 Subsequently, a second convention was held in Tucson on March 28, chaired by Mark Aldrich, who had been Tucson's first mayor.The Tucson convention ratified the Mesilla convention, and provisional officers were elected for the newly established Arizona Territory with Dr. Lewis S. Owings as its governor and Granville Henderson Oury as its first delegate to the Confederate States Congress, who immediately began petitioning for admission.Early in the war, the Confederacy regarded the Arizona Territory as a valuable route by which to potentially access the Pacific Ocean, with the specific intention of capturing California.