December 20, 1860 South Carolina Secedes On this day, a secession convention meeting in Charleston, South Carolina, unanimously adopted an ordinance dissolving the connection between South Carolina and the United States of America. The convention had been called by the governor and legislature of South Carolina once Lincoln 's victory was assured. Delegates were elected on December 6, 1860, and the convention convened on December 17. Its action made South Carolina the first state to secede. Support for the Union was negligible, and a distinguished South Carolina unionist, James L. Petigru, allegedly commented at this time that his state was too small to be a nation and too large to be an insane asylum. Two days after leaving the Union, on December 22, 1860, South Carolina sent commissioners to Washington, D.C., to negotiate for the delivery of federal property, such as forts, within the state. Click here to read the Charleston Mercury's account of secession. Click here to read the Charleston Mercury's story on Fort Sumter. Bibliography: Thomas, Confederate Nation, pp. 45-47; Rhodes, History, 3: 215.

Secession - American Civil War - HISTORY.com Google The border slave states of Maryland , Delaware , Kentucky , and Missouri remained with the Union, although they all contributed volunteers to the Confederacy. Fifty counties of western Virginia were loyal to the Union government, and in 1863 this area was constituted the separate state of West Virginia . Secession in practical terms meant that about a third of the population with substantial material resources had withdrawn from what had constituted a single nation and established a separate government. The term secession had been used as early as 1776. South Carolina threatened separation when the Continental Congress sought to tax all the colonies on the basis of a total population count that would include slaves. Secession in this instance and throughout the antebellum period came to mean the assertion of minority sectional interests against what was perceived to be a hostile or indifferent majority. Secession had been a matter of concern to some members of the Constitutional Convention that met at Philadelphia in 1787. Theoretically, secession was bound up closely with Whig thought, which claimed the right of revolution against a despotic government.

Algernon Sidney, John Locke , and the British Commonwealth Men argued this theme, and it played a prominent role in the American Revolution . Any federal republic by its very nature invited challenge to central control, a danger that James Madison recognized. He sought at the convention a clause that would prohibit secession from the proposed union once the states had ratified the Constitution. In debate over other points, Madison repeatedly warned that secession or “disunion” was a major concern. The Constitution as framed and finally accepted by the states divided the exercise of sovereign power between the states and the national government. By virtue of the fact that it was a legal document and in most respects enumerated the powers of the central government, the division was weighted toward the states. Yet much of the charter was drawn up in general terms and was susceptible to interpretation that might vary with time and circumstance. The very thing that Madison feared took on a concrete form during the party battles of the Washington and Adams administrations. And paradoxically, Madison found himself involved with those who seemed to threaten separation. In their reaction to the arbitrary assumption of power in the Alien and Sedition Acts , Thomas Jefferson and Madison argued for state annulment of this legislation.

Jefferson’s response in the Kentucky Resolution advanced the compact interpretation of the federal Constitution. Madison’s Virginia Resolution was far more moderate, but both resolutions looked to state action against what were deemed unconstitutional laws. The national judiciary, they felt, was packed with their opponents. Neither resolution claimed original sovereignty for the states, but both argued for a strict reading of enumerated powers. During the War of 1812 , a disaffected Federalist majority in New England advanced the compact theory and considered secession from the Union. As modernization began to take hold in the United States, differences between the two major sections grew more pronounced: a plantation cotton culture worked by slave labor became concentrated in the South and industrial development featuring free labor in the North. A wave of reform activity in Europe and the United States made the abolition or at least the restriction of slavery a significant goal in the free states. Since abolition struck at the labor system as well as the social structure of the slave states, threats of secession punctuated the political dialogue from 1819 through 1860. John C.

Calhoun , the leading spokesman of the slave states, charged frequently and eloquently that the South and its way of life were under assault from an industrializing North. Like other proponents of endangered minorities, he looked to the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions and their assertion of the federal compact for the basis of his defense. He argued that a state or a group of states could nullify a federal law that was felt to be against a particular interest. But Calhoun made a fundamental extension of the Jeffersonian concept of states’ rights and claimed original undivided sovereignty for the people acting through the states. Although always seeking an accommodation for the South and its slave plantation system within the Union, Calhoun had hoped that nullification was a proper, constitutional alternative to disunion. But he eventually invoked secession with particular vehemence after the territorial acquisitions of the Mexican War and the formation of the Free-Soil party in 1848. Nationalists like John Marshall , Joseph Story, and Daniel Webster countered the Calhoun argument. They declared that the Constitution operated directly through the states on the people, not upon the states as corporate bodies, and their view gained wide acceptance in the free states.

Calhoun was instrumental in fostering southern unity on a sectional basis and in formulating the call for a convention of delegates from the slave states to be held at Nashville, Tennessee , in 1850. There is little doubt that had he lived, Calhoun would have been a formidable force for secession as the ultimate weapon. His death and the working out of a compromise that strengthened moderate opinion in both sections kept the secessionist element at bay temporarily. But the territorial issue flared up again, this time with renewed fury over the question of whether Kansas should enter the Union as a free or slave state. By now antislavery sentiment had grown significantly in the free states. And opinion leaders in the slave states drew closer together in defense against what they saw as an impending attack on their institutions. The Kansas question created the Republican party, a frankly sectional political organization, and it nominated John C. Frémont for president on a Free-Soil platform in 1856. Although the Democrats, still functioning along national lines, managed to elect James Buchanan president by a slim margin, the slave states threatened secession if the Republicans should win the election in 1860. The South was committed to an agrarian way of life.

It was a land where profitable and efficient plantations worked by slave labor produced cotton for the world market. It was also a land where a majority of its white population was made up of subsistence farmers who lived isolated lives on the edge of poverty and whose literacy rates were low compared with those in the more densely populated North. The South nevertheless was beginning to industrialize, a factor that added to the social tensions surfacing during the 1850s between the haves–plantation owners and professional groups in the few urban centers–and the have-nots–an increasingly restive yeoman or small-farmer group. But the issue of black servitude provided cohesion for the white bloc and contributed greatly to a patriarchal system wherein the masses of the whites still looked to a planter-professional elite for political and social guidance. Although the northern masses might also defer to the opinions of the powerful and living conditions among the urban poor were precarious, educational levels were far higher than in the South. The ethic of free capital and free labor was deeply ingrained in the cities and in farm communities as well. It was this ethic that formed the ideological basis for a broad antislavery movement.

Southern leaders were concerned over internal stresses in their society and were increasingly aware of the moral and social repugnance the slave system engendered not only in the North but also in Western Europe. Southern leadership, though surely not unified in its response to a political victory of antislavery forces in 1860, began as early as 1858 to prepare its section for separation from the Union. Even though the Republican platform of 1860 disavowed any move that would interfere with slavery where the custom and the law of a given state upheld it, many of the more extreme opinion makers in the South promoted the idea that a Republican victory meant eventual emancipation and social and political equality for their black population. So inflamed were the voters in South Carolina that before the election of Lincoln, they had chosen a convention that was committed to secession on news of a Republican victory. The situation of other states in the Deep South was more complicated. Elections were held promptly, but the results showed considerable division on secession. Three factions emerged: those for immediate secession, those who sought delay until the policy of the new administration toward the slave states became clear, and those who believed they could bargain with the new administration.

All these groups, however, were united in support of the doctrine of secession. With this idea as a basic commitment, the better organized immediate secessionists were able to prevail. The close connection between the right to revolution and separation from the governing power in the spirit of 1776 was an early theme in the provisional Confederacy. To be sure, the revolution was posited as a peaceful one. Separation from a Union perceived to be under the control of a tyrannical power that would destroy southern institutions was the objective. Confederate leaders at this early date thought that the North would not fight to preserve the Union. But the provisional government nevertheless began purchasing arms and munitions, and seceded states started to equip and train their militias. State and Confederate government authorities seized federal forts, arsenals, and other national property within their jurisdiction. When Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1861, federal troops held only Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, Fort Pickens off the Florida coast, and one or two other outposts in the South.

Concerned about the loyalty of the border states of Virginia, Maryland, Missouri, and Kentucky, the new administration went so far as to offer the slave states an amendment to the Constitution that would guarantee slavery where it legally existed. Lincoln himself in his inaugural address pledged only to hold federal property that was in the possession of the Union on March 4, 1861. The provisional Confederacy likewise sought vigorously to stimulate secession sentiment in the border states. Had all the border slave states thrown in their lot with one or the other government, there might not have been a war, or conversely, separation might well have become an accomplished fact. As it was, however, the prompt action of the Lincoln administration after the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter secured Maryland and Delaware for the Union. Kentucky proclaimed its neutrality but eventually remained loyal to the Union. Missouri, too, though a major battleground for the contending forces, contributed most of its resources in men and matériel to the Union. Once the war was joined, waves of patriotic sentiment swept over North and South. Vocal political opposition would exist on both sides, but it was never strong enough to overthrow either government.

Secession as revolution, an early theme in southern rhetoric, was not emphasized after the formation of the Confederacy. Rather, Jefferson’s compact theory was enshrined in its Constitution. A nation could not have been formed, nor a war fought, if the states were wholly independent of any central authority. Behind it all, of course, was the unity of a minority geographical section defending a distinct set of institutions that were thought to be under attack. The original federal Union that shared the exercise of power with the states strengthened the concept of secession. It also supplied a pretext for southern leaders to seize the initiative and form a separate nation. The Reader’s Companion to American History. Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, Editors. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Tags South Carolina First State To Secede From The Union - December 20, 1860 - YouTube South Carolina First State To Secede From The Union - December 20, 1860 Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded.

Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Dec 20, 2010 From: December 20, 2010 South Carolina First State To Secede From The Union - December 20, 1860 FAIR USE NOTICE: This video may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes only. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 106A-117 of the US Copyright Law. Category South Carolina Secession Part 2 | Video | C-SPAN.org Supreme Court December 4, 2010 South Carolina Secession, Part 2 A panel was held on the secession of South Carolina from the Union on December 20, 1860. South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union, shortly after the 1860 election of Abraham… read more South Carolina Secession, Part 2 A panel was held on the secession of South Carolina from the Union on December 20, 1860.

South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union, shortly after the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln. Ten more states would secede in 1861. After both panelists made their presentations they responded to questions from members of the audience. Kyle Sinisi moderated. Mark Neely spoke on “Secession as the De-Ratification of the Constitution.” William Freehling spoke on “Was Lincoln an Immediate Menace to Slavery?” “The Revolution of 1860” was the afternoon panel of the “A House Divided: Secession and Its Legacy Symposium” held at the Citadel’s Holliday Alumni Center by The South Carolina Historical Society, The Citadel, and The Fort Sumter-Fort Moultrie Historical Trust. close Transcript type Voices of Secession Voices of Secession During the Long Secession Winter, Southerners Contemplate Disunion By Nicholas A. Redding; Hallowed Ground Magazine, 2010 Cartoon pictures the race to secession. Published by Currier and Ives, 1861.

(Library of Congress) December 20, 1860: the fateful date on which Southern secession from the American republic left the realm of rhetoric and philosophy and entered the uncomfortable dominion of reality. Or, so the story is often written. However, the truth is that the fate of the entire South was not yet fully cast in December 1860 when South Carolina declared her independence; the rest of the Southern states still wrestled with the future of their place in a Southern confederacy. A tumultuous, riotous, raucous and eventful “secession winter” awaited, and the people of the South spoke with anything but one voice. Instead, the diverse and wide-ranging voices of secession present us with a complex and intriguing picture of the South on the eve of Civil War. On the extreme end of that perspective were the rabid and radical so-called fire-eaters, who demanded the immediate secession of all slaveholding states from the Union. Among this brand of radicals were many prolific writers, yet Edmund Ruffin left what some consider the “best” extremist viewpoint from this tumultuous era.

