States meet to form Confederacy
In Montgomery Alabama delegates from South Carolina Mississippi Florida Alabama Georgia and Louisiana convene to establish the Confederate States of America.As early as 1858 the ongoing conflict between the North and the South over the issue of slavery led Southern leadership to discuss a unified separation from the United States.By 1860 the majority of the slave states were publicly threatening secession if the Republicans the anti-slavery party won the presidency.Following Republican Abraham Lincolns victory over the divided Democratic Party in November 1860 South Carolina immediately initiated secession proceedings.
On December 20 its legislature passed the Ordinance of Secession which declared that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other states under the name of the United States of America is hereby dissolved.After the declaration South Carolina set about seizing forts arsenals and other strategic locations within the state.Within six weeks five more Southern states had followed South Carolinas lead.In February 1861 representatives from the six seceded states met in Montgomery Alabama to formally establish a unified government which they named the Confederate States of America.
On February 9 Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was elected the Confederacys first president.By the time Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated in March 1861 Texas had joined the Confederacy and federal troops held only Fort Sumter in South Carolina Fort Pickens off the Florida coast and a handful of minor outposts in the South.On April 12 1861 the American Civil War began when Confederate shore batteries under General P.G.T.Beauregard opened fire on Fort Sumter in South Carolinas Charleston Bay.
Within two months Virginia Arkansas North Carolina and Tennessee had all joined the embattled Confederacy.
