How long did jefferson davis live

Courtesy of the Kentucky Historical Society. Jefferson Davis : This photograph, made by famous photographer Matthew Brady, provides a standing portrait of Jefferson Davis. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Senator Jefferson Davis : This photographic image was taken when Davis served as a senator from Mississippi.

Photograph courtesy of Tim Talbott. Jefferson Davis Monument : Rising high above the surrounding farm fields, and visible for miles, is the towing Jefferson Davis Monument in Fairview, Kentucky. Get Directions. As part of a force commanded by his former father-in-law, Davis distinguished himself in battle at Monterrey and Buena Vista. As a senator, Davis fiercely defended the interests of the South in the growing sectional battle over slavery that would put the nation on the path to civil war.

He led a generation of southern Democrats who joined the proslavery crusade launched by John C. He opposed letting the Oregon territory bar slavery, and battled against the Compromise of , especially the admission of California to the Union as a free state. In , Davis resigned from the Senate to run unsuccessfully for governor of Mississippi.

Two years later, President Franklin Pierce appointed Davis as secretary of war. Davis returned to the Senate in He frequently clashed with fellow Democrat Stephen A. Davis resigned from the Senate in January , after Mississippi seceded from the Union. When the Confederate Congress met in Montgomery, Alabama the following month, it unanimously chose Davis—undoubtedly the Southern leader with the most impressive political and military record—as president of the Confederacy. Over the next four years, Davis struggled to balance his leadership role in the Civil War with the difficult domestic tasks involved with running a country.

Like Lincoln, he faced epic clashes with his generals, state lawmakers and Congress, but he lacked the economic and military resources of his Northern counterpart. Indicted but never tried for treason, Davis was released on bond in May After two years traveling in Europe, he and his family returned to Memphis, Tennessee, where he worked for a life insurance company.

In , they returned to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where an admirer named Sarah Dorsey let them use a cottage on her seaside plantation near Biloxi. When Dorsey died, she willed the estate, Beauvoir, to Davis and his family. He would live there for the rest of his life, publishing his account of the war in a two-volume memoir titled The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government in In December , Davis died of acute bronchitis in New Orleans. Parsons, L.

Carter, C. Smith, and J. One of two group portraits made by David H. Anderson shows thirteen of a pool of twenty-four potential petit, or trial, jurors appointed by the U. Standing from left to right are L. Tabb, L. Boyd, Thomas Lucas, L.

Lipscomb, A. Lilly, and unknown first name Wilburn. Seated from left to right are J. Willis, B. Morrisey, J. Turner in foreground , and Dr. After enduring two years of imprisonment and nearly four years of uncertainty, Davis became a free man.

Encyclopedia Virginia Grady Ave. Virginia Humanities acknowledges the Monacan Nation , the original people of the land and waters of our home in Charlottesville, Virginia. We invite you to learn more about Indians in Virginia in our Encyclopedia Virginia. As with other Confederate leaders, public monuments to Davis have generated considerable controversy in recent years. In December , following a heated legal battle, residents of Memphis, Tennessee, managed to have a statue of Davis removed from a park.

In the summer of , Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney announced the formation of a commission to recommend "how to best tell the real story" of the Confederate-era statues on tourist-packed Monument Avenue. In a report released the following July, the commission suggested the removal of a year old bronze statue of Davis, a move that would require legal action to change a state law. Other recommendations included designing more elaborate exhibits to provide context for the statues of Generals Robert Lee and Stonewall Jackson, as well as creating a memorial to slaves and to soldiers of the United States Colored Troops who fought in the Civil War.

We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Subscribe to the Biography newsletter to receive stories about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives. Ulysses S. Grant served as U. Stonewall Jackson was a leading Confederate general during the U. Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States. He preserved the Union during the U.

Civil War and brought about the emancipation of slaves. William Tecumseh Sherman was a U. One of the greatest cavalrymen of the Civil War, Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest allegedly permitted the massacre at Fort Pillow during the war and was associated with the Ku Klux Klan afterward.

Robert E.