Born in the last decade of the 18th century in Virginia, Ruffin was an early and ardent supporter of secession, making emboldened pleas to defend Southern rights and the institution of slavery by “the strong hand against the Northern abolitionists” as early as 1845. Ruffin’s passion for secession and hatred of what he called the “Yankee race” was only emboldened by John Brown’s now infamous raid on Harpers Ferry , Virginia, in 1859. Following the raid and the subsequent hanging of Brown for treason, Ruffin—never missing an opportunity to publicize secession—sent several of Brown’s notorious pikes throughout the South with a label attached that read: “Sample of the favors designed for us by our Northern brethren.” “First Flag of Independence Raised in the South.” Savannah, Georgia claims this honor at a secession rally held in reaction to the election of Lincoln, November 8, 1860.

(Library of Congress) After years of tireless work advocating the secession of the Southern states, and after the experience of Brown’s raid, Ruffin was incredulous that his native Virginia did not immediately secede following the election of President Abraham Lincoln, stating that, If Virginia remains in the Union under the domination of this infamous, low, vulgar tyranny of Black Republicanism, and there is one other state in the Union that has bravely thrown off the yoke, I will seek my domicile in that state and abandon Virginia forever. Ultimately, Ruffin did leave his native state for South Carolina and was present to witness that state’s vote to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860. In the weeks and months to come, the majority of the Deep South followed the example of Ruffin and the state of South Carolina by casting their fate with the fledgling Confederacy. Yet their respective decisions to secede in the first few months of 1861 only made the plight of the Upper South (Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia) and the slaveholding border states (Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri) even more difficult.

A Prolific Pen Learn about Mary Chesnut's Diary » Mrs. Mary Boykin Chesnut , the prolific diarist of Charleston, S. C., chronicled the events that followed the secession of the Palmetto State. Chesnut wrote that during January 1861 the talk around the table could be condensed to a call for the Upper South to join the Deep South, or as she put it, “Now for Virginia!...Those who want a row are in high glee. Those who dread it are glum and thoughtful enough.” In reality though, the opinions of fire-eaters like Edmund Ruffin no more represented the feelings of most moderate Southerners, especially citizens of the Upper South, than a rabid abolitionist would have accurately represented the majority of Northerners on the eve of the conflict. While South Carolina’s secession drew the other cotton states of the Deep South into a southern confederacy, the decision was not as simple for much of the Upper South, which had developed strong economic ties with its northern brethren.

In Virginia, which straddled that economic divide, the prevailing sentiment held that some type of brokered compromise could quell the late unpleasantness — that, in fact, the Union should prevail. The future famed leader of the Army of Northern Virginia himself, Robert E. Lee, expressed this feeling in the strongest terms in a letter he wrote in January 1861, I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than a dissolution of the Union. It would be an accumulation of all the evils we complain of, and I am willing to sacrifice everything but honor for its preservation. I hope, therefore, that all constitutional means will be exhausted before there is a resort to force. Secession is nothing but revolution. Lee closed the letter with a portentous clarification, noting that, “If the Union is dissolved, and the Government disrupted, I shall return to my native State and share the miseries of my people, and save in defense will draw my sword on none.” No less than Lee’s future lieutenant, Thomas Jonathan Jackson, (who would later gain the moniker “Stonewall”) elucidated a similar moderate view of current events in a letter penned in February 1861.

While the Old Dominion prepared to send delegates to a peace conference in Washington, D.C., Jackson wrote, I am much gratified to see a strong Union feeling in my portion of the state ... For my own part I intend to vote for the Union candidate for the convention and I desire to see every honorable means used for peace, and I believe that Providence will bless such means with the fruits of peace. If Jackson’s calm hope for a peaceful mediation represented the moderate viewpoint, those Virginians living in the far western counties of the Commonwealth spoke for Southerners who believed in the preservation of the Union at all costs. In what would eventually become the breakaway bastion of Unionism known since as West Virginia, a pro-Union group in Tyler County explained its position and warned, “[If Virginia secedes from the Union] we are in favor of striking West Virginia from Eastern Virginia and forming a state independent of the south, and firm to the Union.” Texas Unionist. Sam Houston, who governed a deeply divided state, predicted a bloody conflict.

(Library of Congress) This rabid pro-Unionism was not unique to the western counties of the Virginia, as large portions of the rugged Appalachian hill country of eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina and northern Georgia were populated by fiercely independent and often pro-Union citizens. Beyond these geographic pockets of Union loyalty there also were outspoken Southern critics of the movement toward secession and war. No less than the irascible Sam Houston, then governor of Texas, could be counted among that group of strident Unionists. As Texas made the fateful decision to secede in February, Governor Houston ominously predicted, To secede from the Union and set up another government would cause war. If you go to war with the United States, you will never conquer her, as she has the money and the men. If she does not whip you by guns, powder, and steel, she will starve you to death. It will take the flower of the country—the young men. Rough Road to Secession Pseudo-Confederacy » As the Upper South confronted the cruel reality of secession in the winter of 1861, the slaveholding border states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri wrestled with the same dilemma.

As was certainly the case in Virginia and her sister states of the Upper South, there was no singular voice or approach to the issue, and divided loyalties were commonplace across the border between North and South. In Maryland, the dividing line surveyed by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in the 18th century, still cut a swath between slave state and free in 1860. To the north, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the peculiar institution had been outlawed, while neighboring Marylanders still retained the right to own human chattel. Thus, as the fall of 1860 faded into winter, Maryland wrestled with its identity. The Old Line State saw loyalties split largely along an east-west axis, with the rugged terrain of western Maryland predominantly loyal to the Union. Ultimately, Maryland was not quite northern, and not exactly southern, and as a result, straddled a dangerous divide in the weeks leading up to and following the secession of the Deep South. Maryland Governor Thomas Hicks struggled with his state's divided loyalties.

