Jefferson Finis Davis (1808-1889) was born in Kentucky and grew up in Mississippi. He was elected to Congress from Mississippi in 1845 and, later, to the Senate. President Franklin Pierce appointed him Secretary of War in 1853, but during the growing sectional crisis, Davis returned to the Senate and followed his state when it seceded. When the Confederacy crumbled, Davis was captured and spent two years in Federal prison. In his later years, with his reputation in eclipse, Davis wrote The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, which was published in 1881.