Jefferson Davis

Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour. By William C. Davis. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991.

Jefferson F. Davis, according to historian William C. Davis, is one of those elusive historical figures that “defy good biography” (xii). As the first and only president of the Confederate States of America, his leadership played an essential role in creation of a separate Southern nation and the formation of its identity, while at the same time the inherent weaknesses in his personal nature heavily influenced its eventual destruction. In Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour, respected Civil War scholar William C. Davis reexamines Davis’s life in order to objectionably appraise Davis’s executive record and reveal how his earlier life created the character traits that both enabled Davis to meteorically rise in his political career and limited his effectiveness as chief executive of the Confederacy. In his preface, William C. Davis declares his purpose is to correct the “unbroken string of second-and third- rate biographies” concerning Davis, and in The Man and His Hour he succeeds in creating an enlightening and balanced account of one of the most complex and controversial figures of the American Civil War.

While The Man and His Hour focuses primarily on the years 1861-1865, it also gives a detailed assessment of Davis’s formative years and his prewar professions as soldier, planter, and politician. Born in Kentucky, Jefferson F. Davis attended West Point and graduated in the class of 1828, where he became acquainted with many future Civil War leaders, including Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, Leonidas Polk, and Joseph E. Johnston. After serving in the frontier army, Davis resigned his commission and married the daughter of General Zachary Taylor, becoming a planter on a plantation in Mississippi. After the tragic death of his wife from malaria after only four months of marriage, Davis, also afflicted by the disease, was broken both physically and emotionally. Along with repeated occurrences of malaria, Davis would battle severe health problems for the rest of his life, including lung ailments, digestive troubles, and blindness in one eye. According to the author, rather than admit his own error in bringing his new bride into an area prone to fever, Davis became steadfast in his conviction that he was right in all matters, which would later plagued his future administration. Elected to the House of Representatives, Davis became a national hero after his Mexican War service at the battle of Buena Vista under his former father-in-law General Taylor. Returning to Washington as a senator, Davis assumed the role of defending the South after the death of his mentor John C. Calhoun, and served as a highly effective secretary of war in the Franklin Piece administration. Dedicated to preserving states’ rights and slavery, Davis passionately defended the peculiar institution based on his own lenient treatment of slaves, never realizing or admitting the cruelty of other slaveowners. With national recognition as a leader of Southern interests in the Senate, and a successful military career, Davis was an obvious choice for president when the Confederate government was organized.

Historians have long debated Davis’s performance as president, although few other serious candidates were available at the time. While the author does not hesitate to emphasize Davis’s failures, he also notes the several key decisions made by Davis that aided and prolonged the life of the Confederacy, most notably his appointment and continued support of Robert E. Lee as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia and his critical role in organizing the civil and military institutions of the new nation. However, Davis’s inability to effectively work with either the prideful politicians or disgruntled commanders of the South, his tendency to overwork himself with details better left delegated, his refusal to admit error and replace highly appointed but incompetent friends, and his numerous health problems all proved to limit his effectiveness as a wartime president. Still, as William C. Davis admits, even “had their roles been reversed, and Davis led the North and Lincoln the South, the Union would still have won (704). Ultimately, no one leader could have overcome the impossible obstacles that challenged the Confederacy, and the author concludes that “for all Davis’s flaws as an executive, without his performance of his civil functions as president, the Confederacy would not have lasted until 1865 (704).

Than Dossman

Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour. By William C. Davis. (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991. Pp. xv, 784.)

In his fine biography of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, William C. Davis explores not only his subject’s life and career, but also the many facets of his personality and psychology. Though much of traditional literature on Jefferson Davis prior to Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour has oft been found lacking, this Jefferson Davis biography perhaps stands at the head of the class for its adept treatment of the psychological issues that plagued the man, as well as its evaluation of Davis’s triumphs and failures later in life. Also exemplary is the final chapter, a summation and fair-minded assessment of the Confederate president’s life and deeds.

Davis divides his book into two sections; the first discussing “the man” and his formative experience leading up to his ascendancy as the president of the Confederate States of America; and the second, “the hour,” which details Davis’s experiences as chief executive and his life after the war. Rightly, the bulk of the book focuses on Davis’s activities during the Civil War, but especially strong are the author’s insights into the Confederate’s formative years. Struggling with a distant and almost elderly father and a paternalistic much-older brother, Davis struggled to uphold the family name by attending first the Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, where he excelled in the Classics and made a good many friends. At the behest of his elder brother, Samuel, Jefferson enrolled at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he racked up demerits but finished in 1828 “convinced that West Point had made him into a soldier” (p. 38). A blossoming love with Sarah Taylor (the daughter of would-be president Zachary Taylor) eventually resulted in a marriage, but Jefferson’s eagerness to bring his young bride home to his Mississippi plantation, Brierfield, at the height of mosquito season proved deadly for the amiable Sarah. After her death in 1835, which emotionally devastated Davis, although he never once expressed guilt over having persuaded her to move up the wedding day, placing her at risk for malaria or yellow fever at their new home, Davis continued his life as a planter and became increasingly interested in politics. A staunch Democrat believing in a strict interpretation of the Constitution, the young man supported John C. Calhoun’s theory of state’s rights as a Congressman from his home state, later serving as a United States Senator and as Secretary of War to President Franklin Pierce. As the sectional crisis heated up, it was Jefferson Davis who stepped up as the South’s next Calhoun: he fervently supported the notions of states’ rights and white supremacy, although he certainly was no fire-eater.

Increasingly, the South as a whole looked to Davis for guidance, and so it was no surprise when he was handed the presidency of the newly formed Confederate States of America, a position that Davis himself never asked for and in fact did not want, though his sense of duty compelled him to serve. As chief executive, Davis found himself troubled by the shortcomings that had plagued him since his early years—an inability to deal with equals unless they fawned upon him, excruciating difficulty in making decisions, and a stubborn refusal to admit wrongdoing. Much of author Davis’s coverage discusses his subject’s difficulty in cooperating with his several generals; and he praises Robert E. Lee for discovering early on how to maintain a harmonious relationship with his president. As president, Davis lacked the instincts of a true administrator; rather, his abilities and personality were more suited to a bureaucratic position. Nonetheless, despite taking the brunt of public outrage for the declining success or individual failures during the war, Davis performed as well as any human could be expected to as the underdog Confederate leader facing the much stronger Union foe.

Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour is an excellent biography that should rest on every Civil War historian or Davis fan’s shelf. It is well researched, drawing upon mostly primary sources, and though the author strays purposefully from some secondary sources (both good and bad), the book’s bibliography reveals a treasure trove of invaluable manuscript collections and newspapers readily available to the eager researcher. Throughout the text, there is a sense of balance and fair appraisal of the man who served as the president of the Confederacy, depicting him as a mere human facing challenges greater than any other man of his time. Additionally, the text proves a delight to read despite the book’s mammoth size. Those interested in the inner workings of the Confederate high command and Civil War politics will enjoy this intriguing biography.