Confederate States of America

Montgomery, Alabama was the capital of the Confederate States of America from February 4 until May 29, 1861. The confederate capital moved to Richmond, Virginia in May 1861. The Confederate government moved to Danville, Virginia in 1865 as Richmond fell to the Federal army.

Taking up arms against the USA was treason.

But the Confederates claimed that the original USA had been a voluntary association of states, which could always quit if they wanted.

If that reasoning was valid, then the Confederacy was a legitimate new nation, and Congress would have to declare war on it, to try and bring it back into the USA.

The Confederate states were Texas, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas and Virgina made up the Confederate States of America.

After the south succeeded and the fort stayed in Union control in confederate territory there was a demand to surrender the fort by the confederacy. When they refused to surrender, a battle broke out, and the Civil war started.

In addition, the fort was in the middle of the major shipping lanes in and out of Charleston, SC. While under Union control, Charleston was essentially cut off from all sea routes, inhibiting the South's trade in a major sea port.

The first name of what would become the Army of Northern Virginia was the Confederate Army of the Potomac. That was in 1861. As early 1862 came about the name was changed to the Army of Northern Virginia.

The Union had more states.

That was the essence of the big debate - Northern dominance of Congress, and freedom to raise taxes on imports that the South needed more than the North.

Here are the first six states that seceded from the Union, in order of secession:

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

I SALUTE THE CONFEDERATE FLAG WITH AFFECTION, REVERENCE AND

UNDYING DEVOTION TO THE CAUSE FOR WHICH IT STANDS.

Hats are removed, and the right hand is held toward the flag palm up in salute.

On February 17, 1864, the Confederate Conscription Act was passed in order to raise more troops for the Southern armies. The ages of conscripts was expanded to allow for able bodied men between ages 17 to 50. The act also sought to give the central government in Richmond more powers in drafting new soldiers that previously had been left to the individual states.

The South placed the blame of the US Civil War on the North for a few reasons:

A. The South declared their independence and the North refused to recognize this; and

B. The South, seeing themselves as an independent nation, wanted all Union military forts evacuated. The Confederates considered Union military forces in their nation to be an act of war.

to hep them govern through the war

Most went back home to their impoverished families, struggled to survive Reconstruction and became good citizens. Many moved west to escape the drastic social changes of reconstruction while a few remained disgruntled and turned to crime. Perhaps the most notorious of those was Jesse James. He and his brother Frank joined forces with Cole Younger and his brothers to form a gang that was known as the James-Younger Gang. They traveled throughout much of the Midwest robbing banks and trains.

On Christmas Day 1868, President Johnson granted an unconditional pardon to all Confederates except high-ranking military and civil officials. In May 1872 the Congressional Amnesty Act gave the right to hold office again to almost all Southern leaders who had been excluded from public office by the 14th Amendment.

When the South separated or seceded from the Union, they attempted to make their own country and they named it "The Confederate states of America."-later in the Civil War to be known as the Confederates or Confederacy. The president of the US at the time, Abraham Lincoln, did not want to accept that the Union was dividing so he called this separation from the Union illegal rebellion against the government. The Confederates were often referred to as the insurgents.

One main strategy was to defend on their land which they had great advantage of know the terrain and also to keep repeling the US to tire them up and give the CSA independence recongition. Another to persuade European countries to side with the CSA and defeat the US esp UK and France.

Both the North and the South passed conscription laws. The laws were subject to revisions at various times during the war. The South created a draft in the Spring of 1862. In the North, draft laws took effect in March of 1863.In the South, state governors created various exceptions. One way to dodge the Confederate draft was to own at least 20 slaves.

In the North, one could escape being drafted by either finding another man to take one's place or to give the US Treasury $300. This increased as dodging the draft developed into a "black market".

Ordinary citizens on both sides of the war believed the draft laws were either illegal or simply unfair. The largest riot in US history took place in New York City when the draft recruiters came to the city to draw names via lottery. Three plus days of unchecked rioting took place. The mobs mainly were anti -Black immigrants.

Since neither the state or the city could control the mobs, Lincoln was forced to send 20,000 troops fresh from Gettysburg to use force and howitzers to end the riots. In the early stages of the draft in the North, $15 million was collected by the US Treasury from men who paid the $300 to avoid conscription.

Sam Houston was the governor of Texas when that state seceded February 1, 1861. Houston would not take the oath of allegiance to the Confederate States of America or to the new Texas government so the legislature replaced him with Ed Clark who was a staunch secessionist.

The South experienced minor rioting due to food shortages and the North had riots because of the North's 1863 conscription laws.

No one was killed in the Southern riots but in New York City in July of 1863, the riots were deadly. Mobs of rioters lynched Freed Blacks and burned down buildings. It was the largest civil insurrection in US history. As an example of how deadly the riots were, President Lincoln had to send 20,000 troops from Gettysburg with howitzers to end the riots.

North Carolina, with 125,000. There were also more dead North Carolina Confederates than from any other state (40,000) and more deserters.

Most people think Virginia, because Virginia was the most populous Confederate state, and because Virginians wrote so much of Confederate history, and liked to leave that impression. Virginia was second on the lists of total number of soldiers provided, and the number who died.

Southern Advantages: - were fighting on home turf - the "common man" new how to fight better - better generals - men knew how to ride horses and fire guns (this really didn't end up helping them much during the war due to the new guns coming out)

As the United States expanded westward, the South's political and economic leaders realized that in due time, more states most likely would be added to the US and soon the South would have less members of the US Congress than new states that would not be slave holding states. Although the US Supreme Court in 1857, assured the South via the Dred Scott case, that slavery was legal and constitutional, it realized that its political power in the US was being marginalized.With the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln, this added to the South's thinking that whatever Lincoln said to assure the South that he would not interfere with slavery where it existed, they did not trust him.

The President of the US, then and now wields a great amount of power. To avoid becoming a "victim" and to ensure its way of life, Southern leaders believed that secession was the way to avoid interference from the North.

The south tried to fight a defensive strategy for most of the war (due to the fact that they were succeeding and Lincoln knew he had to use force to get the south back on to the union again). But general Lee thought if he could make it to D.C. he could make Lincoln sue for peace. Lee drove an army through the northern states until the faithful battle of Gettysburg which had tremendous southern casualties which caused Lee to retreat to the south. Lincoln knew lee was weak so he ordered the union army to send the army on a full frontal assault on the south. Which caused Lee to fight defensive strategy like he did in the begging of the war.