View source for Sarah Knox Taylor

{{short description|19th century American woman. Daughter of Zachary Taylor and first wife of Jefferson Davis}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Sarah Knox Davis
| image              = File:Sarah Knox Taylor.jpg
| caption            = Sarah Knox Taylor, age 16
| birth_name         = Sarah Knox Taylor
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1814|3|6}}
| birth_place        = {{nowrap|[[Forts of Vincennes, Indiana#Fort Knox II|Fort Knox II]], [[Vincennes, Indiana]], U.S.}}
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1835|9|15|1814|3|6}}
| death_place        = [[St. Francisville, Louisiana]], U.S.
| death_cause        = [[Malaria]] or [[yellow fever]]
| resting_place      = [[Locust Grove State Historic Site]]
| spouse             = {{marriage|[[Jefferson Davis]]|June 17, 1835}}
| parents            = [[Zachary Taylor]]<br />[[Margaret Taylor|Margaret Smith]]
}}

'''Sarah Knox Davis''' ({{nee}} Taylor; March 6, 1814 – September 15, 1835) was the daughter of the 12th U.S. president [[Zachary Taylor]] and part of the notable [[Lee family]]. She met future [[President of the Confederate States of America|Confederate president]] [[Jefferson Davis]] (1808–1889) when living with her father and family at [[Fort Crawford]] during the [[Black Hawk War]] in 1832. They married in 1835 and she died three months later of [[malaria]].

==Marriage and death==
[[Zachary Taylor]] and his wife, [[Margaret Taylor|Margaret]], had three surviving daughters and one son. Sarah Knox Taylor was their second child and spent some years growing up on military installations. Her father became a general and commanded forts; her mother provided most of her education. Sarah was given the nickname "Knoxie," which originated from her middle name and from [[Forts of Vincennes, Indiana#Fort Knox II|Fort Knox II]] in [[Vincennes, Indiana]], where she was born. In the early 1830s, her father commanded [[Fort Crawford]] at [[Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin]], and was involved in waging the [[Black Hawk War]]. His wife and children lived there with him.

At age 17, Sarah fell in love with [[Jefferson Davis]], (1808–1889), a recent graduate of the [[United States Military Academy]], and a newly commissioned lieutenant in the [[United States Army]], who was second to General Taylor at the fort. Davis was transferred to [[St. Louis]] in 1833, yet managed to keep in contact with the woman whom he wished to marry. Zachary Taylor admired Davis for his soldiering skills but opposed the romantic match. The Taylors' older daughter had already married Army surgeon [[Robert Crooke Wood]], and they were raising three young children in a desolate frontier outpost. Together with their own experience, the Taylors felt that the military life was too hard and did not want Sarah to be an Army wife.<ref>Cooper 2000, p. 65.</ref>

Following discussions with his older brother [[Joseph Emory Davis]], Jefferson decided to resign from the Army so that he could marry Sarah. He returned to [[Mississippi]] to develop his [[Brierfield Plantation]] next to his brother's [[Hurricane Plantation]]. Joseph gave Jefferson the land, called Brierfield because it was largely covered with brush and briers.<ref>Cooper 2000, pp. 75–79.</ref>

After Sarah turned 21, she married Davis on June 17, 1835, at the home of her aunt, near [[Louisville, Kentucky]].<ref>Davis 1996, pp. 69, 72.</ref> Both of the newlyweds contracted either [[malaria]] or [[yellow fever]] on a summer visit to Davis's sister, Anna Davis Smith, in [[St. Francisville, Louisiana]]. Sarah Taylor Davis died of the tropical illness just three months into her marriage to Jefferson Davis, while staying in her sister-in-law's home, Locust Grove Plantation. Her husband nearly died as well.<ref>Davis 1996, 74–75.</ref>
The young Mrs. Davis was laid to rest near other members of Jefferson Davis's family, in the cemetery located on the site of the (former) Locust Grove Plantation. The cemetery has been preserved by the state of Louisiana and is now known as the [[Locust Grove State Historic Site]].<ref>{{cite web
  |url=http://www.la-cemeteries.com/Notables/Others/Davis,SarahKnox/Davis,SarahKnox.shtml
  |title=Sarah Knox Taylor Davis 1814–1835, Wife of Jefferson Davis
  |publisher=la-cemeteries.com
  |accessdate=2013-01-25}}</ref>