(Library of Congress, Harper's Weekly) Thomas Holliday Hicks, then governor of Maryland, may himself best personify the perplexing position of Maryland in late 1860 and early 1861. A native of Maryland’s eastern shore, Hicks was elected governor in 1857 as a member of the ultra-nativist “Know-Nothing” Party. Known for speaking of the South as “we,” in reference to his understanding of Maryland’s loyalty, he would ultimately hold on to power throughout the secession crisis. In doing so he held Maryland—through force and coercion—in the Union. However, prior to the secession of South Carolina, it was Hicks who noted to a member of the House of Delegates that, ...the rights of the south, guaranteed by the constitution, should be respected and enforced. If they are not, then in my judgment we shall be fully warranted in demanding a division of the country.

Union Above All Else Hear Lincoln's voice on the Secession » Yet, following the fateful decision of South Carolina to ‘demand a division,’ Hicks grappled with secession, asking, “Should I be compelled to witness the downfall of that Government inherited from our fathers, established, as it were, by the special favor of God?” Like his native state, and many other border states, Hicks found that an answer to that question would not come easily. From Delaware to Missouri, pro-Union and pro-secession factions battled, in some cases openly, for control of their respective states. Though Delaware remained firmly in the Union, and Maryland remained only after the considerable exertion of force, keeping Kentucky and Missouri within the Union proved exceedingly difficult. In Kentucky, many voices, including that of Gov. Beriah Magoffin openly called for neutrality— a position that pleased neither the Confederate nor Union governments. In Missouri, a state which also advocated a position of neutrality, only a force of arms truly kept the state from slipping into Confederate control, despite several futile attempts to declare the state “seceded” from the Union.

Ultimately, through force, coercion and cunning political skill the Lincoln administration held tight to its border states and their key strategic value as war slowly approached. The Problem in Charleston Harbor Read about Fort Sumter and the opening shots of the Civil War » Despite these efforts—and the calls for moderation throughout much of the Upper South—the high hopes for a brokered compromise vanished when, on April 12, 1861, at 4:30 a.m., Confederate batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, S.C. On April 15, in the wake of the fort’s surrender, President Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 troops “in order to suppress said combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed” and “to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government; and to redress wrongs already long enough endured.” In issuing this call, President Lincoln left the Upper South with few choices. Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia would not be compelled to take up arms against their sister states of the South.

On April 17, Virginia, the mother state of the Union, cast her fate with the Confederacy by passing an ordinance of secession. Following that vote, Virginia’s governor John Letcher dispatched a telegram to U.S. Secretary of War, Simon Cameron. In it he noted, “You have chosen to inaugurate civil war, and, having done so, we will meet it in a spirit as determined as the administration has exhibited toward the South.” 150th Anniversary The Gathering Storm » In the following months, Virginia would be joined by the rest of the Upper South, and the war would begin in earnest. The determined spirit of the South was a force to be reckoned with for the next four years of harrowing combat across the continent. From Manassas to Chickamauga to Appomattox, the South boldly defended the right of secession. Yet the same division that existed in 1860 over the basic principal of secession would never entirely heal—leaving the new nation to fight a war on two fronts: one against its Yankee foes and one to keep the home front united.

That two-front war may have begun on December 20, 1860, but it would take four more years, and the lives of 620,000 Americans to finally settle. About the Author A graduate of the George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War at Shepherd University, Nicholas Redding has served as an interpretive ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park. Since joining the staff of CWPT in 2007, he has worked in both the real estate and policy departments. In 2010 he was appointed to the Frederick County, Md., Historic Preservation Commission. South Carolina in The War Between the States - Timeline The War Between the States Timeline Abraham Lincoln, who declared "Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free..." is elected president. December 1860 - South Carolina Secedes On December 20, 1860 South Carolina formally seceded from the United States of America, laying the framework for the ten states (Missouri & Kentucky seceded but were immediately occupied by Federal forces) that would follow her in the next eleven months. January 1861--The South Secedes.

The secession of South Carolina was followed by the secession of six more states -- Mississippi (Jan. 9th), Florida (Jan. 10th), Alabama (Jan. 11th), Georgia (Jan. 19th), Louisiana (Jan. 26th), and Texas (Feb. 1st) -- and the threat of secession by four more -- Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. These eleven states eventually formed the Confederate States of America. January 29, 1861 -- Kansas admitted to the Union. February 1861 The South Creates a Government. At a convention in Montgomery, Alabama, the seven seceding states created The Confederate Constitution , similar to the United States Constitution, but with greater stress on the autonomy of each state. Jefferson Davis was named provisional president of the Confederacy until elections could be held. The South Seizes Federal Forts. When President Buchanan -- Lincoln's predecessor -- refused to surrender southern federal forts to the seceding states, southern state troops seized them. At Fort Sumter, South Carolina troops repulsed a supply ship trying to reach federal forces based in the fort. The ship was forced to return to New York, its supplies undelivered.

March 4, 1861-- Lincoln's Inauguration. At Lincoln's inauguration the new president said he had no plans to end slavery in those states where it already existed, but he also said he would not accept secession. He hoped to resolve the national crisis without warfare. April 1861 -- Attack on Fort Sumter, Four More States Join the Confederacy When President Lincoln planned to send supplies to Fort Sumter, he alerted the state in advance, in an attempt to avoid hostilities. South Carolina, however, suspected a ruse. On April 10, 1861, Brig. Gen. Beauregard, in command of the provisional Confederate forces at Charleston, South Carolina, demanded the surrender of the Union garrison of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. The Garrison commander Anderson refused. On April 12, Confederate batteries opened fire on the fort, which was unable to reply effectively. At 2:30 p.m., April 13, Major Anderson surrendered Fort Sumter, evacuating the garrison on the following day. The bombardment of Fort Sumter was the opening engagement of the American Civil War.

