2-378-008 - Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images

Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, c1855-c1865. After announcing the secession of Mississippi from the Union (the second state to do so after South Carolina) in January 1861, Jefferson Davis (1808-1889) resigned from the US Senate. He was named provisional President of the Confederate States of America by a constitutional convention, and was inaugurated at the Alabama State Capitol in Mongtomery on 18 February 1861. Davis was captured by the Union (northern) cavalry in 1865 and imprisoned for two years.