First Confederate Congress

Confederate States Capitol (1865)

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 November 6, 1861.^[1]

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 February 18, 1862 until February 18, 1864.

All sessions of the First Confederate Congress met in the Confederacy's capital of 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

• President of the Senate: Vice President Alexander H. Stephens
• President pro tempore: Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter of Virginia

House

• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Thomas Stanley Bocock of Virginia - February 18, 1862 – March 18, 1865
• Speaker pro tempore: Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry of Alabama (1863)

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

• 3. Henry Cornelius Burnett
• 1. William Emmet Simms

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

• 3. William Simpson Oldham, Sr.
• 2. Louis Trezevant Wigfall

Virginia

• 3. Robert Mercer Taliaferro 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

• 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

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

Florida

• 1. James Baird Dawkins (resigned December 8, 1862)
  • John Marshall Martin (took his seat on March 25, 1863 - Elected to fill vacancy on February 2, 1863 ^[3])
• 2. Robert Benjamin Hilton

Georgia

• 1. Julian Hartridge
• 2. Charles James Munnerlyn
• 3. Hines Holt (resigned March 1, 1863 after third session)
  • Porter Ingram (took his seat on January 12, 1864 - Elected to fill vacancy on December 7, 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 March 1, 1863 after third session)
  • William Dunbar Holder (took his seat on January 21, 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 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

• 1. Joseph Brown Heiskell (resigned February 6, 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 February 7, 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 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)
  • Samuel Augustine Miller (took his seat on February 24, 1863 - Elected to fill vacancy)
• 15. Robert Johnston X
• 16. Charles Wells Russell X

Delegates

Non voting members of the House of Representatives.

Arizona Territory

• Marcus H. MacWillie

Cherokee Nation

• Elias Cornelius Boudinot X

Choctaw Nation

• Robert McDonald Jones

See also

• Provisional Confederate Congress
• Second Confederate Congress

References

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

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