Provisional Confederate States Congress
Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America | |
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Type | |
Type | |
History | |
Founded | February 4, 1861 |
Disbanded | February 17, 1862 |
Succeeded by | 1st Confederate States Congress |
Leadership | |
President | |
Meeting place | |
Constitution | |
Constitution for the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America |
The Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America, also known as the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, was a congress of deputies and delegates called together from the Southern States which became the governing body of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America (CSA) from February 4, 1861, to February 17, 1862. It sat in Montgomery, Alabama, until May 20, 1861, when it adjourned to meet in Richmond, Virginia, on July 20, 1861. It added new members as other states seceded and directed the election on November 6, 1861, at which a permanent government was elected.[1]
First Session
The First Session of the Provisional Congress was held at Montgomery from February 4, 1861, to March 16, 1861.[2] Members were present from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina,[3] and Texas.[4] It drafted a provisional constitution and set up a government. For president and vice-president, it selected Jefferson Davis of Mississippi and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia.[1]
Second Session
The Second Session of the Provisional Congress was held at Montgomery from April 29, 1861, to May 21, 1861.[2] Members were present from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia,[5] and Arkansas.[6]
Third Session
The Third Session of the Provisional Congress of the Provisional Congress was held at Richmond from July 20, 1861, to August 31, 1861.[2] Members were present from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina,[7] and Tennessee.[8]
Fourth Session
The Fourth Session of the Provisional Congress was held at Richmond on September 3, 1861.[2] Members were present from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
Fifth Session
The Fifth Session of the Provisional Congress was held at Richmond from November 18, 1861, to February 17, 1862.[2] Members were present from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri,[9] and Kentucky.[10] One non-voting member was present from the Arizona Territory.[11]
Constitutional Convention
The Constitutional Convention was held at Montgomery from February 28, 1861, to March 11, 1861.[2]
Leadership
- President of the Congress: Howell Cobb
- President pro tempore of the Congress:
- Robert Woodward Barnwell (February 4, 1861)
- Thomas Salem Bocock (December 10–21, 1861, and January 7–8, 1862)
- Josiah Abigail Patterson Campbell (December 23–24, 1861, and January 6, 1862)
Members
Deputies
Deputies from the first seven states to secede formed the first two sessions of the Congress.
- William Parish Chilton, Sr.
- Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry
- Thomas Fearn (resigned March 16, 1861 after first Session)
- Nicholas Davis, Jr. (took his seat on April 29, 1861 – Elected to fill vacancy)
- Stephen F. Hale
- David Peter Lewis (resigned March 16, 1861 after first Session)
- Henry Cox Jones (took his seat on April 29, 1861 – Elected to fill vacancy)
- Colin J. McRae
- John Gill Shorter (resigned November 1861)
- Cornelius Robinson (took his seat on April 29, 1861 – Elected to fill vacancy; resigned January 24, 1862)
- Robert Hardy Smith
- Richard Wilde Walker
- James Patton Anderson (resigned April 8, 1861)
- George Taliaferro Ward (took his seat on May 2, 1861 – Elected to fill vacancy; resigned February 5, 1862)
- John Pease Sanderson (took his seat on February 5, 1862 – Appointed to fill vacancy)
- Jackson Morton
- James Byeram Owens
- Francis Stebbins Bartow (killed July 21, 1861 at the First Battle of Bull Run)
- Thomas Marsh Forman (took his seat on August 7, 1861 – Appointed to fill vacancy)
- Howell Cobb
- Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb
- Martin Jenkins Crawford
- Benjamin Harvey Hill
- Augustus Holmes Kenan
- Eugenius Aristides Nisbet (resigned December 10, 1861)
- Nathan Henry Bass, Sr. (took his seat on January 14, 1862 – Appointed to fill vacancy)
- Alexander Hamilton Stephens
- Robert Augustus Toombs
- Augustus Romaldus Wright
- Charles Magill Conrad
- Alexandre Etienne de Clouet
- Duncan Farrar Kenner
- Henry Marshall
- John Perkins, Jr.
