WAR OF SECESSION 



6146 



WAR OF SECESSION 



seceded. The table below shows the rapid 

 progress of the movement. 



When the Charleston convention adjourned 

 it was voted that the same delegates and those 

 from such other states as should join South 

 Carolina should meet on February 4, 1861, at 

 Montgomery, Alabama. In that city, on Feb- 

 ruary 18, the government of the Confederate 

 States of America was organized, with Jefferson 

 Davis as President and Alexander H. Stephens 

 as Vice-President. The new President had 

 been a United States Senator from Mississippi 

 until his state joined the Confederacy. Ste- 

 phens believed a state possessed the right to 

 secede, but he advised against it. However, 

 when his state, Georgia, left the Union, he re- 



signed his seat in the national Congrcs> and 

 went with it. The Confederate Cabinet was 

 filled by appointment of the following men, not 

 all of whom served through the four years of 

 its existence: 



Secretary of State, Robert Toombs. 

 Secretary of Treasury, C. G. Memminger. 

 Secretary of War, L. Pope Walker. 

 Secretary of Navy, Stephen R. Mallory. 

 Attorney-General, Judah P. Benjamin. 

 Postmaster-General, John H. Reagan. 



The capital was located at Richmond, Vir- 

 ginia. The Confederate Congress, at the height 

 of its power, numbered twenty-six Senators, 

 including two each for a short time from Mis- 

 souri and Kentucky, and 106 Representatives. 

 There were four sessions of the Provisional 

 Congress, the first assembling on February 4 

 and the last on November 18, 1861. The per- 

 manent Congress held two sessions. The first 

 assembly was on February 18, 1862; it held four 

 sessions and adjourned on the same date, in 

 1864; the second met May 2, 1864, and held 

 two sessions, concluding its work on March 18, 

 1865. 



The following record of events of the win- 

 includes mention of the major operations and 

 leaves to special articles (see Related Subjects 

 at end) the story in its more minute details. 



Progress of the War 



Status of Government Property. The seced- 

 ing states at once took possession of govern- 

 ment property within their borders and sent a 

 commission to the United States government to 

 arrange suitable terms of payment. The South 

 declared it possessed an interest in all govern- 

 ment property, North and South, and proposed 

 settlement for what lay within its borders on a 

 proper exchange basis. President Lincoln 

 would not thus treat with the commissioners; 

 he based his refusal upon the ground that states 

 could not secede, and he proceeded to send 

 supplies to the support of the small garrison in 

 Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor. By order 

 of the South Carolina legislature the Federal 

 vessel was fired upon and forced to retire. The 

 legislature further declared that any other at- 

 tempt to reenforce the garrison would be con- 

 sidered an act of war. Lincoln dispatched a 

 fleet to Charleston with orders to reach the 

 fort, peaceably if possible, but forcibly, if pas- 

 sage was disputed. The fort was fired upon be- 

 fore the arrival of the fleet, and Major Ander- 

 son retired with the honors of war. 



The Massing of Armies. The combat ap- 

 peared unequal at the start. The resources of 

 the North were infinitely greater than those of 

 the South. In the South there were about one- 

 fourth as many white men as there were in the 

 North; the wealth of the two sections showed 

 even greater disproportion. The South pre- 

 pared for serious warfare to maintain its new 

 Confederacy; Lincoln called for 75,000 troops 

 to quell insurrection, and when it was discov- 

 ered that the seceding states possessed strength 

 to resist, Congress called for 500,000 enlistments 

 "for three years, or for the duration of the 

 war." 



The War in 1861. The Federal authorities 

 prepared at once to occupy the states nearest 

 to the Confederacy the "border states" to 

 prevent them from joining the secession move- 

 ment. They also planned to capture Richmond 

 and to blockade the Southern coast, that the 

 Confederacy might be deprived of aid from 

 Europe, in the form of supplies. The first 

 serious engagement was on July 21, in which 

 the Confederates defeated the Union forces at 



