Knoxie: The Woman Who Was Loved by Zachary Taylor & Jefferson Davis

Sarah Knox Taylor (nicknamed 'Knoxie') was the daughter of Zachary Taylor. Knoxie met Jefferson Davis while living at Fort Crawford during the Black Hawk War in 1832. They married in 1835 and she died three months later of malaria. Knoxie's death caused years of ill will between Davis and Taylor. The men met by chance in 1845 on a Mississippi steamboat and achieved reconciliation. During the Mexican-American War and especially afterward, the two men developed a deep mutual trust. While serving as a U.S. senator, Davis provided then-President Taylor with sound political advice. A few years after President Taylor died in office, Davis resigned his senate seat and became President of the Confederacy. Following the South's loss in the Civil War, Davis was literally 'a man without a country'. His popularity rose during the 'Lost Cause' movement and then waned during the 'Cancel Culture' movement. A larger-than-life carving of Jefferson Davis is etched into Stone Mountain in Georgia along with Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson.