Young Varina Howell was a teen-ager when she married Mississippi planter, Jefferson Davis, 18 years her senior. Jeff soon became involved in national politics, and the couple lived in Washington off-and-on for 15 years. When Mississippi seceded from the Union, Jeff was elected President of the Confederacy and Jeff and Varina moved to Richmond, the Confederate capital. After the war, the Davises suffered financial losses and were given a house on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Of their four sons, only one lived to adulthood. Their daughter, Winnie, born at the end of the war, was with them during their difficult post-war years.