<Li> Battle of Monterrey </Li> <Li> Battle of Buena Vista (WIA) </Li> <P> Jefferson Finis Davis (June 3, 1808--December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the only President of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865 . As a member of the Democratic Party, he represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives prior to switching allegiance to the Confederacy . He was appointed as the United States Secretary of War, serving from 1853 to 1857, under President Franklin Pierce . </P> <P> Davis was born in Fairview, Kentucky, to a moderately prosperous farmer, the youngest of ten children . He grew up in Wilkinson County, Mississippi, and also lived in Louisiana . His eldest brother Joseph Emory Davis secured the younger Davis's appointment to the United States Military Academy . After graduating, Jefferson Davis served six years as a lieutenant in the United States Army . He fought in the Mexican--American War (1846--1848), as the colonel of a volunteer regiment . Before the American Civil War, he operated a large cotton plantation in Mississippi, which his brother Joseph gave him, and owned as many as 74 slaves . Although Davis argued against secession in 1858, he believed that states had an unquestionable right to leave the Union . </P>

President of the south in the civil war