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Early Years
Jefferson Finis Davis was born on June 3, 1808, in Christian County, Kentucky, less than a hundred miles from where future U.S. president Abraham Lincoln would be born eight months later. Davis was one of ten children; his father owned an inn and was a veteran of the Revolutionary War (1775–1783). The family left Kentucky a few years later and Davis was raised on a small plantation in Mississippi. He returned to Kentucky to attend boarding school in Bardstown and subsequently studied at Jefferson College in Mississippi and Transylvania University in Kentucky before entering the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He finished twenty-third in his class in 1828 and was assigned to the 1st Infantry Regiment in Wisconsin.
When the Mexican War began in 1846, Davis left Congress and accepted command of the 1st Mississippi Regiment. He served under his former father-in-law at the battles of Monterrey (1846) and Buena Vista (1847). At the latter engagement, Davis was wounded and won national acclaim for helping to repulse a charge by Mexican lances. "My daughter, sir, was a better judge of men than I was," General Taylor reportedly told him, and later that year the governor of Mississippi selected Davis to fill a vacant seat in the U.S. Senate.
After an unsuccessful run for governor of Mississippi, Davis was appointed secretary of war by U.S. president Franklin Pierce in 1853. He proved to be the most active and effective secretary of war since the 1820s, increasing the size of the army, improving training, and establishing a medical corps. He also oversaw the introduction of the minié ball, a partially hollow, conical bullet whose great accuracy and destructiveness would account in part for the Civil War's high number of casualties. After leaving the War Department in 1857, Davis returned to the Senate. Although generally opposed to secession, as many Southern moderates were, he nevertheless reestablished himself as a leading defender of the rights of slave states. When Mississippi left the Union in January 1861, Davis immediately resigned from the Senate.
Troubles in the Field
Virginia finally seceded after the loss of Sumter and Lincoln's subsequent call for volunteers, and in May the government relocated to Richmond. This was both a political and a strategic decision based on Virginia's symbolic importance, sizable population (free and enslaved), industry, and agricultural resources. Although its proximity to Washington, D.C., made the move a potentially hazardous one strategically, the topography of Virginia was militarily advantageous enough to help offset the risk. In particular, the Appalachian Mountains and the state's east-to-west-flowing rivers, such as the James and Rappahannock, served as a natural defense against invasion. Six months later, Davis won election to a six-year term as Confederate president.
A month after the First Battle of Manassas, the Confederate Congress authorized Davis to appoint five men to the rank of full general. Johnston and Beauregard were outraged to find themselves at the bottom of the list—behind the adjutant general Samuel Cooper, a "desk general" and, even worse, a New Jersey native; Albert Sidney Johnston, who had not yet seen action; and Lee, who was at the beginning of a series of humiliating defeats in western Virginia. In a letter to Davis, Johnston accused the president with having "tarnished my fair fame as a soldier and a man." Beauregard was banished to the Western Theater and later relieved of command. He and Johnston, backed by powerful allies in and out of the Confederate Congress, would become bitter enemies of the administration. Davis, who had become "aroused" in the matter, would not forget the criticism. In fact, historian James M. McPherson has suggested that this marked a crucial difference between Davis and Lincoln: while Davis "could never forget a slight or forgive the man who committed it," Lincoln was willing "to hold the horse of a haughty general if he would only win victories."
Davis also had trouble with his western armies. His friendship with Leonidas Polk—an Episcopal bishop who was third cousin to former U.S. president James K. Polk—unwittingly encouraged insubordination, and Joe Johnston, since transferred, seemed to long more for a return to Virginia than for the responsibilities of his immediate command. As a consequence, a poisonous atmosphere developed in the Army of Tennessee that did much to compromise its effectiveness, and Davis, unlike Lincoln, deemed it necessary on occasion to travel outside the capital to involve himself in these contretemps.
Troubles at Home
Davis antagonized many with his increased willingness over time to jettison states' rights in favor of more centralized power. Like Lincoln, he used the war as justification to suspend, on several occasions, basic liberties such as habeas corpus. To maximize the Confederacy's mobilization of manpower, he pushed a conscription bill through the Confederate Congress in 1862, putting him at odds with his own vice president. The fact that the owners of twenty or more slaves were exempted from the draft excited class resentment and led to claims that this was a "rich man's war." In addition, Davis imposed taxes and regulations designed to manage the economy and support the war effort, confiscated private property, and imposed martial law. Such measures were received with great hostility in a nation where states' rights were not only considered sacrosanct, but were the war's justification. As a result, Davis's attempts at fashioning a stronger national government were often obstructed by state and local leaders and protested by angry mobs.