- Edward Sparrow
- William Taylor Sullivan Barry
- Walker Brooke
- Josiah Abigail Patterson Campbell
- Alexander Mosby Clayton (resigned May 11, 1861)
- Alexander Blackburn Bradford (took his seat on December 5, 1861 – Elected to fill vacancy)
- Wiley Pope Harris
- James Thomas Harrison
- William Sydney Wilson (resigned March 16, 1861 after first session)
- Jehu Amaziah Orr (took his seat on April 29, 1861 – Elected to fill vacancy)
- Robert Woodward Barnwell
- William Waters Boyce
- James Chesnut, Jr.
- Laurence Massillon Keitt
- Christopher Gustavus Memminger
- William Porcher Miles
- Robert Barnwell Rhett, Sr.
- Thomas Jefferson Withers (resigned May 21, 1861 after second session)
- James Lawrence Orr (took his seat on February 17, 1862 – Appointed to fill vacancy)
- John Gregg
- John Hemphill (died January 4, 1862)
- William Beck Ochiltree, Sr.
- William Simpson Oldham, Sr.
- John Henninger Reagan
- Thomas Neville Waul
- Louis Trezevant Wigfall
Delegates
Representatives from states to secede after the Battle of Fort Sumter were referred to as delegates, in contrast to the deputies from the original seven states.
Citations
- 1 2 Voorhees & Bok 1983, p. 683.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 S. Doc. No. 234, 58th Cong., 2nd Sess. 1904, p. 5.
- ↑ S. Doc. No. 234, 58th Cong., 2nd Sess. 1904, p. 7.
- ↑ S. Doc. No. 234, 58th Cong., 2nd Sess. 1904, pp. 60, 92.
- ↑ S. Doc. No. 234, 58th Cong., 2nd Sess. 1904, p. 193.
- ↑ S. Doc. No. 234, 58th Cong., 2nd Sess. 1904, p. 244.
- ↑ S. Doc. No. 234, 58th Cong., 2nd Sess. 1904, p. 271.
- ↑ S. Doc. No. 234, 58th Cong., 2nd Sess. 1904, p. 337.
- ↑ S. Doc. No. 234, 58th Cong., 2nd Sess. 1904, p. 510.
- ↑ S. Doc. No. 234, 58th Cong., 2nd Sess. 1904, p. 574.
- ↑ S. Doc. No. 234, 58th Cong., 2nd Sess. 1904, p. 701.
References
- Journal of the Congress of the Confederate States of America, 1861–1865. Volume I: Journal of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America. Senate document (United States. Congress. Senate) ; 58th Congress, 2nd session, no. 234. Washington: GPO. 1904 [1st pub. 1861–1862]. LCCN 05012700.
- Voorhees, David William; Bok, H. Abigail, eds. (1983). Concise Dictionary of American History. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 0-684-17321-2. OCLC 9111110.
Further reading
- Beers, Henry Putney (1986) [1st pub. [[Government Printing Office]]: 1968]. "Chapter II: Congress". The Confederacy: A Guide to the Archives of the Confederate States of America. Washington: National Archives and Records Administration. pp. 9–35. ISBN 0-911333-18-5. LCCN 86008362. OCLC 13425465. OL 2715333M.
- Confederate States of America (1861). Constitution for the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America. Montgomery, Ala.: Shorter & Reid. LCCN 44014587. OL 24392168M.
- Confederate States of America (1864). Matthews, James M., ed. Statutes at Large of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America. Richmond: R. M. Smith. LCCN 06012179.
- Davis, William C. (2002). "Chapter 3: Visions of Breakers Ahead". Look Away!: A History of the Confederate States of America. New York: The Free Press. pp. 55–84. ISBN 0-684-86585-8. OCLC 48711345.
- Martis, Kenneth C. (1994). "Chapter 2: Provisional Confederate Congress". The Historical Atlas of the Congresses of the Confederate States of America, 1861-1865. Gyula Pauer, Cartographer. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 7–13. ISBN 0-13-389115-1.