Confederate States of America
| Confederate States of America | |||||
| Unrecognized state[1][2] | |||||
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| Motto Deo Vindice (Latin) "God Will Vindicate"[3] |
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Anthem
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| Capital |
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| Language(s) | English (de facto) | ||||
| Government | Confederal Republic | ||||
| President | |||||
| - 1861–1865 | Jefferson Davis | ||||
| Vice President | |||||
| - 1861–1865 | Alexander Stephens | ||||
| Legislature | Congress | ||||
| - Upper house | Senate | ||||
| - Lower house | House of Representatives | ||||
| Historical era | American Civil War | ||||
| - Confederacy formed | February 4, 1861 | ||||
| - Constitution created | March 11, 1861 | ||||
| - Battle of Fort Sumter | April 12, 1861 | ||||
| - Siege of Vicksburg | May 18, 1863 | ||||
| - Military collapse | April 9, 1865 | ||||
| - Confederacy dissolved | May 5, 1865 | ||||
| Area | |||||
| - 18601 | 1,995,392 km2 (770,425 sq mi) | ||||
| Population | |||||
| - 18601 est. | 9,103,332 | ||||
| Density | 4.6 /km2 (11.8 /sq mi) | ||||
| - slaves2 est. | 3,521,110 | ||||
| Currency | |||||
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The Confederate States of America (also called the Confederacy, the Confederate States, C.S.A. and The South) was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by eleven Southern slave states that had declared their secession from the United States. Secessionists argued that the United States Constitution was a compact among states, an agreement which each state could abandon without consultation. The U.S. government (The Union) rejected secession as illegal. Following a Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter, a federal fort in the Confederate state of South Carolina, the U.S. used military action to defeat the Confederacy. No foreign nation officially recognized the Confederate States of America as an independent country,[1] but several did grant belligerent status.
The Confederate Constitution of seven state signatories — South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas — formed a "permanent federal government" in Montgomery, Alabama. In response to a call by Lincoln for troops from each state to recapture Sumter and other lost federal properties in the South, four additional slave-holding states — Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina — declared their secession and joined the Confederacy. Missouri and Kentucky were represented by partisan factions from those states. Also aligned with the Confederacy were the Five Civilized Tribes and a new Confederate Territory of Arizona. Efforts to secede in Maryland were halted by martial law, while Delaware, though of divided loyalty, did not attempt it. West Virginia separated from the Confederate state of Virginia in 1863 and aligned with the Union. The Confederate government in Richmond, Virginia had an uneasy relationship with its member states because of issues related to control of manpower, although the South mobilized nearly its entire white male population for war.[4]
Confederate control over its claimed territory and population steadily shrank from 73% to 34% during the course of the American Civil War due to successful Union overland campaigns, their control of inland waterways into the South, and the seacoast Union blockade. These created an insurmountable disadvantage in men, supplies and finance. Public support of the Jefferson Davis administration eroded over time with repeated military reverses, economic hardship, and charges of autocratic government. Richmond fell after four years of Union campaigns in April 1865, Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant, and the Confederacy effectively collapsed.
The U.S. Congress began a decade-long process known as Reconstruction which some scholars treat as an extension of the Civil War. It lasted through the administrations of Lincoln, Andrew Johnson and Grant, and saw the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment to free slaves, the Fourteenth to guarantee dual U.S. and state citizenship to all, and the Fifteenth to guarantee the right to vote in states. The war left the South economically devastated by military action, ruined infrastructure and exhausted resources. The region remained well below national levels of prosperity until after World War II.[5]
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[edit] History
The Confederacy was formed and a civil war followed its establishment. A sufficient number of whites had considered themselves more Southern than American and would fight for their state and their section to be apart from the larger nation. That sectionalism became Southern nationalism, the "Cause". For the duration of its existence, the Confederacy underwent trial by war.[6] The Southern Cause transcended ideology of "states rights" concerning tariff policy or internal improvements to include lifestyle, values, and belief system. Its “way of life” became sacred to its adherents. Everything of the South became a moral question, commingling love of things Southern and hate of things Yankee. Not only did national political parties split, but national churches and interstate families also divided along sectional lines as the war approached.[7]
In no states were the whites unanimous. There were minority views everywhere and the upland plateau regions in every state had strongholds of Unionist support, especially western Virginia and eastern Tennessee. Leaving aside Texas which at the time had five percent of the population, south of the Mason–Dixon Line voter support for the three pro-Union candidates in 1860 ranged from 37% in Florida to 71% in Missouri.[8] It was an American tragedy, The Brother's War according to some scholars, "brother against brother, father against son, kith against kin of every degree".[9]
Nevertheless, historians argue that several thousand large-scale planters formed a landed "aristocracy". They believed in a landed aristocratic ideal and they acted on their belief.[10] The Confederacy had a much larger middle class of whites of small planters, farmers, merchants and artisans, which held to a “persistent folk culture in the Old South”. Otherwise as the historian Emory Thomas notes, there would have been Confederate armies of planter generals with no soldiers.[11]
[edit] A Revolution in disunion
The Confederate States of America was created by secessionists in Southern slave states who refused to remain in a nation that they believed was turning them into second class citizens. The agent of the change was seen as abolitionists and anti-slavery elements in the Republican Party who used repeated insult and injury to subject them to intolerable "humiliation and degradation".[12] The "Black Republicans" and their allies now threatened a majority in the United States House, Senate and Presidency, and on the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney was 83 and ailing.
