Confederate States
The Confederate States of America (also referred to as the Confederacy, Confederate States, and CSA) was formed by eleven southern states of the United States of America between 1861 and 1865. These eleven states declared their secession from the United States. more...
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The United States of America (\"The Union\") held that secession was illegal, and refused to recognize the Confederacy.
The American Civil War (see Naming the American Civil War for other names) broke out when Confederate States Army batteries fired on United States Army troops occupying Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, in April 1861. No European powers officially recognized the CSA, but British commercial interests sold it warships and operated blockade runners to help supply it. These warships were sold on a cash-and-carry basis, and contributed to the rapid exhaustion of the Confederacy's supply of gold bullion. Most battles took place in Confederate territory. When Robert E. Lee and the other Confederate generals surrendered their armies in the spring of 1865, the CSA collapsed and there was no guerilla warfare afterwards. A difficult decade-long process of Reconstruction gave civil rights and the vote to the freedmen (for a time), and readmitted the states to Congress.
History
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Secession process Dec 1860-May 1861
The seceding states
Seven states seceded by March 1861:
South Carolina (December 20, 1860),;
Mississippi (January 9, 1861),;
Florida (January 10, 1861),;
Alabama (January 11, 1861),;
Georgia (January 19, 1861),;
Louisiana (January 26, 1861),;
Texas (February 1, 1861).;
After Lincoln called for troops, four more states definitely seceded:
Virginia (April 17, 1861); there was also a rump Union government of Virginia;
Arkansas (May 6, 1861),;
Tennessee (May 7, 1861).;
North Carolina (May 20, 1861);
Two more states had rival governments. The Confederacy admitted them but they never controlled their states and were soon in exile:
Missouri (October 31, 1861).;
Kentucky (November 20, 1861). ;
Both states allowed slavery and both had strong Unionist and Confederate counties, including some Unionist slave-owners. The legalities of the matter remain a matter of dispute down to the present day. For more details, see Border states (Civil War), Missouri in the Civil War and Kentucky in the Civil War.
The reasons for secession
Following Abraham Lincoln's election as President in 1860 on a platform that would end extension of slavery, seven southern cotton states seceded from the United States and declared that the Confederate States of America was formed on February 4, 1861. Jefferson Davis was selected as its first President on February 9 and inaugurated on February 18.
Read more at Wikipedia.org
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