JEFFERSON DAVIS ELECTED CONFEDERATE PRESIDENT
Montgomery, Alabama (JFK+50) On November 6, 1861, Jefferson Davis* was elected president of the Confederate States of America.
Davis was to serve a six-year term according to the Confederate Constitution but that term would be cut short with the dissolution of the Confederate government on May 5, 1865.
JFK+50 NOTE
Jefferson Davis attempted escape after the fall of Richmond, the Confederate capital, but was captured in Georgia & held in prison for two years without trial. After the Civil War, he became a hero to the "Lost Cause" movement.
Paul Escott writes... "Davis and the Confederacy were on the wrong side of history's judgment," but adds that "the Confederacy would never have survived to 1865 without Jefferson Davis."
*Jefferson F. Davis (1808-1889) was born in Fairview, Kentucky and spent most of his youth in Mississippi. He graduated from West Point, served in the Mexican War & became a cotton planter & slaveholder.
JFD was appointed to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat (Mississippi) & served as Franklin Pierce's Secretary of War. He resigned his U.S. Senate seat in 1861.
SOURCES
"Jefferson Davis as President of the Confederacy," by Paul Escott, Wake Forest News, February 12, 2009, www.news.wfu.edu/
"Jefferson Davis elected Confederate president," www.history.com/
