Jefferson Finis Davis

U. S. House of Representatives, Mississippi, 1845-1846
U. S. Senator, Mississippi, 1847-1851
U. S. Secretary of War, 1853-1857
U. S. Senator, Mississippi, 1857-1861
Confederate President, 1861-1865

Born: June 3, 1808, what is now Fairview, Todd (formerly Christian) County, Kentucky.

• Moved with his parents to a plantation near Woodville, Wilkinson County, Mississippi.
  
• Attended the country schools, St. Thomas College, Washington County, Kentucky; Jefferson College, Adams County, Mississippi; Wilkinson County Academy; and Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky.
  
• U. S. Military Academy, West Point, New York, graduate, 1828.
  
• Served in the Black Hawk War, 1830-1831.
  
• Promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant in the First Dragoons March 4, 1833, "for gallant service," serving until June 30, 1835, when he resigned.
  
• Moved to his plantation, "Brierfield," in Warren County, Mississippi, and engaged in cotton planting.
  
• Presidential elector on the Democratic ticket of Polk and Dallas, 1844.
  
• Elected from Mississippi as a Democrat to the Twenty-ninth U. S. Congress, serving from March 4, 1845 - June 1846, when he resigned to command the First Regiment of Mississippi Riflemen in the War with Mexico.
  
• Sailed with the regiment from New Orleans, Louisiana, July 21, 1846.
  
• Was with General Taylor in the three days' siege of Monterrey, Mexico, where he greatly distinguished himself, as he afterward did at Buena Vista, Mexico.
  
• Appointed Brigadier General, May 27, 1847, but declined.
  
• Appointed from Mississippi to the U. S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Jesse Speight.
  
• Subsequently was elected, serving from August 10, 1847 - September 23, 1851, when he resigned.
  
• Unsuccessful as a State Rights Democratic candidate for Governor of Mississippi, 1851.
  
• Appointed U. S. Secretary of War by U. S. President Pierce, serving from March 7, 1853 - March 3, 1857.
  
• Again elected from Mississippi to the U. S. Senate, serving from March 4, 1857 - January 21, 1861, when he withdrew with other Senators, after explaining his purpose to the Senate.
  
• Commissioned Major General of the Mississippi State Militia, January 25, 1861.
  
• Chosen President of the Confederacy by the Provisional Congress and inaugurated in Montgomery, Alabama, February 18, 1861.
  
• Elected President of the Confederacy for a term of six years and inaugurated in Richmond, Virginia, February 22, 1862.
  
• Captured by the Union troops in Irwinsville, Georgia, May 10, 1865.
  
• Imprisoned in Fortress Monroe on May 22, 1865.
  
• Indicted for treason, May 8, 1866, and was paroled in the custody of the court, May 13, 1867.
  
• Returned to Mississippi and spent the remaining years of his life writing.

Died: December 6, 1889, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Buried: Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Reinterred: Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia, May 31, 1893.

(Source: U.S. Congress. House. Biographical Directory Of The American Congress 1774-1949, 85th Cong., 2nd sess., H. Doc. 607 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950), pp. 759-2057.)