The new strategy was developed in collaboration with Lee and called for concentrating as many forces as possible in a single theater and onto a single field, enabling them to take swift and decisive action. "Offensive-defensive" was extremely costly in manpower and ultimately failed to overcome the weight of superior Northern manpower and resources. While the Maryland (1862) and Gettysburg (1863) campaigns were boldly offensive, they were also defeats. On the other hand, the strategy enabled the Confederacy to reverse nearly all Union gains achieved early in 1862 (when the North, following the Peninsula and Seven Days' campaigns, had come perilously close to taking Richmond) and prolonged the war probably as long as was possible through conventional means. Davis was decidedly less enthusiastic about guerrilla, or irregular, warfare and provided such efforts only limited support.
Later Years
Later, Davis traveled to Canada, Cuba, and Europe, engaged in some minor business concerns, was offered the presidency of what is now Texas A&M University (he turned it down), and again was elected to the U.S. Senate (but couldn't serve according to Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution). His relationships with his slaves, according to Booker T. Washington, had always been "kindly," "normal," and "happy," a "good will" that was manifested perhaps by the sale of the plantation he and his brother Joseph had run to the now-freed Ben Montgomery.
In 1881, Davis authored The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, a two-volume defense of his actions and principles that was dedicated "to the memory of those who died in defense of a cause consecrated by inheritance, as well as sustained by conviction." Shortly after this book appeared, Davis's reputation began to rehabilitate among southerners. "In the South," the historian Donald E. Collins has written, "he received a resurrection in public feeling that rose to the stage of near adulation during the final three years of his life and would grow during the three years following his death to place him in the ranks of such Confederate icons as the beloved military heroes Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson." After spending most of his retirement years at Beauvoir, a Mississippi estate on the Gulf Coast, Davis died in New Orleans, Louisiana, on December 6, 1889, from acute bronchitis. He was buried first in Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans and then in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery.
Time Line
June 3, 1808 - Jefferson Davis is born in Christian County, Kentucky, less than a hundred miles from where Abraham Lincoln would be born eight months later.
June 1828 - Jefferson Davis graduates from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, twenty-third in his class. He is assigned infantry duty in Wisconsin.
June 17, 1835 - Jefferson Davis marries Sarah Knox Taylor, the daughter of his commanding officer, Virginia native and future U.S. president Zachary Taylor. Taylor disapproves of the match and Davis resigns his army commission.
September 15, 1835 - Sarah Knox Taylor, Zachary Taylor's daughter and Jefferson Davis's first wife, dies of malaria.
February 26, 1845 - Jefferson Davis, after winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives, marries Varina Howell.
June 18, 1846 - Jefferson Davis, after leaving Congress at the start of the Mexican War, is elected colonel of the 1st Mississippi Regiment.
February 23, 1847 - Jefferson Davis, serving under his former father-in-law, Zachary Taylor, at the Battle of Buena Vista during the Mexican War, is wounded and wins national acclaim for helping to repulse a charge by Mexican lances. Taylor, who had disapproved of Davis's marriage to his daughter, now praises Davis.
December 6, 1847 - Jefferson Davis, a hero of the Mexican War, is selected by the governor of Mississippi to fill a vacant seat in the U.S. Senate.
November 4, 1851 - Jefferson Davis is defeated in his run for Mississippi governor.
March 7, 1853 - Jefferson Davis is appointed secretary of war by President Franklin Pierce.
March 4, 1857 - Jefferson Davis ends his tenure as secretary of war and returns to the U.S. Senate.
January 21, 1861 - After Mississippi secedes from the Union, Jefferson Davis delivers his farewell address to the U.S. Senate.
February 9, 1861 - Jefferson Davis is elected provisional president of the newly formed Confederate States of America by a convention in Montgomery, Alabama.
February 18, 1861 - Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional president of the Confederacy in Montgomery, Alabama, declaring that the "South is determined to maintain her position, and make all who oppose her smell Southern powder and feel Southern steel."
May 26–29, 1861 - The Confederate capital relocates from Montgomery, Alabama, to Richmond.
November 6, 1861 - Jefferson Davis is elected to one six-year term as president of the Confederate States of America.
February 22, 1862 - Jefferson Davis is inaugurated on Capitol Square as the elected president of the Confederate States of America.
June 1, 1862, 2 p.m. - Confederate president Jefferson Davis assigns Confederate general Robert E. Lee to command the Army of Northern Virginia after Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston is wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines–Fair Oaks.