Although there were no casualties during the bombardment, one Union artillerist was killed and three wounded (one mortally) when a cannon exploded prematurely when firing a salute during the evacuation. From 1863 to 1865, the Confederates at Fort Sumter withstood a 22 month siege by Union forces. During this time, most of the fort was reduced to brick rubble. Fort Sumter became a national monument in 1948. April 17, 1861 -- Virginia Secedes from the Union. The attack on Fort Sumter prompted four more states to join the Confederacy. With Virginia's secession, Richmond was named the Confederate capitol. May 1861 May 6 -- Arkansas secedes from the Union. May 20 -- North Carolina secedes from the Union.

May-June 1861 - Blockade of the Chesapeake Bay Campaign May 18-19 -- Sewell's Point (Virginia) May 29-June 1, 1861 -- Aquia Creek (Virginia) June 1861 -- West Virginia Is Born, Four Slave States Stay in the Union Residents of the western counties of Virginia did not wish to secede along with the rest of the state. This section of Virginia was admitted into the Union as the state of West Virginia on June 20, 1863. Despite their acceptance of slavery, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri did not join the Confederacy. Although divided in their loyalties, a combination of political maneuvering and Union military pressure kept these states from seceding.

June 3, 1861 Philippi / Philippi Races (Western Virginia) June 10 -- Big Bethel / Bethel Church June 17 -- Boonville (Missouri) July 1861 -- First Battle of Manassas / Bull Run July 2 -- Hoke's Run / Falling Waters / Hainesville (Western Virginia) July 5 -- Carthage (Missouri) July 11 -- Rich Mountain (Western Virginia) July 18 1861 - Blackburn's Ford / Bull Run (Virginia) July 21, 1861 First Manassas / First Bull Run (Virginia) Public demand pushed General-in-Chief Winfield Scott to advance on the South before adequately training his untried troops. Scott ordered General Irvin McDowell to advance on Confederate troops stationed at Manassas Junction, Virginia. McDowell attacked on July 21, and was initially successful, but the introduction of Confederate reinforcements resulted in a Southern victory and a chaotic retreat toward Washington by federal troops.

Details of battle and battle map Union General Irvin McDowell Is Replaced Suddenly aware of the threat of a protracted war and the army's need for organization and training, Lincoln replaces McDowell with General George B. McClellan . July - November -- A Blockade of the South. To blockade the 3,500-mile coast of the Confederacy effectively, the federal navy had to be improved. By July, the effort at improvement had made a difference and an effective blockade had begun. The South responded by building small, fast ships that could outmaneuver Union vessels. August 1861 August 10, 1861 Wilson's Creek / Oak Hills (Missouri) August 20, 1861 -- The Union Army of the Potomac Created General George B. McClellan issues an order establishing the Army of the Potomac and begins to create much needed discipline and order among the Federal troops. (On his arrival in Washington on July 26th, McClellan, in observing the federal regiments and officers, later described what he saw as "chaos".) August 21, 1861 -- Confederate Command Assignments Brig.

General Roswell S. Ripley CS Army - Assigned to command of the Dept. of South Carolina Brig. General John B. Grayson, CS Army - Assigned to command of Dept. of Middle and East Florida August 26 --Kessler's Cross Lanes August 28-29, 1861 -- Hatteras Inlet Batteries / Fort Clark / Fort Hatteras (North Carolina) A small army-navy force secured a beachead at Hatteras Inlet on the narrow sandspit protecting Pamlico Sound, a haven for blockade runners.

September 1861 September 2 --Dry Wood Creek / Battle of the Mules (Missouri) September 10 -- Carnifex Ferry (Western Virginia) September 12-15 -- Cheat Mountain Summit (Western Virginia) September 13-20 -- Lexington / Battle of the Hemp Bales (Missouri) September 17 -- Liberty / Blue Mills Landing (Missouri) September 19 -- Barbourville (Kentucky) October 3 -- Greenbrier River / Camp Bartow (Western Virginia) October 9, 1861 -- Santa Rosa Island (Florida) October 21 -- Camp Wildcat / Wildcat Mountain (Kentucky) October 21 -- Fredericktown (Missouri) October 21 -- Ball's Bluff / Leesburg (Virginia) October 25 -- Springfield / Zagonyi's Charge (Missouri) October 29 -- The Sherman Expedition sails from the port of Hampton Roads, Virginia October 1861 - March 1862: The Potomac Blockade Confederate artillery batteries, built in haste and secrecy near present-day Quantico, VA, close off the Potomac River to Union ship traffic and force the

 Union Navy to direct all ship traffic out of Baltimore instead of Washington.

The Federal capital was effectively blockaded and forced to use the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad for supplies until March 1862 when Gen. Joe Johnston moves his Confederate troops to Fredericksburg. November 1861 November 7, 1861 -- Port Royal (South Carolina) The Union blockade of Southern ports intensifies when a fleet of Union ships carrying 15,000 men bombard the South Carolina coast. Flag Officer Samuel F. DuPont's warships silenced Confederate guns on Hilton Head Island, Fort Walker and Fort Beauregard. This victory enabled Union troops to occupy Port Royal, which became a secure base for the blockading fleet, and then to occupy all the famous Sea Islands of South Carolina. In the following months, the Northerners close off ports from Charleston to St. Augustine to all but the most daring blockade runners (remember Captain Rhett Butler in "Gone With The Wind"?). November 7, 1861 -- Belmont (Missouri) Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, in his first battle of the war, raids a Confederate encampment in Missouri on the Mississippi River at the Battle of Belmont.

When Confederate reinforcements arrive, Grant retreats and the battle is inconclusive. November 8 - Dec 27, 1861 -- The Trent Affair Southern diplomats John Slidell and James M. Mason, bound for Europe to secure diplomatic recognition for the Confederacy, are seized from British mail ship, the Trent by the U.S. Navy. In response to vehement British protest which nearly approached a declaration of war, Lincoln releases Slidell and Mason.

