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Person1808 – 1889

Jefferson Davis

Mississippi politician, former US secretary of war and senator, and the only president of the Confederacy (1861–1865)

A West Point graduate who distinguished himself in the Mexican War, he owned a large plantation and enslaved people in Mississippi. As secretary of war under Pierce and then as senator he was a leading voice for Southern rights. Chosen president of the Confederacy in 1861, he clashed often with state governors jealous of states’ rights and was criticised for meddling in his generals’ affairs. Captured in May 1865, he was held for two years but never tried, and in old age wrote The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government.

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3 related events

  1. 1
    1860 – 1861Secession and the Founding of the Confederacykey figure

    Beginning with South Carolina, seven Southern states left the Union and in February 1861 founded the Confederate States of America at Montgomery, choosing Jefferson Davis as president.

  2. 2
    1861Bombardment of Fort Sumterrelated figure

    Confederate guns shelled the federal Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor for 34 hours and forced its surrender; Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers began the Civil War.

  3. 3
    1865Surrender at Appomattoxrelated figure

    Driven from Richmond, Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant at Appomattox Court House, effectively ending the Civil War.

People who appear alongside

  • Abraham Lincoln1809 – 1865

    16th US president (1861–1865) who preserved the Union in the Civil War and issued the Emancipation Proclamation; assassinated just after the war ended

  • Ulysses S. Grant1822 – 1885

    Union general who took Vicksburg, became general-in-chief in 1864 and received Lee’s surrender; 18th US president (1869–1877)

  • Robert E. Lee1807 – 1870

    Confederate general who led the Army of Northern Virginia to many victories, lost at Gettysburg and surrendered at Appomattox in 1865

Themes this person appears in

  • The American Civil War1850 – 1865

    From the Compromise of 1850 to Lincoln’s assassination — a nation divided over slavery fought four years of civil war, preserving the Union and ending slavery