The birthday of Jefferson Davis is commemorated in several states. His actual birthday, June 3, is celebrated in Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana and Tennessee; in Alabama, it is celebrated on the first Monday in June. In Mississippi, the last Monday of May (Memorial Day) is celebrated as "National Memorial Day and Jefferson Davis’ Birthday". In Texas, "Confederate Heroes Day" is celebrated on January 19, the birthday of Robert E. Lee; Jefferson Davis’ birthday had been officially celebrated on June 3 but was combined with Lee’s birthday in 1973.
Jefferson Finis Davis (June 3, 1808 – December 6, 1889) was an American politician who was a U.S. Representative and Senator from Mississippi, the 23rd U.S. Secretary of War, and the President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. He took personal charge of the Confederate war plans but was unable to find a strategy to defeat the more populous and industrialized Union. His diplomatic efforts failed to gain recognition from any foreign country, and at home, the collapsing Confederate economy forced his government to print more and more paper money to cover the war’s expenses, leading to runaway inflation and devaluation of the Confederate dollar.
Davis was born in Kentucky to a moderately prosperous farmer, and grew up on his older brother Joseph’s large cotton plantations in Mississippi and Louisiana. Joseph Davis also secured his appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. After graduating, Jefferson Davis served six years as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He fought in the Mexican–American War (1846–1848), as the colonel of a volunteer regiment. He served as the U.S. Secretary of War from 1853 to 1857 under President Franklin Pierce, and as a Democratic U.S. senator from Mississippi. Before the war, he operated a large cotton plantation in Mississippi and owned more than 100 slaves. After the war had ended, he remained a proud apologist for the cause of slavery for which he and the Confederacy had fought. Although Davis argued against secession in 1858, he believed that each state was sovereign and had an unquestionable right to secede from the Union.
Source: wikipedia.org | flsenate.gov