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Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808 – December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the first and only president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic Party before the American Civil War.
Davis wore a new suit of Confederate grey fabric Jubal Early had given him, and his widow Varina placed a sword Davis had carried during the Black Hawk War on the bier. A common decoration during the initial funeral was a small American flag in mourning, with a portrait of Davis in the center.
The Confederate States cabinet declared the Confederacy dissolved May 5, 1865, after which Davis stopped attempting to exercise his office's powers and duties. May 5 is therefore generally considered to be the day the Confederate States of America (and its presidency) were formally abolished.
A series of western adventure novels written by Paul Wheelahan (using the pseudonym E. Jefferson Clay) featured two brawling Civil War veterans searching for stolen Confederate gold. In the 1936 novel Gone With the Wind, Rhett Butler is rumored to have stolen the Confederate gold.
The Confederate cabinet was dissolved on May 5, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured by Union soldiers on May 10, one day after Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson, declared that the belligerent rights of the Confederacy were at an end, [3] with the rebellion effectively over.
Civil War historian Allen C. Guelzo describes the first Confederate secretaries of war and state, LeRoy Pope Walker of Alabama and Robert Toombs of Georgia, respectively—as "brainless political appointees." [3] The cabinet's performance suffered due to Davis's inability to delegate and propensity to micromanage his Cabinet officers. [7]
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CSA Vice President Alexander Stephens had been trying to end the war since 1863.. Davis was pressed for options as the Confederacy faced collapse and defeat. Peace movements in the South had been active since the beginning of the war and intensified in 1864 in the face of widespread shortages of food, medicine, and other goods.