Confederate States

*This article is about the breakaway state during the American Civil War. For the form of government, see Confederation.*

## Confederate States of America

Flag of the Confederate States (1861–1863)

### March:

"The Bonnie Blue Flag"

Seal of the Confederate States

The Confederate States highlighted in dark green with claimed but uncontrolled regions in light green; contested Native American territory in blue

### Capital

Montgomery, Alabama (1861)
Richmond, Virginia (1861–1865)

## Government

### Type

Confederated presidential non-partisan republic

### Lower house

Confederate States House of Representatives

## History

### Dissolved

May 5, 1865

The **Confederate States of America** (**CSA**), commonly shortened to the **Confederate States** (**C.S.** or **CS**) or simply the **Confederacy**, was an unrecognized breakaway state in existence from February 8, 1861, to May 5, 1865, that fought against the United States of America during the American Civil War. The eleven states that seceded from the Union and formed the main part of the CSA were South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Kentucky and Missouri also had declarations of secession and full representation in the Confederate Congress, despite being occupied by the Union. The Confederacy also claimed West Virginia (which it considered part of Virginia), New Mexico Territory, Arizona Territory, and Indian Territory. All eleven states of the Confederacy were located in the Deep South region of the United States, whose economy was heavily dependent upon agriculture—particularly cotton—and a plantation system that relied upon African American slaves for labor.

Convinced that the institution of slavery was threatened by the 1860 election of Republican Abraham Lincoln to the U.S. presidency, on a platform which opposed the expansion of slavery into the western territories, the Confederacy declared its secession from the United States, with the loyal states becoming known as the Union during the ensuing American Civil War. In a speech known today as the Cornerstone Address, Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens described its ideology as being centrally based "upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition".

In 1865, after four years of heavy fighting, all Confederate land and naval forces either surrendered or otherwise ceased hostilities. The war lacked a formal end, with Confederate forces surrendering or disbanding sporadically throughout most of 1865. The most significant capitulation was Confederate general Robert E. Lee's surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox on April 9, after which any lingering doubt regarding the war's outcome and/or the Confederacy's prospect for survival was extinguished. The Confederacy's civilian government also disintegrated in a chaotic manner; the Confederate States Congress effectively ceased to exist as a legislative body following its final adjournment on March 18 while Confederate President Jefferson Davis's administration declared the Confederacy dissolved on May 5. After the war, Confederate states were readmitted to the Union during the Reconstruction era, after each ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which outlawed slavery.

## References

1. ↑ https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1861stephens.asp

 Principles and terminology
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