Second Confederate Congress

Confederate States Capitol (1865)

The Second Confederate Congress was the second and last regular term of the legislature of the Confederate States of America. Members of the Second Confederate Congress were chosen in elections held at various dates in 1863 and 1864.^[1] They only served for just over one year of their two-year term before the Confederacy was defeated and the American Civil War ended.

Sessions

The term of the Second Confederate Congress started on February 18, 1864 and was due to end on February 18, 1866. However, due to the defeat and dissolution of the Confederacy prior to that time, the Congress did not function after the end of its second and last session.

All sessions of the Second Confederate Congress met in the Confederacy's capital of Richmond, Virginia.

• 1st Session – May 2, 1864 to June 14, 1864
• 2nd Session – November 7, 1864 to March 18, 1865

Leadership

Senate

• President of the Senate: Vice President Alexander H. Stephens
• President pro tempore: Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter of Virginia
• President pro tempore ad interim: William Alexander Graham of North Carolina (1865)

House

• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Thomas Stanley Bocock of Virginia
• Speaker pro tempore: William Parish Chilton, Sr. of Alabama

Members

Senate

X: served in the Senate of the First Congress (i.e. reelected or continued in office for this Second Congress).

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. Senators of Class 1 were intended to serve a six-year term, starting with this Congress and expiring in 1870. Class 2 Senators served what was intended to be a four-year term, due to end on the expiry of this Congress in 1866. Class 3 Senators were meant to serve a six-year term, due to expire in 1868.^[2]

Alabama

• 3. Robert Jemison, Jr. X
• 1. Richard Wilde Walker

Arkansas

• 1. Robert Ward Johnson X
• 3. Charles Burton Mitchel X (died September 20, 1864)
  • Augustus Hill Garland (took his seat on November 8, 1864 - Appointed to fill vacancy)

Florida

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

Georgia

• 3. Benjamin Harvey Hill X
• 1. Herschel Vespasian Johnson X

Kentucky

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

Louisiana

• 2. Thomas Jenkins Semmes X
• 3. Edward Sparrow X

Mississippi

• 2. Albert Gallatin Brown X
• 1. John William Clark Watson

Missouri

• 2. Waldo Porter Johnson X
• 1. (vacant caused by the inability of the Missouri legislature to meet and elect a senator)
  • George Graham Vest (took his seat on January 12, 1865 - Appointed to fill vacancy)

North Carolina

• 2. William Theophilus Dortch X
• 1. William Alexander Graham

South Carolina

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

Tennessee

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

Texas

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

Virginia

• 3. Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter X
• 2. Allen Taylor Caperton X

House of Representatives

The names of members of the House of Representatives are preceded by their district numbers.

X: reelected

Alabama

• 1. Thomas Jefferson Foster X
• 2. William Russell Smith X
• 3. Congress refused to seat Representative-elect W. R. W. Cobb, an avowed Unionist; the district was not represented;
• 4. Marcus Henderson Cruikshank
• 5. Francis Strother Lyon X
• 6. William Parish Chilton, Sr. X
• 7. David Clopton X
• 8. James L. Pugh X
• 9. James Shelton Dickinson

Arkansas

• 1. Felix Ives Batson X
• 2. Rufus King Garland, Jr.
• 3. Augustus Hill Garland X (resigned to become CS-senator November 8, 1864)
  • David Williamson Carroll (took his seat on January 11, 1865 - Elected to fill vacancy on October 24, 1864^[3])
• 4. Thomas Burton Hanly X

Florida

• 1. Samuel St. George Rogers
• 2. Robert Benjamin Hilton X

Georgia

• 1. Julian Hartridge X
• 2. William Ephraim Smith
• 3. Mark Harden Blandford
• 4. Clifford Anderson
• 5. John Troup Shewmake
• 6. Joseph Hubbard Echols
• 7. James Milton Smith
• 8. George Nelson Lester
• 9. Hiram Parks Bell
• 10. Warren Akin, Sr.

