Jefferson C. & Jefferson F. Davis (Question 4)

Jefferson C. Davis

Finally, after grovelling, I persuaded someone to actually give a stab at my Jefferson Davis question. Carol said today at 5:46 AM... "He was a Union general in the Civil War. He also fought at Stones River - which is next door to me in Murfreesboro, TN. He marched with Sherman..." Yes!! Jefferson C. Davis, despite the coincidence of his name, was a Union General, to whom Sherman gave the order in May 1864 (referring to our fair city, Rome, Georgia), "attack the town directly, at the point of greatest resistance." The Rome folk, what there was left of them, did their best to offer great resistance. They and the Army had built fortifications around the city. The fiercest fighting took place just a few blocks from where I am sitting at Fort Attaway (There's a Japanese restaurant there now.) Our boys retreated across the river to Myrtle Hill (Fort Stovall to the Army) and managed to keep up some aggravation for the Yankees from that high ground. Sherman moved into Rome and used it as his HQ for a while as he prepared to take Atlanta. My question went like this:

Who was Jefferson C. Davis?

• President of the Confederate States of America
• Union General during the Civil War
• Son-in-law of the President of the USA
• United States Secretary of War

Bonus: Who is the very interesting match for each of the other answers?

Answer to the Bonus: All of the answers except "Union general" apply to the more famous Jefferson F. Davis (No one knows what the "F" stands for, though some sources say his folks named him "Finis" cause they didn't plan any further Davis editions.) The President of the Confederacy had married the daughter of Zachary Taylor, though she died young and before Taylor was elected President. Davis served as Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce. He was the prominent and nationally respected U.S. Senator from Mississippi when Abraham Lincoln was elected President by the smallest plurality of votes before or since (and without even appearing on the ballot in many states). Davis tried valiantly to hold the South in the Union, but when Mississippi seceded he announced his resignation from the Senate:

"I find in myself perhaps a type of the general feeling of my constituents toward yours. I am sure I feel no hostility toward you, Senators of the North. I am sure there is not one of you, whatever sharp discussion there may have been between us, to whom I cannot say in the presence of my God, I wish you well, and such I am sure is the feeling of the people whom I represent toward those whom you represent. I carry with me no hostile remembrance. Whatever offense I have given which has not been redressed or for which satisfaction has not been demanded, I have, Senators, in this hour of our parting, to offer you my apology for any pain which in the heat of discussion I have inflicted. I go hence unincumbered by the remembrance of any injury received, and having discharged the duty of making the only reparation in my power for any injury offered, Mr. President and Senators, having made the announcement which the occasion seemed to me to require, it only remains for me to bid you a final adieu."