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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
Logo
Type
Type
HousesSenate
House of Representatives
History
FoundedFebruary 18, 1862
DisbandedFebruary 17, 1864
Preceded byProvisional Congress
Succeeded by2nd
Leadership
Senate President
Alexander H. Stephens
R. M. T. Hunter
Meeting place
Second Capitol of the Confederate States (1861-1865)
Virginia State Capitol
Richmond, Virginia
Confederate States of America
Constitution
Constitution of the Confederate States

The 1st Confederate States Congress, consisting of the Confederate States Senate and the Confederate States House of Representatives, met from February 18, 1862, to February 17, 1864, during the first two years of Jefferson Davis's presidency, at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, Virginia.[1]

Sessions

Held February 18, 1862, through February 17, 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 17, 1864

Leadership

Senate

Senate President
Alexander H. Stephens
Alexander H. Stephens
President pro tempore
R. M. T. Hunter
R. M. T. Hunter

House

House Speaker
Thomas S. Bocock
Thomas S. Bocock

Officers

Senate

  • Secretary: James H. Nash, South Carolina
  • Assistant Secretary: Edward H. Stephens, Virginia
  • Journal Clerk: C. T. Bruen, Virginia
  • Recording Clerk: Henry H. Hubbard, Mossy Creek, Tennessee[2]
  • Sergeant-at-Arms: Lafayette H. Fitzhugh, Kentucky
  • Doorkeeper: James Page, North Carolina
  • Assistant Doorkeeper: John Wadsworth, Georgia

House

  • Clerk: Robert Emmett Dixon, Sr., Georgia (died April 24, 1863)
    • Albert Reese Lamar, Georgia — sessions 3 and 4
  • Assistant Clerk: James McDonald, Virginia
  • Assistant Clerk: David Louis Dalton, Alabama — sessions 3 and 4
  • Doorkeeper: Robert Harrison Wynne, Alabama

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.[3]

Alabama

Arkansas

Florida

Georgia

Kentucky

Louisiana

Mississippi

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

South Carolina

Tennessee

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

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[4])
  • 2. Robert Benjamin Hilton

Georgia

Kentucky

Louisiana

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.[6]
  • 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

South Carolina

Tennessee

Texas

Virginia

Delegates

Non voting members of the House of Representatives.

Arizona Territory

  • Marcus H. MacWillie

Cherokee Nation

Choctaw Nation

  • Robert McDonald Jones

Senate Committees

Accounts[10]

Claims

Commerce

Engrossment and Enrollment

Finance

  • Robert Woodward Barnwell, South Carolina, Chairman
  • Thomas Jenkins Semmes, Louisiana
  • Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter, Virginia
  • George Davis, North Carolina (resigned January 11, 1864)
  • Gustavus Adolphus Henry, Sr., Tennessee — sessions 1 and 2
  • John Wood Lewis, Sr., Georgia — session 2
  • Herschel Vespasian Johnson, Georgia — sessions 3 and 4
  • Edwin Godwin Reade, North Carolina — session 4
    • Robert Jemison, Jr., Alabama — temporary, session 4

Foreign Affairs

Indian Affairs

Judiciary

Military Affairs

Naval Affairs

Patents

Pay and Mileage (Session 1)

Post Offices and Post Roads

Printing

Public Lands

Rules (Session 1)

Territories

House Committees

Accounts[10]

Claims

Commerce

Currency (Session 4)

Elections

Enrolled Bills

  • John Milton Elliott, 12th Kentucky, Chairman
  • Henry Cousins Chambers, 4th Mississippi
    • John Goode, Jr., 6th Virginia — temporary, session 1
    • Erasmus Lee Gardenhire, 4th Tennessee — temporary, sessions 1, 2, and 4
  • William Henry Tibbs, 3rd Tennessee — sessions 1, 2, and 3
  • Augustus Hill Garland, 3rd Arkansas — session 3
  • John Allen Wilcox, 1st Texas — session 3
  • Thomas W. Freeman, 6th Missouri — session 4
  • Thomas Burton Hanly, 4th Arkansas — session 4
  • William Bacon Wright, 6th Texas — session 4

Foreign Affairs

Indian Affairs

Judiciary

Medical Department (Sessions 2 - 4)