==Posthumous==
{{More citations needed section |date=February 2024}}
Jefferson Davis was devastated by the death of his young wife, as were her parents. Her death caused years of ill will between Davis and Zachary Taylor; Taylor and his wife felt that Davis should have known better than to go to St. Francisville in the "fever season".{{citation needed|date=March 2018}} The men met by chance in 1845 on a Mississippi [[steamboat]] and achieved some reconciliation.<ref>{{cite book
  |last=Strode
  |first=Hudson
  |year=1955
  |title=Jefferson Davis, Volume I: American Patriot
  |location=New York
  |publisher=Harcourt, Brace & Company
  |page=136}}</ref>

After recovering from malaria, seeking respite from the loss of his wife, Davis sailed to [[Havana]], and then to New York City. In 1836, he returned to his Brierfield Plantation in [[Warren County, Mississippi]], to take up [[cotton]] cultivation. After being reclusive for years, he gradually became active in politics. He remarried in 1845 and had six children. He served in Congress and was elected as [[President of the Confederate States of America]], after secession in 1861.

When Jefferson Davis married [[Varina Davis|Varina Banks Howell]] on February 26, 1845, he insisted that the newlywed couple visit Sarah's grave during their [[honeymoon]].

Davis served as [[Colonel]] under the command of General Zachary Taylor in the 1847 [[Battle of Buena Vista]] during the [[Mexican–American War]]. Davis fought bravely during the battle but was shot in the foot, necessitating his removal to safety by Robert H. Chilton. In recognition of Davis's bravery and initiative, Taylor is reputed to have said, "My daughter, sir, was a better judge of men than I was."<ref name="hamilton">{{cite book|last=Hamilton|first=Holman|url=https://archive.org/details/threekentuckypre00hami|title=The Three Kentucky Presidents|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|year=1978|isbn=978-0-8131-0246-7|location=Lexington|chapter=Jefferson Davis Before His Presidency|url-access=registration}}</ref>

==References==
<references />
* ''The North Carolina Booklet'', Oct. 1920, Jan. – Apr. 1921, vol. XX, nos. 2,3,4; Raleigh : Daughters of the Revolution, North Carolina Society, 1921. {{OCLC|36894682}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book
  |last=Cooper
  |first=William J.
  |authorlink = William J. Cooper, Jr.
  |year=2000
  |title=Jefferson Davis, American
  |url=https://archive.org/details/jeffersondavisam00coop
  |url-access=registration
  |location=New York
  |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf
  |isbn=978-0-307-77264-0}}
* {{cite book
  |last=Davis
  |first=William C.
  |authorlink = William C. Davis (historian)
  |year=1996
  |title=Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour
  |publisher=Louisiana State University Press
  |isbn=978-0-8071-2079-8}}

==External links==
* {{Find a Grave|20981}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070417233034/http://jeffersondavis.rice.edu/resources.cfm?doc_id=1487 Jefferson Davis to Sarah Knox Taylor], ''The Papers of Jefferson Davis'', Volume 1, pp.&nbsp;345–47
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110226211248/http://www.crt.state.la.us/Parks/ilocust.aspx Locust Grove State Historic Site]

{{clear}}
{{Zachary Taylor|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Sarah Knox}}
[[Category:1814 births]]
[[Category:1835 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century American Episcopalians]]
[[Category:19th-century American women]]
[[Category:American people of English descent]]
[[Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent]]
[[Category:Children of presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:Deaths from malaria]]
[[Category:Infectious disease deaths in Louisiana]]
[[Category:Family of Jefferson Davis]]
[[Category:People from Vincennes, Indiana]]
[[Category:Family of Zachary Taylor|Sarah Knox]]
[[Category:Deaths from yellow fever]]