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1st Confederate States Congress

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"First Confederate Congress" redirects here. For Provisional Congress, see Provisional Congress of the Confederate States.
1st Confederate States Congress
Equestrian portrait of Washington (after the statue which surmounts his monument in the capitol square, at Richmond,) surrounded with a wreath composed of the principal agricultural products of the Confederacy, (cotton, tobacco, sugar cane, corn, wheat and rice,) and having around its margin the words: "The Confederate States of America, twenty-second February, eighteen hundred and sixty-two," with the following motto: "Deo vindice"
Seal of the Confederate States (1863-1865)
Logo
Type
Type
Bicameral
Houses Senate
House of Representatives
History
Founded February 18, 1862 (1862-02-18)
Disbanded February 18, 1864 (1864-02-18)
Preceded by Provisional Congress
Succeeded by 2nd
Leadership
Senate President
Alexander H. Stephens
Senate Pres. pro tem:
R. M. T. Hunter
House Speaker:
Thomas S. Bocock
Meeting place
Second Capitol of the Confederate States (1861-1865)
Virginia State Capitol
Richmond, Virginia
Confederate States
Constitution
Confederate States Constitution

The First Confederate States Congress, consisting of the Confederate States Senate and the Confederate States House of Representatives, met from February 18, 1862, to February 18, 1864, during the first two years of Jefferson Davis's presidency, at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, Virginia, Confederate States.[1]

Sessions[]

Held February 18, 1862, through February 18, 1864, at the Virginia State Capital in Richmond, Virginia

  • 1st Session - February 18, 1862 to April 21, 1862
  • 2nd Session - August 18, 1862 to October 13, 1862
  • 3rd Session - January 12, 1863 to May 1, 1863
  • 4th Session - December 7, 1863 to February 18, 1864

Leadership[]

Senate[]

Senate President

Alexander H
Alexander H. Stephens

Senate President pro tempore

R. M. T
R. M. T. Hunter
  • President: Alexander H. Stephens
  • President pro tempore: R. M. T. Hunter

House[]

House Speaker

Thomas S
Thomas S. Bocock
  • Speaker: Thomas S. Bocock

Members[]

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. As the Confederate Congress lasted less than four full years, the distinction between classes 2 and 3 was ultimately academic.

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]

Alabama

  • 1. Clement Claiborne Clay
  • 3. William Lowndes Yancey (died July 23, 1863)
    • Robert Jemison, Jr. (took his seat on December 28, 1863 - Elected to fill vacancy)

Arkansas

  • 1. Robert Ward Johnson
  • 3. Charles Burton Mitchel

Florida

  • 1. James McNair Baker
  • 2. Augustus Emmet Maxwell

Georgia

  • 3. Benjamin Harvey Hill
  • 1. Robert Augustus Toombs (elected but refused to serve)
    • John Wood Lewis, Sr. (took his seat on April 7, 1862 - Appointed to serve until the place could be filled)
    • Herschel Vespasian Johnson (took his seat on January 19, 1863 - Elected to fill vacancy)

Kentucky

Louisiana

  • 2. Thomas Jenkins Semmes
  • 3. Edward Sparrow

Mississippi

  • 2. Albert Gallatin Brown
  • 1. James Phelan, Sr.

Missouri

  • 1. John Bullock Clark, Sr.
  • 2. Robert Ludwell Yates Peyton (died September 3, 1863)
    • Waldo Porter Johnson (took his seat on December 24, 1863 - Appointed to fill vacancy)

North Carolina

  • 1. George Davis (resigned in January 1864 to become CS Attorney General)
    • Edwin Godwin Reade (took his seat on January 22, 1864 - Appointed to fill vacancy)
  • 2. William Theophilus Dortch

South Carolina

  • 2. Robert Woodward Barnwell
  • 3. James Lawrence Orr

Tennessee

  • 3. Landon Carter Haynes
  • 2. Gustavus Adolphus Henry, Sr.

Texas

Virginia

  • 3. R. M. T. Hunter
  • 2. William Ballard Preston (died November 16, 1862)
    • Allen Taylor Caperton (took his seat on January 22, 1864 - Elected to fill vacancy)

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

Arkansas

  • 1. Felix Ives Batson
  • 2. Grandison Delaney Royston
  • 3. Augustus Hill Garland X
  • 4. Thomas Burton Hanly

Florida

Georgia

Kentucky

Louisiana

Mississippi

  • 1. Jeremiah Watkins Clapp
  • 2. Reuben Davis (resigned March 1, 1863 after third session)
  • 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 September 3, 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 October 13, 1862 after second session)
    • William Dunlap Simpson (took his seat on February 5, 1863 - Elected to fill vacancy on January 20, 1863 [6])
  • 5. James Farrow
  • 6. William Waters Boyce X

Tennessee

Texas

Virginia

  • 1. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett (died February 14, 1864)
  • 2. John Randolph Chambliss, Sr.
  • 3. James Lyons (Representative-elect John Tyler died on January 18, 1862, before the Congress started. Lyons was elected on February 10, 1862.[7])
  • 4. Roger Atkinson Pryor X (resigned April 5, 1862)
    • Charles Fenton Collier (took his seat on August 18, 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 April 4, 1863)
    • David Funsten (took his seat on December 7, 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 April 21, 1862 after first session)
  • 15. Robert Johnston X
  • 16. Charles Wells Russell X

Delegates[]

Non voting members of the House of Representatives.

Arizona Territory

Cherokee Nation

Choctaw Nation

Notes[]

  1. ↑ Historical Atlas ..., pp. 131-134
  2. ↑ Permanent Constitution of the Confederate States and Confederate Senate Journal
  3. ↑ Historical Atlas ..., p. 132
  4. ↑ Historical Atlas ..., p. 132
  5. ↑ Historical Atlas ... pp. 20 and 62-63
  6. ↑ Historical Atlas ..., p. 133
  7. ↑ Historical Atlas ..., p. 134 and note p. 139
  8. ↑ Historical Atlas ..., p. 134

References[]

  • The Historical Atlas of the Congresses of the Confederate States of America: 1861-1865, by Kenneth C. Martis (Simon and Schuster 1994)
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