Jefferson Davis

“Oh, the muskets they may rattle…And the cannons they may roar…But we’ll fight for you, Jeff Davis…Along the Southern shore.”
The muskets first rattled and the cannons first roared on April 12, 1861. On that day, Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America, ordered his troops to fire on Fort Sumter, a Union post in South Carolina. With that, the Civil War between the north and the South had begun.

Davis grew up in Mississippi, attended school in Kentucky, and graduated from West Point in 1824. He served with distinction in the Mexican War, but then left the army and became a prosperous Mississippi cotton planter and respected politician. He was elected to the House of Representatives, then served as Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce, and was elected to the U.S. Senate. An outspoken advocate for states’ rights. Davis believed strongly that Americans had the right to own slaves. By the time the Union broke apart he was the South’s leading statesman, and an obvious choice for the condederate presidency.

After the war, Davis spent two years in prison and lost his U.S. citizenship. In 1978, almost 90 years after his death, the U.S. Congress restored his citizenship.

June 3rd, Jefferson Davis’ birthday, is a legal holiday in nine southern states.

The papers of Jefferson Davis can be found here

Information regarding Jefferson Davis’ home…Beauvoir….here