Facts You May Not Know About Jefferson Davis

Here are a few of the facts about Jefferson Davis that were presented by Senator James O. Eastland in the U.S. Senate on June 9, 1971, and were published by Robert McHugh in the Daily Herald, Biloxi-Gulfport, Miss.

• He was chiefly instrumental in establishing the Smithsonian Institution
• He initiated the federal civil service system
• He began the movement to construct a canal across Panama, singling out the exact spot where construction was finally begun years later
• He designed a cantilever bridge to span the Potomac
• He envisioned the need for transcontinental transportation, ordering surveys on three routes to the Pacific.
• He introduced a humanities program at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point.
• He sent a study commission to the Crimean War which put into effect new military tactics
•  He introduced the light infantry, the rifle musket & the Minnie Ball

All this and more marked him as Presidential timber, but Destiny marked him for a different task -  that of  President of the Confederate States of America.