Editing Confederate States of America (section)

====Legislative====
{{Main|Provisional Confederate States Congress|Confederate States Congress}}
[[File:Confederate congress.jpg|thumb|'''[[Provisional Confederate Congress|Provisional Congress]]''', Montgomery, Alabama]]

The only two "formal, national, functioning, civilian administrative bodies" in the Civil War South were the Jefferson Davis administration and the Confederate Congresses. The Confederacy was begun by the Provisional Congress in Convention at Montgomery, Alabama on February 28, 1861. The Provisional Confederate Congress was a unicameral assembly; each state received one vote.<ref name="Martis-1994">{{cite book| last=Martis |first=Kenneth C. |title=The Historical Atlas of the Congresses of the Confederate States of America: 1861–1865 |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |year=1994 |isbn=0-13-389115-1 |page=1}}</ref>

The Permanent Confederate Congress was elected and began its first session February 18, 1862. The Permanent Congress for the Confederacy followed the United States forms with a bicameral legislature. The Senate had two per state, twenty-six Senators. The House numbered 106 representatives apportioned by free and slave populations within each state. Two Congresses sat in six sessions until March 18, 1865.<ref name="Martis-1994"/>

The political influences of the civilian, soldier vote and appointed representatives reflected divisions of political geography of a diverse South. These in turn changed over time relative to Union occupation and disruption, the war impact on the local economy, and the course of the war. Without political parties, key candidate identification related to adopting secession before or after Lincoln's call for volunteers to retake Federal property. Previous party affiliation played a part in voter selection, predominantly secessionist Democrat or unionist Whig.<ref>Martis, ''Historical Atlas'', pp. 72–73</ref>

The absence of political parties made individual roll call voting all the more important, as the Confederate "freedom of roll-call voting [was] unprecedented in American legislative history."<ref>Martis, ''Historical Atlas'', p. 3</ref> Key issues throughout the life of the Confederacy related to (1) suspension of habeas corpus, (2) military concerns such as control of state militia, conscription and exemption, (3) economic and fiscal policy including impressment of slaves, goods and scorched earth, and (4) support of the Jefferson Davis administration in its foreign affairs and negotiating peace.<ref>Martis, ''Historical Atlas'', pp. 90–91</ref>

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;Provisional Congress
For the first year, the unicameral [[Provisional Confederate Congress]] functioned as the Confederacy's legislative branch.

;President of the Provisional Congress
* [[Howell Cobb|Howell Cobb, Sr.]] of Georgia, February 4, 1861 – February 17, 1862

;Presidents pro tempore of the Provisional Congress
* [[Robert Woodward Barnwell]] of South Carolina, February 4, 1861
* [[Thomas Stanhope Bocock]] of Virginia, December 10–21, 1861 and January 7–8, 1862
* [[Josiah Abigail Patterson Campbell]] of Mississippi, December 23–24, 1861 and January 6, 1862
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;Sessions of the Confederate Congress
* [[Provisional Congress of the Confederate States|Provisional Congress]]
* [[1st Confederate States Congress|1st Congress]]
* [[2nd Confederate States Congress|2nd Congress]]

;Tribal Representatives to Confederate Congress
* [[Elias Cornelius Boudinot]] 1862–65, [[Cherokee]]
* [[Samuel Benton Callahan]] Unknown years, [[Creek (people)|Creek]], [[Seminole]]
* [[Burton Allen Holder]] 1864–65, [[Chickasaw]]
* [[Robert McDonald Jones]] 1863–65, [[Choctaw]]
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