First Confederate Congress
The First Confederate Congress was the first regular term of the legislature of the Confederate States of America. Members of the First Confederate Congress were chosen in elections mostly held on 6 November 1861.[1]
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[edit] Sessions
The Provisional Confederate Congress fixed the date of the inaugural meeting of the First Confederate Congress. As a result, the two-year congressional term ran from 18 February 1862 until 17 February 1864.
All sessions of the First Confederate Congress met in the Confederacy's capital of Richmond, Virginia.
- 1st Session - 18 February 1862 to 21 April 1862
- 2nd Session - 18 August 1862 to 13 October 1862
- 3rd Session - 12 January 1863 to 1 May 1863
- 4th Session - 7 December 1863 to 17 February 1864
[edit] Leadership
[edit] Senate
- President of the Senate: Vice President Alexander H. Stephens
- President pro tempore: Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter of Virginia [1]
[edit] House
- Speaker of the House of Representatives: Thomas Stanley Bocock of Virginia - 18 February 1862 - 18 March 1865
- Speaker pro tempore: Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry of Alabama (1863) [2]
[edit] Members
[edit] Senate
Confederate States Senators were elected by the state legislatures, or appointed by state Governors to fill casual vacancies until the legislature elected a new Senator. It was intended that one-third of the Senate would begin new six year terms with each Congress after the first.
Preceding the names in the list below are Senate class numbers, which indicate the cycle of their terms. In this Congress, all Senators were newly elected. Senators of Class 1 served a two-year term, expiring at the end of this Congress, requiring a new election for the 1864-1870 term. Class 2 Senators served what was intended to be a four-year term, due to end on the expiry of the next Congress in 1866. Class 3 Senators were meant to serve a six-year term, due to expire at the end of the Third Confederate Congress in 1868.
The members of the classes were selected by the drawing of lots, which was done during the meeting of the Senate on February 21, 1862. [2]
- 1. Clement Claiborne Clay
- 3. William Lowndes Yancey (died 23 July 1863)
- Robert Jemison, Jr. (took his seat on 28 December 1863 - Elected to fill vacancy)
- 3. Benjamin Harvey Hill
- 1. Robert Augustus Toombs (elected but refused to serve)
- John Wood Lewis, Sr. (took his seat on 7 April 1862 - Appointed to serve until the place could be filled)
- Herschel Vespasian Johnson (took his seat on 19 January 1863 - Elected to fill vacancy)
- 1. John Bullock Clark, Sr.
- 2. Robert Ludwell Yates Peyton (died 3 September 1863)
- Waldo Porter Johnson (took his seat on 24 December 1863 - Appointed to fill vacancy)
- 1. George Davis (resigned in January 1864 to become CS Attorney General)
- Edwin Godwin Reade (took his seat on 22 January 1864 - Appointed to fill vacancy)
- 2. William Theophilus Dortch
- 3. Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter
- 2. William Ballard Preston (died 16 November 1862)
- Allen Taylor Caperton (took his seat on 22 January 1864 - Elected to fill vacancy)
[edit] House of Representatives
X: Originally member of the Provisional Confederate Congress
The names of members of the House of Representatives are preceded by their district numbers.
Alabama
- 1. Thomas Jefferson Foster
- 2. William Russell Smith
- 3. John Perkins Ralls
- 4. Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry X
- 5. Francis Strother Lyon
- 6. William Parish Chilton, Sr. X
- 7. David Clopton
- 8. James Lawrence Pugh
- 9. Edmund Strother Dargan
Arkansas
Florida
- 1. James Baird Dawkins (resigned 8 December 1862)
- John Marshall Martin (took his seat on 25 March 1863 - Elected to fill vacancy on 2 February 1863 [3])
- 2. Robert Benjamin Hilton
Georgia
- 1. Julian Hartridge
- 2. Charles James Munnerlyn
- 3. Hines Holt (resigned 1 March 1863 after third session)
- Porter Ingram (took his seat on 12 January 1864 - Elected to fill vacancy on 7 December 1863 [4])
- 4. Augustus Holmes Kenan X
- 5. David William Lewis
- 6. William White Clark
- 7. Robert Pleasant Trippe
- 8. Lucius Jeremiah Gartrell
- 9. Hardy Strickland
- 10. Augustus Romaldus Wright X
Kentucky
- 1. Willis Benson Machen
- 2. John Watkins Crockett, Jr.
- 3. Henry English Read
- 4. George Washington Ewing X
- 5. James Chrisman
- 6. Theodore Legrand BurnettX
- 7. Horatio Washington Bruce
- 8. George Baird Hodge X
- 9. Eli Metcalfe Bruce
- 10. James William Moore
- 11. Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, Jr.
