As we know Nathen Bedford Forrest was elected in 1866. He then set the CSA on the path to total military dictatorship by ramming through a series of admendments to the CSA constitution that strengthened the presidency and removed the restriction of being able to serve only one term. He was reelected in 1872 and Wade Hampton assumed the presidency on his death in 1877. If he wasn't elected would the CSA been able to avoid the fate of winding up as a military dictatorship or was it pretty much doomed to become one at the start?