| June 3,
1808 |
Born at
Fairview, Kentucky. Moves to Woodville, Mississippi when a
small child. Educated at Jefferson College, Washington,
Mississippi, near Natchez, and at Transylvania College,
Lexington, Kentucky. |
| 1828 |
Graduates from US Military Academy
at West Point at the age of twenty. |
|
June 17, 1835 |
Marries Sarah
Knox Taylor, daughter of General Zachary Taylor.
Resigns from U.S. Army to become a planter. |
|
September 15, 1835 |
Sarah Knox
Taylor Davis dies of malarial fever. |
| February
26, 1845 |
Marries Varina
Anne Banks Howell. Settles on plantation, Brierfield.
|
|
November, 1845 |
Elected as a
Member of Congress, U.S. House of Representatives from
Mississippi. |
|
July 21, 1846 |
As Colonel of
Mississippi Volunteers, commands the First Mississippi
Regiment in the Mexican War at the Battles of Monterrey and Buena Vista and is
hailed as a war hero. |
| December
6, 1847 |
Elected to the
U.S. Senate from Mississippi. |
|
1853-1857 |
Appointed
Secretary of War by President Franklin Pierce, serving
four years. |
|
March 4, 1857 |
Returns to the
Senate. |
|
January, 1861 |
Resigns from
the Senate. |
| February
18, 1861 |
Inaugurated
as provisional President of the Confederate States of America at Montgomery,
Alabama. |
| November
6, 1861 |
Elected to a
six-year term as President of the Confederate States of
America. |
|
May 5, 1865 |
Meets with his
Confederate Cabinet for the last time in Washington, Georgia,
and officially dissolves the Confederate Government. |
| May 10,
1865 |
Captured at
Irwinville, Georgia by the Fourth Michigan Cavalry.
|
| May 22,
1865 |
Imprisoned at
Fortress Monroe, Virginia. |
| May 13,
1867 |
Released from
Fortress Monroe prison on a $100,000 bail bond signed by
twenty prominent men, among them Horace Greeley, Cornelius
Vanderbilt, and Augustus Schell, each posting $5,000. |
| 1867
-
1877 |
Lives in Memphis, Tennessee. Visits Canada,
England, Wales, Scotland and continental Europe. |
February, 1877
|
Moves to Beauvoir, Gulfport, Mississippi.
Spends the last twelve
years of his life on the estate. |
| December
6, 1889 |
Dies in New
Orleans, Louisiana. |
December
11, 1889
|
Buried,
Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans, following the largest funeral
procession ever held in the South. |
| May 31,
1893 |
Final burial,
Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia. |
| October
17, 1978 |
President
Jimmy Carter signs bill to restore citizenship to Jefferson Davis
which passes the U.S. Congress without a dissenting vote. |
|
|
