What effects did Jefferson Davis have on the war?

Answer 1

As President of the Confederate States and Commander in Chief of its Armies, Jefferson Davis was one of the most influential men involved in the war.

As a President he attempted to centralize power and so gained many enemies from the "States Rights" proponants who alway opposed centralizing power. He also attempted to gain foreign recognition through the use of emmisaries and by refusing to sell Cotton, Tobacco and other such crops in the mistaken view that these were essential to British and French economies.

As Commander in Chief of the Confederate Armies his overall strategy was to defend all of the Confederate States at every point and to try to invade Union territory both in the East and West. He came up with the flawed system out west of using the Mississippi as a marker for the end of the Western Theater and the beginning of the Trans-Mississippi. He only had any real familiurallity with the Virginia Theater and only thought of the West and the Trans-Mississippi in passing.

He allientated many generals and politicians and crippled the Confederate Cause as a result. He treated any and all of his oposition as untrustworthy, unpatriotic and those who opposed him as being little better than Traitors.

Overall it is agreed by most that Jeff Davis was far more useful to the Confederate Cause as the Southern Martyr in Fort Monroe than he had ever been as the Confederate President in Richmond