Secessionist leaders, mostly in the Southern faction of the Democratic Party, settled on an answer to these attacks in the 1850s, repeatedly threatening secession. Whenever they did so on the floor of the House of Representatives, northerners in turn took up the habit of loudly singing "Goodbye John" to drown them out. On the other hand, southern interests in the United States had been protected institutionally by doughface presidents and congressmen, northern politicians with southern principles and patronage. The Supreme Court had been led by slaveholders, and its rulings had been favorable to its perpetuation.
Nevertheless, during the campaign for president in 1860, some secessionists threatened disunion at Lincoln’s election, most notably by William L. Yancey touring the north as Stephen A. Douglas toured the South calling for Union if Lincoln were elected.[13] But to Secessionists, the Republican intent was clear. A Lincoln victory forced them to a formidable choice even before his inauguration, "The Union without slavery, or slavery without the Union."[14]
Of course, Constitutionally, Lincoln as president would have little direct power over the South except for the appointment of local postmasters. But Secessionists warned that Republican postmasters would resume allowing the mail to carry newspapers or pamphlets advocating abolition. They pointed out so had John Brown, who had tried to foster widespread slave insurrection. And southerners feared what powers Lincoln might unconstitutionally seize.[13] While disunionist arguments emphasized states rights and warned against abuses from a strong national government, these themes came to haunt the wartime Confederacy.
[edit] Causes of secession
Historian Emory Thomas reconstructed the Confederacy's self image by studying the correspondence sent by the Confederate government in 1861–62 to foreign governments. He found that the C.S.A. had multiple self images:
The Southern nation was by turns a guileless people attacked by a voracious neighbor, an 'established' nation in some temporary difficulty, a collection of bucolic aristocrats making a romantic stand against the banalities of industrial democracy, a cabal of commercial farmers seeking to make a pawn of King Cotton, an apotheosis of nineteenth-century nationalism and revolutionary liberalism, or the ultimate statement of social and economic reaction."[15]
By 1860, sectional disagreements between North and South revolved primarily around the maintenance or expansion of slavery. Historian Drew Gilpin Faust observed that "leaders of the secession movement across the South cited slavery as the most compelling reason for southern independence."[16] Although this may seem strange, given that the majority of white Southerners did not own slaves, virtually every single white Southerner supported slavery because they did not want to be at the bottom of the social ladder.[17] Related and intertwined secondary issues also fueled the dispute; these secondary differences included issues of free speech, runaway slaves, expansion into Cuba, and states' rights. The immediate spark for secession came from the victory of the Republican Party and the election of Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 elections. Civil War historian James M. McPherson wrote:
To southerners the election’s most ominous feature was the magnitude of Republican victory north of the 41st parallel. Lincoln won more than 60 percent of the vote in that region, losing scarcely two dozen counties. Three-quarters of the Republican congressmen and senators in the next Congress would represent this "Yankee" and antislavery portion of the free states. The New Orleans Crescent saw these facts as "full of portentous significance". "The idle canvas prattle about Northern conservatism may now be dismissed," agreed the Richmond Examiner. "A party founded on the single sentiment... of hatred of African slavery, is now the controlling power." No one could any longer "be deluded... that the Black Republican party is a moderate" party, pronounced the New Orleans Delta. "It is in fact, essentially, a revolutionary party."[18]
In what later became known as the Cornerstone Speech, C.S. Vice President Alexander Stephens declared that the "cornerstone" of the new government "rest[ed] 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 normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth".[19] In later years, however, Stephens made efforts to qualify his remarks, claiming they were extemporaneous, metaphorical, and never meant to literally reflect "the principles of the new Government on this subject."[20][21]
Four of the seceding states, the Deep South states of South Carolina,[22] Mississippi,[23] Georgia,[24] and Texas,[25] issued formal declarations of causes, each of which identified the threat to slaveholders’ rights as the cause of, or a major cause of, secession. Georgia also claimed a general Federal policy of favoring Northern over Southern economic interests. Texas mentioned slavery 21 times, but also listed the failure of the federal government to live up to its obligations, in the original annexation agreement, to protect settlers along the exposed western frontier.
Texas further stated:
We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable.
