Davis Attends Transylvania University

Davis went on to Jefferson College at Washington, Mississippi, in 1818, and to Transylvania University at Lexington, Kentucky, in 1821.

In 1824, Davis entered the United States Military Academy (West Point). He completed his four-year term as a West Point cadet, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in June 1828 following graduation.

He attended Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky and later West Point, from where he graduated in 1828. While in the U.S. army, he served only in frontier posts, and the only action he saw was in the Black Hawk War in 1832.