April 30, 1864 - Five-year-old Joseph E. Davis, son of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, is mortally injured in a fall from the balcony of the Confederate White House in Richmond.
April 2–3, 1865 - Confederate president Jefferson Davis evacuates Richmond ahead of Union forces and travels to Danville.
May 10, 1865 - Confederate president Jefferson Davis is captured by Union forces near Irwinville, Georgia.
May 22, 1865–May 13, 1867 - Former Confederate president Jefferson Davis is incarcerated at Fort Monroe following the Civil War. Part of his bail is posted by the abolitionist Horace Greeley.
June 3, 1881 - The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, former Confederate president Jefferson Davis's two-volume defense of his actions and principles, is published.
December 6, 1889 - Jefferson Davis dies in New Orleans, Louisiana.
December 11, 1889 - Jefferson Davis is buried in Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans, Louisiana.
May 27–31, 1893 - Jefferson Davis's body, originally interred at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans, Louisiana, is relocated to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.
October 17, 1978 - A Joint Resolution of Congress is signed by President Jimmy Carter reinstating Jefferson Davis's citizenship.
Further Reading
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First published: April 22, 2009 | Last modified: June 4, 2014


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[As mentioned in my previous post, I am in the process of editing a high school prayer book for the school at which I work. I am currently working on a few into sections. I'm thinking about adding this as part of the introduction. I can't go into too much detail as space is limited.]
Why is Prayer Difficult?
Because we have not prayed most of our life and as a result our spiritual faculties have atrophied, which is contrary with our bodies and athletics which we have been using and doing since a small child. In fact, I am sure there are many people reading this who learned to throw a ball before learning to speak.
As a result, we now need a kind of spiritual therapy to get our spiritual faculties into working order. Just like physical therapy, it is best to start small and build gradually till the faculties are properly strengthened. Moreover, no kind of therapy can be successful without a concrete plan of action. So when starting your spiritual therapy, make a plan and stick with it. Your plan might be as simple as praying a morning offering on waking, a visit to the chapel during lunch and an Our Father before hopping into bed, all prayed with sincerity.
Remember, simplicity is of great importance. Don't expect to move mountains with your first prayers. Above all, keep your prayer simple!
How do I pray?
This prayer book is not concerned with answering this question. For it is like asking, "How does a person (or child) begin to speak?" Simply, you begin by just doing it. The child who utters his first stumbling words knows not what he means or says and does so only out of imitation, but those stumbling words fill the parent with joy and excitement at the mere fact that the child has spoke. It is the same with us and God. Often we stumble through our first prayers not knowing the meaning of the words we pray other than knowing that we must pray, and this action fills God with great joy and excitement that His child has spoken with Him even if just for a moment.
Also, the only prayer master is the Holy Spirit. This book offers suggestions, vocal prayers and techniques to use in prayer, but ultimately it is you who prayers and the Holy Spirit who teaches you to pray.
What is Prayer?
Too often prayer is seen as a last resort. "All we can do now is pray" is a phrase uttered time and again in moments of tragedy, as if praying is the thing humanity does only after humanity has failed itself. The truth is, humanity fails itself on a regular basis and therefore, prayer must be the activity to which humanity first turns.
St. John Damascene once said, "Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God." In other words, prayer is the practice of putting oneself in the presence of God. It is akin to two people, say a husband and wife, best friends, or a girlfriend and a boyfriend who enjoy just spending time with each other and without the passage of words between them (though if words pass then that is no problem).
In a word, prayer is about relationship. It is about our relationships with God and how that relationship impacts your relationships with other members of the mystical body of Christ.
Every relationship is a process that begins like a seed planted that then with proper work sprouts and with more time and attention the sprout develops into a full grown plant and after more time it buds, blooms, and produces fruit. However, this only happens if the plant is given time to develop with the proper nutrition and attention.
There are no shortcuts in developing a life of prayer. If you say you do not have time it is because you do not care enough about your relationship with God who is the maker of time and Who gives you time. There are 86,400 seconds in a day, and you say that there is not enough time in the day to take one second out of the 86,400 that God has given you today to give a sincere "Thanks."

subset: commoncrawl


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Local author writes dark tales
A local author is learning the "challenge of being a public writer in a small town" since distilling his family's trauma and his experience as a reporter during the Great Recession into a book of short stories.
Scott Neuffer, class of 2000 Douglas High School graduate, said his book — "Scars of the New Order" — is not for everyone.
"I don't relish darkness or destruction, but there is a lot of violence," he said. "People assume that writers get to choose what they write, but you have to write what you are called to write."
For Neuffer, trying to figure out why individuals have committed "guerilla" acts of violence in small communities during the first part of the new millennium was central to creating his characters.
"I have a character who is a reporter and kind of a dark alter ego," he said. "I throw him into some pretty serious situations but hopefully being tough and exposing dark things will lead to something meaningful and relevant."
When independent publisher, Underground Voices, accepted his book for publication, there was a worry Neuffer's small hometown would not accept the work.
"Initially I was worried about it," he said. "The book is subversive in a lot of ways and I didn't want to pick at old wounds."
From 2007-2013, Neuffer reported on business and education for The Record-Courier.
Neuffer covered school budget cuts, failed businesses, bankrupt homeowners and high unemployment.
"I was trying to cover the breath of the catastrophe," Neuffer said. "By Fall of 2008 it was pretty rough. There was a lot of carnage."
His characters deal with the "painful aftermath" of some of these social issues in sometimes desperate and violent ways.
"I do warn people that there is a story about a school shooting and it takes place at a Carson Valley school," he said.
Neuffer was a junior in high school when Columbine happened.
"We were supposed to be the class of promise and then events like Columbine and 9/11 happened and everything fell apart," he said.
He doesn't know how people in Carson Valley will respond to his collection, but believes people can tell the difference between fiction and reality.
Delving into his own personal life for inspiration was something that he grappled with, he said, but his family has been supportive of his work.
"There have been some painful times for my family," he said. "As a writer you tend to cannibalize yourself and those around you; those in your life end up being characters in your work."
But as Carson Valley and his family have healed from its social and personal traumas, Neuffer believes healing and redemption are in reach for his characters, too, though hard to come by.
"I ask myself at the end of the day, 'Did I move people in real ways?'" he said. "I'm much more concerned (in fiction) with the emotional truth of a story than the objective truth of a story."
"Scars of the New Order" is available at Shelby's Book Shoppe in Minden and online at barnesandnoble.com and amazon.com.
For information, call 782-5484.


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My Review:
In Not Quite Healed, Cecil Murphey and Gary Roe has collaborated together to write a book to guide male readers and victims in healing from sexual abuse and molestation. Both Cecil and Gary are victims of sexual abuse so this book is from personal experience and their journey towards healing. The book covered forty life changing truths that will benefit and help victims to heal from the heartbreaking pain they have experienced. An important note for victims of sexual abuse is to understand is that they can't get frustrated and think that they should be healed by now. The authors pointed out that healing is an extensive process and it takes time. Perpetrators are able to find children who are desperately seeking and needing love. They move into innocence children lives and prey on their emotions. They are the adults in authority and they strive for gaining the small child trust so they can use them for their own selfish pleasure. Some victims even struggle with same-sex attraction because of the sexual abuse they had to endure.
Cecil's father was out of work for a few months and food was hard to come by. The pedophile took advantage of the opportunity to bribe Cecil with food. When Cecil was six, the perpetrator lured him into his room and fed him raspberry jam on saltine crackers while he sat on his lap. He told him that he was special and his words affirmed him. Cecil didn't get held much as a child and craved to be held in someone's arms and loved. He describe what soft skin he had and he kept brushing his hair. The perpetrator also abused some of his other five siblings. The flashbacks didn't resurfaced until many years later. He also began remembering that a female relative also abused him. Both sexual abuse affected and changed his life. He struggled with feeling worthless and he like most victims he believed the lies that it was his fault.
Gary was also raped by a few pedophiles. He thought that if he succeed enough and he outperformed other children the sexual abuse would stop. This was one of his biggest lies that he believed. He made straight A's and won medals and awards in swimming. He also ranked in the top ten in the nation for being an excellence swimmer. He was living for the approval of other people and he wanted to urgently please his perpetrators by overachieving. Years later, his counselor assisted in helping Gary to confront one of his pedophile. He did and the perpetrator openly said he didn't abuse him.
The book shared a number of other people's stories that people have shared on Cecil's blog to reveal how pedophiles gained access to their victims and what they have went through. One of the heartbreaking accounts shared was how a pastor tied an innocence boy up and raped him to get the devil out of him. Another story disclosed was how a brother made his little brother view pornography magazines with him. The older brother insisted that he needed to show his little brother how people make love. Later he also suffered sexual abuse from other perpetrators.
