Provisional Congress of the Confederate States

The Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, also known as the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America, was a unicameral congress of deputies and delegates called together from the Southern States which became the governing body of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States from February 4, 1861, to February 17, 1862. It sat in Montgomery, Alabama, until May 21, 1861, when it adjourned to meet in Richmond, Virginia, on July 20, 1861. In both cities, it met in the existing state capitols which it shared with the respective secessionist state legislatures. It added new members as other states seceded from the Union and directed the election on November 6, 1861, at which a permanent government was elected.

First Session
The First Session of the Provisional Congress was held at Montgomery from February 4, 1861, to March 16, 1861. Members were present from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas. 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.

Constitutional Convention
The Confederate States Constitutional Convention was held at Montgomery from February 28, 1861, to March 11, 1861.

Second Session
The Second Session of the Provisional Congress was held at Montgomery from April 29, 1861, to May 21, 1861. Members were present from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Arkansas.

Third Session
The Third Session of the Provisional Congress was held at Richmond from July 20, 1861, to August 31, 1861. Members were present from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

Fourth Session
The Fourth Session of the Provisional Congress was held at Richmond on September 3, 1861. 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. Members were present from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, and Kentucky. One non-voting member was present from the Arizona Territory.

Leadership

 * President: Howell Cobb

Deputies
Deputies from the first seven states to secede formed the first two sessions of the Congress.

Alabama
 * Richard W. Walker
 * Robert H. Smith
 * 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)
 * W. P. Chilton
 * Stephen F. Hale
 * David P. Lewis (resigned April 29, 1861)
 * Nic. Davis, Jr. (took his seat on April 29, 1861 – Elected to fill vacancy)
 * Thomas Fearn (resigned April 29, 1861)
 * H. C. Jones (took his seat on April 29, 1861 – Elected to fill vacancy)
 * J. L. M. Curry

Florida
 * J. 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)
 * James B. Owens
 * Jackson Morton (took his seat on February 6, 1861)

Georgia
 * Robert Toombs
 * Howell Cobb
 * F. S. 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)
 * M. J. Crawford
 * E. A. Nisbet (resigned December 10, 1861)
 * Nathan Henry Bass, Sr. (took his seat on January 14, 1862 – Appointed to fill vacancy)
 * B. H. Hill
 * A. R. Wright
 * T. R. R. Cobb
 * A. H. Kenan
 * A. H. Stephens

Louisiana
 * John Perkins, Jr.
 * Alexander de Clouet
 * Charles M. Conrad
 * Duncan F. Kenner
 * Edward Sparrow
 * Henry Marshall

Mississippi
 * A. M. Clayton (resigned May 11, 1861)
 * Alexander Blackburn Bradford (took his seat on December 5, 1861 – Elected to fill vacancy)
 * James T. Harrison
 * William S. Barry
 * J. A. P. Campbell
 * Wiley P. Harris
 * Walker Brooke
 * William S. Wilson (resigned April 29, 1861)
 * J. A. Orr (took his seat on April 29, 1861 – Elected to fill vacancy)

South Carolina
 * Robert Barnwell Rhett
 * Robert W. Barnwell
 * Christopher Gustavus Memminger
 * James Chesnut, Jr.
 * William Porcher Miles
 * Laurence M. Keitt
 * Thomas J. Withers (resigned May 21, 1861 after second session)
 * James Lawrence Orr (took his seat on February 17, 1862 – Appointed to fill vacancy)
 * William W. Boyce

Texas
 * John Gregg (took his seat on February 15, 1861)
 * Thomas N. Waul (took his seat on February 19, 1861)
 * W. S. Oldham (took his seat on March 2, 1861)
 * J. H. Reagan (took his seat on March 2, 1861)
 * John Hemphill (took his seat on March 2, 1861; died January 4, 1862)
 * W. B. Ochiltree (took his seat on March 2, 1861)
 * L. T. Wigfall (took his seat on March 2, 1861)

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.

Arkansas
 * Augustus Hill Garland
 * Robert Ward Johnson
 * Albert Rust
 * Hugh French Thomason
 * William Wirt Watkins

Kentucky
 * Henry Cornelius Burnett
 * Theodore Legrand Burnett
 * John Milton Elliott
 * George Washington Ewing
 * Samuel Howard Ford
 * George Baird Hodge
 * Thomas Johnson
 * Thomas Bell Monroe
 * John J. Thomas
 * Daniel Price White

Missouri
 * Caspar Wistar Bell
 * John Bullock Clark, Sr.
 * Aaron H. Conrow
 * William Mordecai Cooke Sr.
 * Thomas W. Freeman
 * Thomas Alexander Harris
 * Robert Ludwell Yates Peyton
 * George Graham Vest
 * Delegate-elect Hyer never took his seat

North Carolina
 * William Waightstill Avery
 * Francis Burton Craige
 * Allen Turner Davidson
 * George Davis
 * Thomas David Smith McDowell
 * John Motley Morehead
 * Richard Clauselle Puryear
 * Thomas Hart Ruffin
 * William N. H. Smith
 * Abraham Watkins Venable

Tennessee
 * John DeWitt Clinton Atkins
 * Robert Looney Caruthers
 * David Maney Currin
 * William Henry DeWitt
 * John Ford House
 * Thomas McKissick Jones
 * James Houston Thomas

Virginia
 * Thomas Salem Bocock
 * Alexander Boteler
 * John White Brockenbrough
 * Gideon D. Camden (resigned June 1861)
 * R. M. T. Hunter
 * Robert Johnston
 * William Hamilton MacFarland
 * James M. Mason
 * Walter Preston
 * William Ballard Preston
 * Roger Atkinson Pryor
 * William Cabell Rives
 * Charles Wells Russell
 * Robert Eden Scott
 * James Alexander Seddon
 * Waller Redd Staples
 * John Tyler (died January 18, 1862)

Arizona Territory
 * Granville Henderson Oury