November 8-9 -- Ivy Mountain / Ivy Creek / Ivy Narrows (Kentucky) November 19 -- Round Mountain (Indian Territory) December 1861 December 9 -- Chusto-Talasah / Caving Banks (Indian Territory) December 13 -- Camp Allegheny / Allegheny Mountain (Western Virginia) December 20 -- Dranesville (Virginia) December 26 -- Chustenahlah (Indian Territory) December 17 -- Rowlett's Station / Woodsonville / Green River (Kentucky) December 28 -- Mount Zion Church (Missouri) TIMELINE: Facts, information and articles about Secession, one of the causes of the civil war Confederate Battle Flag: Symbol of Secession Secession summary: the secession of Southern States led to the establishment of the Confederacy and ultimately the Civil War. It was the most serious secession movement in the United States and was defeated when the Union armies defeated the Confederate armies in the Civil War, 1861-65. Causes Of Secession Before the Civil War, the country was dividing between North and South.

Issues included States Rights and disagreements over tariffs but the greatest divide was on the issue of slavery, which was legal in the South but had gradually been banned by states north of the Mason-Dixon line. As the US acquired new territories in the west, bitter debates erupted over whether or not slavery would be permitted in those territories. Southerners feared it was only a matter of time before the addition of new non-slaveholding states but no new slaveholding states would give control of the government to abolitionists, and the institution of slavery would be outlawed completely. They also resented the notion that a northern industrialist could establish factories, or any other business, in the new territories but agrarian Southern slaveowners could not move into territories where slavery was prohibited because their slaves would then be free . With the election in 1860 of Abraham Lincoln , who ran on a message of containing slavery to where it currently existed, and the success of the Republican Party to which he belonged – the first entirely regional party in US history – in that election, South Carolina seceded on December 20, 1860, the first state to ever officially secede from the United States.

Four months later, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana seceded as well. Later Virginia (except for its northwestern counties, which broke away and formed the Union-loyal state of West Virginia), Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee joined them. The people of the seceded states elected Jefferson Davis as president of the newly formed Southern Confederacy. Secession Leads To War The Civil War officially began with the Battle of Fort Sumter. Fort Sumter was a Union fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. After the U.S. Army troops inside the fort refused to vacate it, Confederate forces opened fire on the fort with cannons. It was surrendered without casualty (except for two US soldiers killed when their cannon exploded while firing a final salute to the flag) but led to the bloodiest war in the nation’s history. A Short History of Secession From Articles of Confederation to "A More Perfect Union." Many people, especially those wishing to support the South’s right to secede in 1860–61, have said that when 13 American colonies rebelled against Great Britain in 1776, it was an act of secession.

Others say the two situations were different and the colonies’ revolt was a revolution. The war resulting from that colonial revolt is known as the American Revolution or the American War for Independence. During that war, each of the rebelling colonies regarded itself as a sovereign nation that was cooperating with a dozen other sovereigns in a relationship of convenience to achieve shared goals, the most immediate being independence from Britain. On Nov. 15, 1777, the Continental Congress passed the Articles of Confederation—"Certain Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union"—to create "The United States of America." That document asserted that "Each State retains is sovereignty, freedom and independence" while entering into "a firm league of friendship with each other" for their common defense and to secure their liberties, as well as to provide for "their mutual and general welfare." Under the Articles of Confederation, the central government was weak, without even an executive to lead it. Its only political body was the Congress, which could not collect taxes or tariffs (it could ask states for "donations" for the common good). It did have the power to oversee foreign relations but could not create an army or navy to enforce foreign treaties.

Even this relatively weak governing document was not ratified by all the states until 1781. It is an old truism that "All politics are local," and never was that more true than during the early days of the United States. Having just seceded from what they saw as a despotic, powerful central government that was too distant from its citizens, Americans were skeptical about giving much power to any government other than that of their own states, where they could exercise more direct control. However, seeds of nationalism were also sown in the war: the war required a united effort, and many men who likely would have lived out their lives without venturing from their own state traveled to other states as part of the Continental Army. The weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation were obvious almost from the beginning. Foreign nations, ruled to varying degrees by monarchies, were inherently contemptuous of the American experiment of entrusting rule to the ordinary people. A government without an army or navy and little real power was, to them, simply a laughing stock and a plum ripe for picking whenever the opportunity arose.

Domestically, the lack of any uniform codes meant each state established its own form of government, a chaotic system marked at times by mob rule that burned courthouses and terrorized state and local officials. State laws were passed and almost immediately repealed; sometimes ex post facto laws made new codes retroactive. Collecting debts could be virtually impossible. George Washington, writing to John Jay in 1786, said, "We have, probably, had too good an opinion of human nature in forming our confederation." He underlined his words for emphasis. Jay himself felt the country had to become "one nation in every respect." Alexander Hamilton felt "the prospect of a number of petty states, with appearance only of union," was something "diminutive and contemptible." In May 1787, a Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia to address the shortcomings of the Articles of Confederation. Some Americans felt it was an aristocratic plot, but every state felt a need to do something to improve the situation, and smaller states felt a stronger central government could protect them against domination by the larger states.

What emerged was a new constitution "in order to provide a more perfect union." It established the three branches of the federal government—executive, legislative, and judicial—and provided for two houses within the legislature. That Constitution, though amended 27 times, has governed the United States of America ever since. It failed to clearly address two critical issues, however. It made no mention of the future of slavery. (The Northwest Ordinance, not the Constitution, prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territories, that area north of the Ohio River and along the upper Mississippi River.) It also did not include any provision for a procedure by which a state could withdraw from the Union, or by which the Union could be wholly dissolved. To have included such provisions would have been, as some have pointed out, to have written a suicide clause into the Constitution. But the issues of slavery and secession would take on towering importance in the decades to come, with no clear-cut guidance from the Founding Fathers for resolving them. First Calls for Secession Following ratification by 11 of the 13 states, the government began operation under the new U.S. Constitution in March 1789.

