Rare handwritten Virginia electoral ticket endorsing Jefferson Davis for president and Alexander H. Stevens for vice president. It also lists John R. Edmunds of Halifax and Allen T. Caperton of Monroe “for the state at large,” and various other men “for the districts.”

The election took place on Wednesday, 6 November 1861 and was the only presidential election under the permanent constitution of the Confederacy. Jefferson Davis and Alexander H. Stephens had been previously elected President and Vice President only under the provisional constitution.

This ballot was signed on the verso by James F. Ross, the voter who cast the Virginia ballot. Most likely the voter was 40 year-old James Franklin Ross of Loudoun county, Virginia. Ross’s ballot remains in excellent condition, and is plainly legible thanks to Ross’s fine penmanship.


[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, U.S Grant, Abraham Lincoln, Stonewall Jackson] [Political Memorabilia]