Military Affairs

Naval Affairs

  • Charles Magill Conrad, 2nd Louisiana, Chairman
  • David Clopton, 7th Alabama
  • Augustus Romaldus Wright, 10th Georgia
  • Burgess Sidney Gaither, 9th North Carolina
  • William Waters Boyce, 6th South Carolina
  • David Maney Currin, 11th Tennessee
  • John Randolph Chambliss, Sr., 2nd Virginia
  • Charles Wells Russell, 16th Virginia — session 1
  • James Baird Dawkins, 1st Florida (resigned December 8, 1862) — sessions 1 and 2
  • William "Extra Billy" Smith, 9th Virginia, (resigned April 4, 1863) — sessions 1 and 3
  • George Baird Hodge, 8th Kentucky — sessions 2 and 3
  • John Marshall Martin, 1st Florida — sessions 3 and 4
  • Charles Fenton Collier, 4th Virginia — session 4
  • Thomas W. Freeman, 6th Missouri
  • Charles James Munnerlyn, 2nd Georgia — temporary, session 4

Ordnance and Ordnance Stores (Sessions 2 - 4)

Patents

  • Caspar Wistar Bell, 3rd Missouri, Chairman
  • William Parish Chilton, Sr., 6th Alabama
  • Robert Benjamin Hilton, 2nd Florida
  • Hardy Strickland, 9th Georgia
  • Henry English Read, 3rd Kentucky
  • Henry Marshall, 5th Louisiana
  • William Lander, 8th North Carolina
  • William Bacon Wright, 6th Texas
  • Waller Redd Staples, 12th Virginia — sessions 1, 3, and 4

Pay and Mileage (Sessions 1 - 2)

  • Theodore Legrand Burnett, 6th Kentucky, Chairman
  • Augustus Romaldus Wright, 10th Georgia
  • Otho Robards Singleton, 5th Mississippi
  • Robert Rufus Bridgers, 2nd North Carolina (appointed but replaced by Augustus Romaldus Wright due to extended absence) — session 1
  • Israel Victor Welch, 3rd Mississippi — session 2

Post Offices and Post Roads

Printing

Public Buildings

  • James Lyons, 3rd Virginia, Chairman
  • James Lawrence Pugh, 8th Alabama
  • David Maney Currin, 11th Tennessee

Quartermaster's and Commissary Departments and Military Transportation (Sessions 2 - 4)

  • William Parish Chilton, Sr., 6th Alabama, Chairman
  • William White Clark, 6th Georgia
  • John Jones McRae, 7th Mississippi
  • William Lander, 8th North Carolina
  • Lewis Malone Ayer, Jr., 3rd South Carolina
  • Franklin Barlow Sexton, 4th Texas
  • Walter Preston, 13th Virginia
  • James Baird Dawkins, 1st Florida (resigned December 8, 1862) — session 2
  • Henry Marshall, 5th Louisiana — sessions 2 and 3
  • Grandison Delaney Royston, 2nd Arkansas — session 3
  • Allen Turner Davidson, 10th North Carolina — temporary, session 3; permanent, session 4
    • Israel Victor Welch, 3rd Mississippi — temporary, session 4
  • Henry Stuart Foote, 5th Tennessee — session 4
  • Robert Pleasant Trippe, 7th Georgia — session 4
  • Thomas Burton Hanly, 4th Arkansas — session 4

Rules and Officers of the House (Sessions 1 - 3)

Territories and Public Lands

War Tax (Session 2)

Ways and Means

Joint Committees

Buildings (Session 1)[10]

  • Senators
  • Representatives
    • James Lyons, 3rd Virginia, Chairman
    • James Lawrence Pugh, 8th Alabama
    • David Maney Currin, 11th Tennessee

Engrossment and Enrollment (Session 1)

  • Senators
    • James Phelan, Sr., Mississippi, Chairman
    • Charles Burton Mitchel, Arkansas
    • Augustus Emmet Maxwell, Florida
  • Representatives
    • John Milton Elliott, 12th Kentucky, Chairman
    • Henry Cousins Chambers, 4th Mississippi
    • William Henry Tibbs, 3rd Tennessee
      • Erasmus Lee Gardenhire, 4th Tennessee — temporary

Flag and Seal (Sessions 1 - 3)

Inauguration (Session 1)

Printing

Rules (Session 1)

Notes

  1. ^ Historical Atlas ..., pp. 131-134
  2. ^ Casper Branner and his Descendants, John C. Branner, 1913, p. 218
  3. ^ Permanent Constitution of the Confederate States and Confederate Senate Journal
  4. ^ Historical Atlas ..., p. 132
  5. ^ Historical Atlas ..., p. 132
  6. ^ Historical Atlas ... pp. 20 and 62-63
  7. ^ Historical Atlas ..., p. 133
  8. ^ Historical Atlas ..., p. 134 and note p. 139
  9. ^ Historical Atlas ..., p. 134
  10. ^ a b c "First Confederate Congress (18 February 1862 - 17 February 1864)". Archived from the original on February 8, 2007.

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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