 The twin rebel defeats at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in early July 1863 made it unlikely that Britain , or any other nation , would recognize a slaveholding Confederacy staggering towards oblivion . Accordingly , in August , Benjamin wrote to Mason telling him that as Davis believed the British unwilling to recognize the South , he was free to leave the country . In October , with Davis absent on a trip to Tennessee , Benjamin heard that the British consul in Savannah had forbidden British subjects in the Confederate Army from being used against the United States . The Secretary of State convened a Cabinet meeting , that expelled the remaining British consuls in Confederate @-@ controlled territory , then notified Davis by letter . Evans suggests that Benjamin 's actions made him the Confederacy 's acting president — the first Jewish president . 
