Jefferson W. Davis was born around 1840 in Napoli, New York, to Austin and Chloe Davis. His father was a farmer who owned $4,000 of real estate and $900 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Napoli, and his mother died around 1859. By 1860, he was also working as a farmer.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on August 22, 1861, and he mustered in as a corporal in Company F of the 64^th New York Infantry on September 10. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 8 ½ inches tall, with brown hair and blue eyes. The regiment took part in the Battle of Fair Oaks, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the Overland Campaign.

 

Confederate forces captured him at Fair Oaks in June 1862, and he spent the next four months as a prisoner of war. He was eventually exchanged, and he rejoined the regiment. He was promoted to sergeant in January 1864 and then to 1^st lieutenant in May 1864. He was severely wounded at the Wilderness on May 12, 1864, and surgeons amputated his left arm. He mustered out on May 10, 1865.

 

He settled in Washington, D.C., after the war, and he worked as a clerk in the Pension Bureau. He married a woman named Carrie, and their son Guy was born around 1868. His wife apparently died in the 1870s, and he married Elizabeth Galer on October 2, 1876. She died of mitral valve insufficiency on March 17, 1882. He married Virginia Isabell Bopp on April 27, 1887, and they had two children: Herbert, born around 1888; and Carroll, born around 1891. He died of hematuria in D.C. on March 13, 1916.

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