On this week in history, on February 18, 1861, Jefferson Davis began his first and only term as president of the Confederate States of America. Davis, a West Point graduate, served in the United States military until he was elected to represent Mississippi in the House of Representatives in 1844, but when the Mexican-American war began, he left the political sphere in 1851 to once again fight for the U.S. Upon returning from Mexico, Davis served as a U.S. Senator and was even the Secretary of War during the presidency of Franklin Pierce. When South Carolina became the first step to secede from the Union, Davis led Mississippi to rebel as well and was thereafter appointed provisional president of the Confederacy. He led the South throughout the entirety of the Civil War until he was arrested in 1865, convicted of treason, and served two years in prison. Defeated, Davis nevertheless died a rebel in 1889, having never sworn the oath of allegiance that would have reinstated his U.S. citizenship.
Also, on February 19, 1847, the surviving members of the Donner Party were rescued in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The Donner Party was an 89-person, California bound wagon train, led by George Donner, that departed from Springfield Illinois in the summer of 1846. After arriving at Fort Bridger, Wyoming, the group decided to take a new trail called the “Hastings Cutoff” that was supposedly much quicker than the traditional route; it actually ended up setting them back three weeks and caused them to become trapped by a winter storm in the high mountain region of Truckee Lake, 21 kilometers northwest of Lake Tahoe. After running out of food and supplies, many of the members of the party died of starvation and extreme cold and several others had to resort to cannibalism to avoid a similar fate. Of the 89 original members of the Donner Party, only 45 survived long enough to be rescued and eventually arrive at their destination.
This Week in History