Kentucky

• 1. Willis Benson Machen X
• 2. George Washington Triplett
• 3. Henry English Read X
• 4. George Washington Ewing X
• 5. James Chrisman X
• 6. Theodore Legrand Burnett X
• 7. Horatio Washington Bruce X
• 8. Humphrey Marshall
• 9. Eli Metcalfe Bruce X
• 10. James William Moore X
• 11. Benjamin Franklin Bradley
• 12. John Milton Elliott X

Louisiana

• 1. Charles Jacques Villeré X
• 2. Charles Magill Conrad X
• 3. Duncan Farrar Kenner X
• 4. Lucius Jacques Dupré X
• 5. Benjamin Lewis Hodge (died August 12, 1864)
  • Henry Gray (took his seat on December 28, 1864 - Elected to fill vacancy October 17, 1864^[4])
• 6. John Perkins, Jr. X

Mississippi

• 1. Jehu Amaziah Orr
• 2. William Dunbar Holder X
• 3. Israel Victor Welch X
• 4. Henry Cousins Chambers X
• 5. Otho Robards Singleton X
• 6. Ethelbert Barksdale X
• 7. John Tillman Lamkin

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.^[5]

• 1. Thomas Lowndes Snead
• 2. Nimrod Lindsay Norton
• 3. John Bullock Clark, Sr.
• 4. Aaron H. Conrow X
• 5. George Graham Vest X (resigned January 12, 1865 to become CS-senator)
• 6. Peter Singleton Wilkes
• 7. Robert Anthony Hatcher

North Carolina

• 1. William Nathan Harrell Smith X
• 2. Robert Rufus Bridgers X
• 3. James Thomas Leach
• 4. Thomas Charles Fuller
• 5. Josiah Turner
• 6. John Adams Gilmer
• 7. James Madison Leach (Representative-elect Samuel H. Christian died, in March 1864, before taking his seat. Leach was elected April 21, 1864.^[6])
• 8. James Graham Ramsay
• 9. Burgess Sidney Gaither
• 10. George Washington Logan

South Carolina

• 1. James Hervey Witherspoon, Jr.
• 2. William Porcher Miles X
• 3. Lewis Malone Ayer, Jr. X
• 4. William Dunlap Simpson X
• 5. James Farrow X
• 6. William Waters Boyce X

Tennessee

• 1. Joseph Brown Heiskell X
• 2. William Graham Swan X
• 3. Arthur St. Clair Colyar
• 4. John Porry Murray
• 5. Henry Stuart Foote X (fled to Canada before completing term)
• 6. Edwin Augustus Keebel
• 7. James McCallum
• 8. Thomas Menees X
• 9. John DeWitt Clinton Atkins X
• 10. John Vines Wright X
• 11. Michael Walsh Cluskey (Representative-elect David Maney Currin died, on March 25, 1864, before taking his seat. Cluskey was elected thereafter. ^[7])

Texas

• 1. Stephen Heard Darden (Representative-elect John Allen Wilcox died, on February 7, 1864, before taking his seat. Darden was elected August 1864.^[8])
• 2. Caleb Claiborne Herbert X
• 3. Anthony Martin Branch
• 4. Franklin Barlow Sexton X
• 5. John Robert Baylor
• 6. Simpson Harris Morgan

Virginia

• 1. Robert Latane Montague
• 2. Robert Henry Whitfield (resigned March 2, 1865)
• 3. Williams Carter Wickham
• 4. Thomas Saunders Gholson
• 5. Thomas Stanley Bocock X
• 6. John Goode, Jr. X
• 7. William Cabell Rives (resigned March 7, 1865)
• 8. Daniel Coleman DeJarnette, Sr. X
• 9. David Funsten X
• 10. Frederick William Mackey Holliday
• 11. John Brown Baldwin X
• 12. Waller Redd Staples X
• 13. LaFayette McMullen
• 14. Samuel Augustine Miller X
• 15. Robert Johnston X
• 16. Charles Wells Russell X

Delegates

Non-voting members of the House of Representatives.

Arizona Territory

• Marcus H. MacWillie X

Cherokee Nation

• Elias Cornelius Boudinot X

Creek and Seminole Nations

• Samuel Benton Callahan

See also

• Provisional Confederate Congress
• First 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. 135-138
2. Permanent Constitution of the Confederate States and Confederate Senate Journal
3. Historical Atlas ..., p. 135
4. Historical Atlas ..., p. 136
5. Historical Atlas ... p. 20 and p. 128
6. Historical Atlas ... p. 137 and notes p. 139
7. Historical Atlas ... p. 137 and notes p. 140
8. Historical Atlas ... p. 137 and notes p. 140