1863 Confederate States House of Representatives elections
Elections to the Confederate States Congress were held from May to November 1863, during what was intended to be the first of two midterms within President Jefferson Davis' six-year term. The number of Congressmen in the House of Representatives who openly opposed the policies of President Davis increased from 26 to 41 out of 106, while the number of anti-administration Senators went from 11 to 12. The pro-administration Senators thus had a narrow majority of two with 14 out of the 26 seats in the Confederate Senate. The 2nd Confederate States Congress would be seated on May 2, 1864.
1863 Confederate States House of Representatives elections
Confederate States Congress
The Confederate States Congress was both the provisional and permanent legislative assembly of the Confederate States of America that existed from 1861 to 1865. Its actions were, for the most part, concerned with measures to establish a new national government for the Southern proto-state, and to prosecute a war that had to be sustained throughout the existence of the Confederacy. At first, it met as a provisional congress both in Montgomery, Alabama, and Richmond, Virginia. As was the case for the provisional Congress after it moved to Richmond, the permanent Congress met in the existing Virginia State Capitol, a building which it shared with the secessionist Virginia General Assembly.
Confederate States Congress
The State Capitol at Montgomery, Alabama, where the Confederate States Congress met
Meeting of the Provisional Confederate Congress, 1861
The first Confederate Cabinet: President Jefferson Davis, Vice President Alexander H. Stephens, Attorney General Judah P. Benjamin, Secretary of the Navy Stephen M. Mallory, Secretary of the Treasury C. G. Memminger, Secretary of War Leroy Pope Walker, Postmaster John H. Reagan, and Secretary of State Robert Toombs