Jefferson Davis, Southern nationalist: a miscellaneous education The early tragedy Scholastic recluse Varina Howell State rights Leader of secession Secretary of War The great Georgia triumvirate Alexander H. Stephens The man within The Toombs-Stephens coalition Robert Toombs, Unionist Howell Cobb The Cotton Belt sets up a confederacy The Montgomery Convention Davis elected president accidentally The constitution for secession The first cabinet Diplomacy on the Mexican front Recognition by Europe Colonel John Pickett Señor Corwin Farce in Mexico City A diplomatic debut in England and France The quest for recognition Lord Russell's compliments "The brains of the Confederacy" Judah P. Benjamin Creole marriage "Smiling as usual" Benjamin in the War Office Confederate finance Christopher Memminger White gold The cotton famine French bankers fleece the Confederacy The Erlanger loan Slidell and Benjamin International finance James Murray Mason A Virginian in the making The Virginia claim to superiority England and the United States Queen Victoria's "two bad boys" : Lord Palmerston, Lord John Russell
The movement for recognition
Friends of the second empire: John Slidell
Napoleon III and the Confederacy: A cautious friend
A large bribe offered France
The discord of the governors:
Pro-Unionism in the South
"Secession" within the Confederacy: An army for Georgia
Joe Brown nullifies conscription
Mallory's fight on the blockade: Stephen R. Mallory
Comic relief: The post office
The propaganda of the Confederacy
The mission to the Vatican
End of the "despot" Davis: The inevitable schism
Hostility within the Cabinet
The failure of state sovereignty.