Jefferson Davis, the first ( and only ) president of the confederacy, held what important US Government post before the war?

Answer:   Davis served as Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce from 1853 to 1857.

Davis was a West Point graduate, Class of 1828. He served in the US Army for seven years before he resigned to become a planter in Mississippi.

Davis also served in Congress until 1861, when he resigned to become President of the Confederate States of America.

In 1865,  after his capture in Georgia, he spent two years in prison and was released without being brought to trial.

( Source:NPS)                                           

section updated 3-4-10