: Kendall Glisson

JEFFERSON DAVIS WAS BORN ON JUNE 3, 1808 IN CHRISTIAN COUNTY, KENTUCKY

WHEN JEFFERSON DAVIS WAS 16 YEARS OLD, PRESIDENT JAMES MONROE REQUESTED THAT DAVIS BECOME A CADET AT THE UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY AT WEST POINT IN NEW YORK.

JEFFERSON DAVIS MILITARY Jefferson Davis was in the Military from 1828 – 1835. He mostly fought against Indians. He left the military in 1835 because he fell in love

with his commanding officers daughter Sarah Taylor and her father Zachary Taylor did not approve.

His wife died just a few months after they were married.

POLITICS

After leaving the Military Jefferson Davis was a cotton farmer while he was getting ready to go into politics as a Democrat

In 1843 he was in the Democratic National Convention and did really well with his speeches

In 1845 Davis won a seat in the House of Representatives

JEFFERSON DAVIS’ RETURN TO MILITARY

Jefferson Davis returned to the military in 1846 He fought in the mexican-american war He was injured at the Battle of Buena Vista when he

blocked a charge of Mexican swords—an event that made him famous.

JEFFERSON DAVIS RETURNS TO POLITICS

In 1847, following Davis’s heroic feat, Zachary Taylor appointed him U.S. senator for Mississippi

He was for slavery and states rights and did no want California to be accepted into the Union as a free state.

In 1853, Davis was made secretary of war. He did that until 1857, then he returned to the Senate

Davis stayed in the Senate until January 1861, he left when Mississippi left the Union.

JEFFERSON DAVIS AND HIS CONFEDERATE DAYS

Davis was named president of the Confederate States of America on February 18, 1861.

On May 10, 1865, he was captured by Union forces near Irwinville, Georgia, and charged with treason.

Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe in Virginia from May 22, 1865, to May 13, 1867

On December 6, 1889, Jefferson Davis died of bronchitis in New Orleans, Louisiana. His body was temporarily placed at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans. It was later moved to a memorial at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.

THE END