In less than 15 years, states of New England had already threatened to secede from the Union. The first time was a threat to leave if the Assumption Bill, which provided for the federal government to assume the debts of the various states, were not passed. The next threat was over the expense of the Louisiana Purchase. Then, in 1812, President James Madison, the man who had done more than any other individual to shape the Constitution, led the United States into a new war with Great Britain. The New England states objected, for war would cut into their trade with Britain and Europe. Resentment grew so strong that a convention was called at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1814, to discuss secession for the New England states. The Hartford Convention was the most serious secession threat up to that time, but its delegates took no action. Southerners had also discussed secession in the nation’s early years, concerned over talk of abolishing slavery. But when push came to shove in 1832, it was not over slavery but tariffs.

National tariffs were passed that protected Northern manufacturers but increased prices for manufactured goods purchased in the predominantly agricultural South, where the Tariff of 1828 was dubbed the "Tariff of Abominations." The legislature of South Carolina declared the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 were "unauthorized by the constitution of the United States" and voted them null, void and non-binding on the state. President Andrew Jackson responded with a Proclamation of Force, declaring, "I consider, then, the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one state, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed." (Emphasis is Jackson’s). Congress authorized Jackson to use military force if necessary to enforce the law (every Southern senator walked out in protest before the vote was taken). That proved unnecessary, as a compromise tariff was approved, and South Carolina rescinded its Nullification Ordinance. The Nullification Crisis, as the episode is known, was the most serious threat of disunion the young country had yet confronted.

It demonstrated both continuing beliefs in the primacy of states rights over those of the federal government (on the part of South Carolina and other Southern states) and a belief that the chief executive had a right and responsibility to suppress any attempts to give individual states the right to override federal law. The Abolition Movement, and Southern Secession Between the 1830s and 1860, a widening chasm developed between North and South over the issue of slavery, which had been abolished in all states north of the Mason-Dixon line. The Abolition Movement grew in power and prominence. The slave holding South increasingly felt its interests were threatened, particularly since slavery had been prohibited in much of the new territory that had been added west of the Mississippi River. The Missouri Compromise , the Dred Scott Decision case, the issue of Popular Sovereignty (allowing residents of a territory to vote on whether it would be slave or free), and John Brown ‘s Raid On Harpers Ferry all played a role in the intensifying debate. Whereas once Southerners had talked of an emancipation process that would gradually end slavery, they increasingly took a hard line in favor of perpetuating it forever.

In 1850, the Nashville Convention met from June 3 to June 12 "to devise and adopt some mode of resistance to northern aggression." While the delegates approved 28 resolutions affirming the South’s constitutional rights within the new western territories and similar issues, they essentially adopted a wait-and-see attitude before taking any drastic action. Compromise measures at the federal level diminished interest in a second Nashville Convention, but a much smaller one was held in November. It approved measures that affirmed the right of secession but rejected any unified secession among Southern states. During the brief presidency of Zachary Taylor, 1849-50, he was approached by pro-secession ambassadors. Taylor flew into a rage and declared he would raise an army, put himself at its head and force any state that attempted secession back into the Union. The potato famine that struck Ireland and Germany in the 1840s–1850s sent waves of hungry immigrants to America’s shores. More of them settled in the North than in the South, where the existence of slavery depressed wages. These newcomers had sought refuge in the United States, not in New York or Virginia or Louisiana. To most of them, the U.S.

was a single entity, not a collection of sovereign nations, and arguments in favor of secession failed to move them, for the most part. The Election Of Abraham Lincoln And Nullification The U.S. elections of 1860 saw the new Republican Party, a sectional party with very little support in the South, win many seats in Congress. Its candidate, Abraham Lincoln , won the presidency. Republicans opposed the expansion of slavery into the territories, and many party members were abolitionists who wanted to see the "peculiar institution" ended everywhere in the United States. South Carolina again decided it was time to nullify its agreement with the other states. On Dec. 20, 1860, the Palmetto State approved an Ordinance of Secession, followed by a declaration of the causes leading to its decision and another document that concluded with an invitation to form "a Confederacy of Slaveholding States." The South Begins To Secede South Carolina didn’t intend to go it alone, as it had in the Nullification Crisis. It sent ambassadors to other Southern states. Soon, six more states of the Deep South—Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana—renounced their compact with the United States.

After Confederate artillery fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, on April 12, 1861, Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion. This led four more states— Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee—to secede; they refused to take up arms against their Southern brothers and maintained Lincoln had exceeded his constitutional powers by not waiting for approval of Congress (as Jackson had done in the Nullification Crisis) before declaring war on the South. The legislature of Tennessee, the last state to leave the Union, waived any opinion as to "the abstract doctrine of secession," but asserted "the right, as a free and independent people, to alter, reform or abolish our form of government, in such manner as we think proper." In addition to those states that seceded, other areas of the country threatened to. The southern portions of Northern states bordering the Ohio River held pro-Southern, pro-slavery sentiments, and there was talk within those regions of seceding and casting their lot with the South. A portion of Virginia did secede from the Old Dominion and formed the Union-loyal state of West Virginia.

Its creation and admittance to the Union raised many constitutional questions—Lincoln’s cabinet split 50–50 on the legality and expediency of admitting the new state. But Lincoln wrote, “It is said that the admission of West-Virginia is secession, and tolerated only because it is our secession. Well, if we call it by that name, there is still difference enough between secession against the constitution, and secession in favor of the constitution.” The Civil War: The End Of The Secession Movement Four bloody years of war ended what has been the most significant attempt by states to secede from the Union. While the South was forced to abandon its dreams of a new Southern Confederacy, many of its people have never accepted the idea that secession was a violation of the U.S.

