DAVIS, JEFFERSON

born June 3, 1808, Christian county, Ky., U.S. died Dec. 6, 1889, New Orleans, La. president of the Confederate States of America throughout its existence during the American Civil War (186165). After the war, he was imprisoned for two years and indicted for treason but never tried. Additional reading The first biography of Jefferson Davis was by one who knew and understood him, Frank H. Alfriend, The Life of Jefferson Davis (1868). More recent works are Hudson Strode, Jefferson Davis, 3 vol. (195564), written with access to more than 1,000 hitherto unknown holograph letters owned by Davis' grandson; William Catton and Bruce Catton, Two Roads to Sumter (1963, reissued 1971), tracing Lincoln's and Davis' paths to war; Clement Eaton, Jefferson Davis (1977); Paul D. Escott, After Secession: Jefferson Davis and the Failure of Confederate Nationalism (1978); Michael B. Ballard, A Long Shadow: Jefferson Davis and the Final Days of the Confederacy (1986), covering the years 1865 to Davis' death; and William C. Davis, Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour (1991).