- 12. John Milton Elliott X
Louisiana
- 1. Charles Jacques Villeré
- 2. Charles Magill Conrad X
- 3. Duncan Farrar Kenner X
- 4. Lucius Jacques Dupré
- 5. Henry Marshall X
- 6. John Perkins, Jr. X
Mississippi
- 1. Jeremiah Watkins Clapp
- 2. Reuben Davis (resigned 1 March 1863 after third session)
- William Dunbar Holder (took his seat on 21 January 1864 - Elected to fill vacancy)
- 3. Israel Victor Welch
- 4. Henry Cousins Chambers
- 5. Otho Robards Singleton
- 6. Ethelbert Barksdale
- 7. John Jones McRae
Missouri
- In Confederate law, the people of Missouri were entitled to elect thirteen representatives. The state never implemented the reapportionment and continued to use its existing seven districts. Pending an election, the appointed members of the delegation to the Provisional Congress were assigned to serve in the First Congress. No election was held, so the appointed members served throughout the Congress. [5]
- 1. William Mordecai Cooke, Sr. X (died 3 September 1863)
- 2. Thomas Alexander Harris X
- 3. Caspar Wistar Bell X
- 4. Aaron H. Conrow X
- 5. George Graham Vest X
- 6. Thomas W. Freeman X
- 7. Representative-elect John Hyer never took his seat; the district was unrepresented for the entire First Congress;
North Carolina
- 1. William Nathan Harrell Smith
- 2. Robert Rufus Bridgers
- 3. Owen Rand Kenan
- 4. Thomas David Smith McDowell X
- 5. Archibald Hunter Arrington
- 6. James Robert McLean
- 7. Thomas Samuel Ashe
- 8. William Lander
- 9. Burgess Sidney Gaither
- 10. Allen Turner Davidson X
- 11. Abraham Watkins Venable X
South Carolina
- 1. John McQueen
- 2. William Porcher Miles X
- 3. Lewis Malone Ayer, Jr.
- 4. Milledge Luke Bonham (resigned 13 October 1862 after second session)
- William Dunlap Simpson (took his seat on 5 February 1863 - Elected to fill vacancy on 20 January 1863 [6])
- 5. James Farrow
- 6. William Waters Boyce X
Tennessee
- 1. Joseph Brown Heiskell (resigned 6 February 1864)
- 2. William Graham Swan
- 3. William Henry Tibbs
- 4. Erasmus Lee Gardenhire
- 5. Henry Stuart Foote
- 6. Meredith Poindexter Gentry
- 7. George Washington Jones
- 8. Thomas Menees
- 9. John DeWitt Clinton Atkins X
- 10. John Vines Wright
- 11. David Maney Currin X
Texas
- 1. John Allen Wilcox (died 7 February 1864)
- 2. Caleb Claiborne Herbert
- 3. Peter W. Gray
- 4. Franklin Barlow Sexton
- 5. Malcolm D. Graham
- 6. William Bacon Wright
Virginia
- 1. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett (died 14 February 1864)
- 2. John Randolph Chambliss, Sr.
- 3. James Lyons (Representative-elect John Tyler died on 18 January 1862, before the Congress started. Lyons was elected on 10 February 1862. [7])
- 4. Roger Atkinson Pryor X (resigned 5 April 1862)
- Charles Fenton Collier (took his seat on 18 August 1862 - Elected to fill vacancy in May 1862 [8])
- 5. Thomas Stanley Bocock X
- 6. John Goode, Jr.
- 7. James Philemon Holcombe
- 8. Daniel Coleman DeJarnette, Sr.
- 9. William "Extra Billy" Smith (resigned 4 April 1863)
- David Funsten (took his seat on 7 December 1863 - Elected to fill vacancy)
- 10. Alexander Boteler X
- 11. John Brown Baldwin
- 12. Waller Redd Staples X
- 13. Walter Preston X
- 14. Albert Gallatin Jenkins (resigned 21 April 1862 after first session)
- Samuel Augustine Miller (took his seat on 24 February 1863 - Elected to fill vacancy)
- 15. Robert Johnston X
- 16. Charles Wells Russell X
[edit] Delegates
Non voting members of the House of Representatives.
Cherokee Nation
Choctaw Nation
[edit] See also
[edit] Reference
- The Historical Atlas of the Congresses of the Confederate States of America: 1861-1865, by Kenneth C. Martis (Simon and Schuster 1994)
- ^ Historical Atlas ..., pp. 131-134
- ^ Permanent Constitution of the Confederate States and Confederate Senate Journal
- ^ Historical Atlas ..., p. 132
- ^ Historical Atlas ..., p. 132
- ^ Historical Atlas ... pp. 20 and 62-63
- ^ Historical Atlas ..., p. 133
- ^ Historical Atlas ..., p. 134 and note p. 139
- ^ Historical Atlas ..., p. 134
