American Patriot, Confederate President: The Life Of Jefferson Davis

By: Luke Shields

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Before he was the one and only president of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis was a West Point graduate, a hero of the Mexican-American War, a United States Senator, and a U.S. Secretary of War. He served the United States with distinction for decades before becoming the leader of a rebellion that nearly destroyed it. This biography moves beyond the simple caricature of the arch-traitor to explore the complex journey of the man himself, in the context of his own tumultuous times.

From his origins on the Kentucky frontier and his formative years in the U.S. Army, Davis rose to become a powerful and respected voice for the South in the halls of Congress. This book chronicles his early life, his tragic first marriage and subsequent seclusion, and his rise as a statesman whose rigid constitutional principles were forged in the escalating sectional crises of the 1850s. Follow his path from the battlefields of Mexico to the cabinet rooms of Washington as he becomes a central figure in the nation's slide toward civil war.

As the reluctant president of a new nation born in crisis, Davis faced the immense challenge of waging a war for survival against overwhelming odds, a struggle that tested his leadership and fortitude to their absolute limits. The narrative details his wartime command, his flight from Richmond, and his subsequent two-year imprisonment at Fort Monroe. Witness his final transformation from a defeated president into the unrepentant, unreconstructed symbol of the South's Lost Cause.

Written in a compelling narrative style, this biography avoids both condemnation and hagiography to present a straightforward account of a complex and controversial life. It seeks to understand the world that produced Jefferson Davis and the convictions that guided his momentous and tragic decisions. This is the definitive story of the man who led the Confederate States of America, from his birth on the frontier to his final days as the keeper of his fallen nation's memory.