 |
This is number 200 of 585 Primary Sources.
| |
|
|
|
Related topics:
APUSH-14-B
| |
|
| |
| |
Caption: Southern politician and president of the Confederacy (1861–65). Davis graduated from West Point in 1828 and served briefly in Congress, which he left to fight in the Mexican War. After returning, he was appointed U.S. senator from Mississippi to fill a vacated seat. In 1853 he was appointed secretary of war by President Franklin Pierce. Davis initially opposed the secession of Southern states but accepted the post of major general of Mississippi's armed forces when that state seceded in 1861. Only weeks later, the Confederate Convention named him president. His presidency was marked by dissension among different factions within the Confederacy. After General Robert E. Lee surrendered to the North without Davis's approval, Davis fled from the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, and was captured in Georgia. He was held prisoner for two years and was released on bail in 1867. For the rest of his life he spoke out in defense of the defeated South.
|
Library of Congress, Manuscript Division [LC-MSS-44297-33-129].
|
| |