I would recommend this superb book on how to handle healing from sexual abuse to any males who were abused. It is a magnificent resource for any survivors and it will instill with them 40 truths that they need to comprehend. This book could also benefit women who are wanting to understand how to help the male victims that they know. I haven't personally experienced sexual abuse firsthand. I immensely thought that the lies presented in this book will help victims to recognize the lies their perpetrators have told them. Some of the lies were, "It felt good, so it couldn't be abuse, my babysitter didn't abuse me, boys can't be victims, women don't molest boys, he was nice and bought me things, so it wasn't abuse, it's my fault, I'll never be a real man", and many more. These lies will guide the readers into discovering what lies they have believed about the sexual abuse and their perpetrators. I also loved how the book included a whole list of the 40 truths and affirmations at the end of the book. Survivors would vastly benefit from declaring these truths aloud. If you know a male that has suffered from an act of sexual abuse, then please pick this book up for them!
Book Info:
Survivors of sexual abuse face a long road to recovery. With every bump and bruise and setback, they may wonder if total healing is even possible. In fact, the feeling that "I should be healed by now" is one that every survivor will have to deal with at some time. A survivor himself, Cecil Murphey writes, "I absolutely affirm that God can produce such a miracle. I don't know of any, but I still think that it is possible."
So how are survivors to overcome the challenges they are sure to face? Finding strength in community with other survivors is one key to recovery. In Not Quite Healed, two survivors join forces to share insight and encouragement on the issues that challenge them most. After a candid discussion about each issue, the authors provide a self-affirming statement that men can study, memorize, and recite on their darkest days—statements such as:
-Forgiveness is a difficult task for me, but it's a simple thing for God.
-Accountability is the first step to livability.
-God wants to heal my pain to bring healing to others.
-Forgiveness is a difficult task for me, but it's a simple thing for God.
-Accountability is the first step to livability.
-God wants to heal my pain to bring healing to others.
Whether men are struggling with relying on God, living behind a mask, dealing with flashbacks and recurring dreams, or learning to forgive, Cecil Murphey and Gary Roe offer hope and comfort for the ongoing journey of recovery from sexual abuse.
"I received this book free from the publisher from Kregel Publications book review bloggers program."
If you would like to purchase a copy of Not Quite Healed, check it on Amazon.com:


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NEWMARKET — When Kelly Goodwin dons her Northern Essex Community Class of 2013 T-shirt this spring, she will have the satisfaction of knowing she is wearing her own design.
The 20-year-old Newmarket, graphic design major created the winning design in a T-shirt design contest sponsored by NECC's office of alumni relations.
Her design, depicting the silhouettes of graduates in caps and gowns tossing their mortar boards in the air, was selected from a half dozen entries. The class's graduating year, 2013 runs sideways, vertically up the front of the T-shirt.
"We thought it would be fun to get the graduates involved in the design process," says Lindsey Mayo, NECC director of alumni relations.
"I started off with the concept of a silhouette and it developed from there," says Goodwin. "I put 2013 on the front and thought it looked too traditional so I turned it sideways."
The T-shirts, which will be available this spring from the alumni relations office, will cost $10 each. Mayo says she expects to sell more than 300 t-shirts.
For her efforts, Goodwin received a new Dell laptop computer.
For more information or to order a t-shirt contact Lindsey Mayo at 978-556-3621 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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What is the Employer Website? The Employer Website is a place where an employer can create an account and respond to and manage Idaho Income Withholding Orders (IWO) and National Medical Support Notices (NMSN) online. This portal will reduce paper consumption and the lag time typical in processing these documents via mail. The Employer Website will ultimately cut down on the amount of time it takes to get funds to Idaho's children while saving you postage costs and processing time.
Do I have to have an employee with a Child Support case to use the website? Yes. You must have at least one employee with a Child Support case.
What do I need to create an account? To create an account, you will need the following:
As always, we are very interested in getting your feedback and suggestions for any additional features that would enhance this website. Please send us an email at CSWebHelp and let us know what you think.
As an employer, you are in a position to play a vital role in helping us support Idaho's kids via the Child Support program. We would like to partner with you to help kids receive the financial and medical support they need. Letting us know when you hire an employee, withholding a portion of a parent's wages to pay support, and enrolling kids in their parent's medical insurance are important ways for you to support children and make a difference in their lives.
Check out the following links for more information on how you, the employer, can partner with Idaho Child Support Services to invest in the future of Idaho's kids by helping support their needs.
If you have any questions, or would like some help, feel free to contact Idaho Child Support Services at (800) 356-9868.