Constitution, basing their arguments primarily on Article X of that constitution: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Ongoing Calls For Secession & The Eternal Question: "Can A State Legally Secede?" The ongoing debate continues over the question that has been asked since the forming of the United States itself: "Can a state secede from the Union of the United States?" Whether it is legal for a state to secede from the United States is a question that was fiercely debated before the Civil War (see the article below), and even now, that debate continues. From time to time, new calls have arisen for one state or another to secede, in reaction to political and/or social changes, and organizations such as the League of the South openly support secession and the formation of a new Southern republic. The Union Is Dissolved!, 1860 | The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History The Union Is Dissolved!, 1860 A primary source by The Charleston Mercury View this item in the Collection.

The election of Abraham Lincoln as the sixteenth president of the United States in November 1860 led to the eventual secession of eleven slave-holding states and the formation of the Confederacy. Convinced that the federal government would initiate judicial and legal action against slavery, South Carolina became the first state to secede. Printed in Charleston, South Carolina, on December 20, 1860, this broadside announces South Carolina’s repeal of the Constitution of the United States and the state’s secession from the Union. “The Union Is Dissolved!” it declares. The Constitution of the new Confederacy would sanction the unrestricted right to hold slaves. A full transcript is available. Transcript Passed unanimously at 1.15 o’clock, P.M., December 20th, 1860.

AN ORDINANCE To dissolve the Union between the State of South Carolina and other States united with her under the compact entitled ”The Constitution of the United States of America.” We, the People of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, That the Ordinance adopted by us in Convention, on the twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and also, all Acts and parts of Acts of the General Assembly of this State, ratifying amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of “The United States of America,” is hereby dissolved. THE DISSOLVED! Questions for Discussion You are seeing this page because you are not currently logged into our website. If you would like to access this page and you are not logged in, please login or register for a gilderlehrman.org account, and then visit the link that brought you to this notice. Thanks! Make Gilder Lehrman your Home for History Already have an account? Please click here to login and access this page.

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Make Gilder Lehrman your Home for History Upgrade your Account We're sorry, but it looks as though you do not have access to the full Gilder Lehrman site. All K-12 educators receive free subscriptions to the Gilder Lehrman site, and our Affiliate School members gain even more benefits! How to Subscribe K-12 educator or student? Click here to edit your profile and indicate this, giving you free access, and here for more information on the Affiliate School Program . Not a educator or student? Click here for more information on purchasing a subscription to the Gilder Lehrman site. The South Secedes [ushistory.org] 32e. The South Secedes Crowds gathered in front of the Capitol building in Montgomery, Alabama, the day that the secession bill was passed. The force of events moved very quickly upon the election of Lincoln. South Carolina acted first, calling for a convention to secede from the Union. State by state, conventions were held, and the Confederacy was formed. Within three months of Lincoln's election, seven states had seceded from the Union.

Just as Springfield, Illinois celebrated the election of its favorite son to the Presidency on November 7, so did Charleston, South Carolina, which did not cast a single vote for him. It knew that the election meant the formation of a new nation. The Charleston Mercury said, "The tea has been thrown overboard, the revolution of 1860 has been initiated." South Carolina Ordinance of Secession We, the people of the State of South Carolina, in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, That the ordinance adopted by us in convention on the twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and also all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly of this State ratifying amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the "United States of America," is hereby dissolved. Done at Charleston the twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty.

This map shows the states that seceded from the Union before the fall of Fort Sumter, those that seceded afterwards, the slave states that did not secede, and the Union states. Within a few days, the two United States Senators from South Carolina submitted their resignations. On December 20, 1860, by a vote of 169-0, the South Carolina legislature enacted an "ordinance" that "the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of 'The United States of America,' is hereby dissolved." As Grist had hoped, South Carolina's action resulted in conventions in other southern states. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas all left the Union by February 1. On February 4, delegates from all these states except Texas met in Montgomery, Alabama, to create and staff a government called the Confederate States of America. They elected President Jefferson Davis. The gauntlet was thrown. How would the North respond? Senator Crittenden's two sons went on to serve as generals on opposite sides of the Civil War. A few last ditch efforts were made to end the crisis through Constitutional amendment .

Senator James Henry Crittenden proposed to amend the Constitution to extend the old 36°30' line to the Pacific. All territory North of the line would be forever free, and all territory south of the line would receive federal protection for slavery. Republicans refused to support this measure. On March 2, 1861, two days before Lincoln's inauguration, the 36th Congress passed the Corwin Amendment and submitted it to the states for ratification as an amendment to the Constitution. Senator William H. Seward of New York introduced the amendment in the Senate and Representative Thomas Corwin of Ohio introduced it in the House of Representatives.

The text of the proposed amendment is as follows: "No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State." Note that, much like the rest of the language in the Constitution prior to the Civil War, the proposed amendment never uses the word "slavery," instead employing the euphemisms "domestic institutions" and "persons held to labor or service." The proposed amendment was designed to reassure the seceding slave states that the federal government would not interfere with their "peculiar institution." If it had passed, it would have rendered unconstitutional any subsequent amendments restricting slavery, such as the 13th Amendment , which outlawed slavery throughout the nation. The Corwin Amendment passed the state legislatures in Ohio, Kentucky, Rhode Island and Maryland. Even Lincoln's own state of Illinois passed it, though the lawmakers who voted for it in Illinois were not actually the elected legislators but were delegates to a state constitutional convention.

Lincoln supported the Amendment, specifically mentioning it in his first inaugural address : "I understand a proposed amendment to the Constitution — which amendment, however, I have not seen — has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service ... holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable. " The amendment failed to get the required approval of 3/4 of all state legislatures for a Constitutional Amendment, largely because many of the southern slave states had already seceded and did not vote on it. What was the President doing during all this furor? Abraham Lincoln would not be inaugurated until March 4. James Buchanan presided over the exodus from the Union. Although he thought secession to be illegal, he found using the army in this case to be unconstitutional. Both regions awaited the arrival of President Lincoln and wondered anxiously what he would do.

Question: December 20, 1860 saw which state secede from the Union, the first of 11?
Answer: South Carolina