Davis, Jefferson Finis
Born: Jun 03, 1808 AD
Died: 1889 AD, at 81 years of age.
Nationality:
American
Categories:
Politician
1808 - Born in Christian County, Kentucky, on the 3rd of June. He was the youngest of the 10 children of Samuel Emory Davis and his wife Jane Cook.
1813 - Began his education together with his sister Mary, attending a log cabin school.
1815 - He entered the Catholic school of Saint Thomas at St. Rose Priory.
1818 - Studied at Jefferson College at Washington, Mississippi.
1821 - Transferred to Transylvania University at Lexington, Kentucky.
1824 - He entered the United States Military Academy (West Point).
1828 - Commissioned as a second lieutenant in June following graduation.
1829 - Assigned to supervise the cutting of timber on the banks of the Red Cedar River for the repair and enlargement of the fort.
1831 - He contracted pneumonia, causing him to return to Fort Crawford.
1832 - Dispatched to Galena, Illinois, at the head of a detachment assigned to remove miners from lands claimed by the Native Americans.
1833 - Promoted to first lieutenant of the Regiment of Dragoons and made a regimental adjutant.
1834 - He was transferred to Fort Gibson in the Indian Territory.
1835 - Married Taylor on 17th of June, at the house of her aunt near Louisville, Kentucky.
1836 - He moved to Brierfield Plantation in Warren County, Mississippi.
1845 - 1846 - Served as Representative from Mississippi.
1846 - Resigned his House seat in June, and raised a volunteer regiment, the Mississippi Rifles, becoming its colonel.
1847 - 1851 - He became Senator from Mississippi.
1848 - The Governor of Mississippi appointed Davis to fill out the Senate term of the late Jesse Speight.
1853 - 1857 - Pierce won the election he made Davis his Secretary of War.
1857 - 1861 - Once again he was elected as Senator from Mississippi.
1860 - Submitted six resolutions in an attempt to consolidate opinion regarding states' rights.
1861 - 1865 - He was the only president of Confederacy.
1861 - On 21st of January, he announced the secession of Mississippi, and resigned from the Senate.
- Four days after his resignation, he was commissioned Major General of Mississippi troops.
1862 - Assigned General Robert E. Lee to replace the wounded Joseph E. Johnston in command of the Army of Northern Virginia.
1863 - He declined General Lee's offer of resignation after his defeat at the Battle of Gettysburg.
1864 - He visited Georgia with the intent of raising morale.
1865 - On 3rd of April, he escaped for Danville, Virginia, together with the Confederate cabinet.
- On the 10th of May, he was captured at Irwin Ville, Georgia.
- On 19th of May he was imprisoned in a casemate at Fortress Monroe, on the coast of Virginia.
1866 - Charged with treason but charges dropped two years later.
1867 - After imprisonment of two years, he was released on bail, which was posted by prominent citizens
1868 - The court rejected a motion to nullify the indictment.
1869 - Became president of the Carolina Life Insurance Company in Memphis, Tennessee.
1875 - Elected to the U.S. Senate again, he was refused the office.
1876 - Promoted a society for the stimulation of U.S. trade with South America.
1877 - He visited England.
1878- 1881 - Wrote "The Rise and fall of the Confederate Government".
1889 - He completed A Short History of the Confederate States of America in October.
- Died on 6th of December in New Orleans at the age of 81 and was buried at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.
Page last updated: 5:16pm, 05th Jul '07