Jefferson Davis Inaugurated: The Confederacy Begins

Jefferson Davis accepted the provisional presidency of the Confederate States of America on February 18, 1861, six weeks before Abraham Lincoln's inauguration. His acceptance speech in Montgomery, Alabama, struck a conciliatory tone, expressing hope for peace while asserting the South's constitutional right to secede. Davis was a West Point graduate, Mexican War hero, former US Secretary of War, and one of the most experienced politicians in the South. He would have preferred a military command. The Confederate constitution limited the president to a single six-year term, a deliberate rejection of what Southerners viewed as the corrupting influence of reelection politics. Davis spent the next four years struggling with the same fundamental problem: the Confederacy lacked the industrial capacity, manpower, and naval resources to sustain a prolonged war against the Union. His micromanagement of military operations and bitter feuds with generals like Joseph Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard further undermined the war effort.