Jefferson Davis – 1808-1889

A hero of the United States-Mexican War (1846–1848), a U.S. Representative, and secretary of war under Franklin Pierce, Davis, a Mississippian, accepted appointment as president of the Confederate States of America in 1861 and served as such throughout the Civil War. After the war, he was held in prison by the federal government for two years before he was charged with treason. The government dropped its case in 1868, however, and Davis returned to private life, becoming a president once again—this time of a Memphis, Tennessee, insurance company.