Portrait of Jefferson Davis

Description

Portrait of Jefferson Davis; Jefferson Finis Davis (June 3, 1808 ? December 6, 1889) was an American military officer, statesman and leader of the Confederacy during the American Civil War, serving as the President of the Confederate States of America for its entire history, 1861 to 1865.
A West Point graduate, Davis fought in the Mexican-American War as a colonel of a volunteer regiment, and was the United States Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce. Both before and after his time in the Pierce Administration, he served as a U.S. Senator representing the State of Mississippi. As a Senator he argued against secession, but did agree that each state was sovereign and had an unquestionable right to secede from the Union.