And again:
That in this free government all white men are and of right ought to be entitled to equal civil and political rights [emphasis in the original]; that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations; while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring inevitable calamities upon both and desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding states.[25]
[edit] Secessionists and conventions
The Fire-Eaters, calling for immediate secession, were opposed by two elements. "Cooperationists" in the Deep South would delay secession until several states went together, maybe in a Southern Convention. Under the influence of men such as Texas Governor Sam Houston, delay had the effect of sustaining the Union.[26] "Unionists", especially in the Border South, often former Whigs, appealed to sentimental attachment to the United States. Their favorite was John Bell of Tennessee.
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Secessionists were active politically. Governor William Henry Gist of South Carolina corresponded secretly with other Deep South governors, and most governors exchanged clandestine commissioners.[27] Charleston’s 1860 Association published over 200,000 pamphlets to persuade the youth of the South. The top three were South Carolina’s John Townsend’s “The Doom of Slavery”, “The South Alone Should Govern the South”, and James D.B. De Bow’s “The Interest of Slavery of the Southern Non-slaveholder.[28]
Developments in South Carolina started a chain of events. The foreman of a jury refused the legitimacy of federal courts, so Federal Judge Andrew Magrath ruled that U.S. judicial authority in South Carolina was vacated. A mass meeting in Charleston celebrating the Charleston and Savannah railroad and state cooperation led to the South Carolina legislature to call for a Secession Convention. U.S. Senator James Chesnut, Jr. resigned, and U.S. Senator James Henry Hammond followed.[29]
Elections for Secessionist conventions were heated to “an almost raving pitch, no one dared dissent” Even once respected voices, including the Chief Justice of South Carolina, John Belton O’Neall, lost election to the Secession Convention on a Cooperationist ticket. Across the South mobs lynched Yankees and (in Texas) Germans suspected of loyalty to the United States.[30] Generally, seceding conventions which followed did not call for a referendum to ratify, although Texas, Arkansas, and Tennessee did, also Virginia’s second convention. Missouri and Kentucky declared neutrality.
[edit] Inauguration and response
The first secession state conventions from the Deep South sent representatives to meet at the Montgomery Convention in Montgomery, Alabama on February 4, 1861. There the fundamental documents of government were promulgated, a provisional government was established, and a representative Congress met for the Confederate States of America.[31]
The new Confederate President Jefferson Davis, a former "Cooperationist" who had insisted on delaying secession until a united South could move together, issued a call for 100,000 states' militia to defend the newborn nation.[31] Previously John B. Floyd, U.S. Secretary of War under President James Buchanan, had moved arms south out of northern U.S. armories. To economize War Department expenditures, Floyd and Congressional elements persuaded Buchanan not to put the armaments for southern forts into place. These were now appropriated to the Confederacy along with bullion and coining dies at the U.S. mints in Charlotte, North Carolina; Dahlonega, Georgia; and New Orleans.[31]
In his first Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln tried to contain the expansion of the Confederacy. To quiet the rising calls for session in additional slave-holding states, he assured the Border States that slavery would be preserved in the states where it existed, and he entertained a proposed Thirteenth "Corwin Amendment" under consideration to explicitly protect slavery in the Constitution.[32]
The newly inaugurated Confederate Administration pursued a policy of national territorial integrity, continuing earlier state efforts in 1860 and early 1861 to remove U.S. government presence from within their boundaries. These efforts included taking possession of U.S. courts, custom houses, post offices, and most notably, arsenals and forts. But at the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, Lincoln called up 75,000 of the states’ militia to muster under his command. The stated purpose was to re-occupy U.S. properties throughout the South, as the U.S. Congress had not authorized their abandonment. The resistance at Fort Sumter signaled his change of policy from that of the Buchanan Administration. Lincoln's response ignited a firestorm of emotion. The people both North and South demanded war, and young men rushed to their colors. Four more states (Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas) declared secessions, while Kentucky tried to remain neutral.[31]
[edit] Secession
Secessionists argued that the United States Constitution was a compact among states that could be abandoned at any time without consultation and that each state had a right to secede. After intense debates and statewide votes, seven Deep South cotton states passed secession ordinances by February 1861 (before Abraham Lincoln took office as president), while secession efforts failed in the other eight slave states. Delegates from those seven formed the C.S.A. in February 1861, selecting Jefferson Davis as the provisional president. Unionist talk of reunion failed and Davis began raising a 100,000 man army.[33]
[edit] States
Reconstruction treated as an extension of the Civil War
admission of 4 new states and readmission to U.S. Congress
Initially, secessionists hoped for a peaceful departure, including all slave-holding states in the Union. Moderates in the Confederate Constitutional Convention included a provision against importation of slaves from Africa to appeal to the Upper South. Non-slave states might join, but the radicals secured a two-thirds hurdle for them.[34]
Seven states declared their secession from the United States before Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861. After the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter April 12, 1861 and Lincoln's subsequent call for troops on April 15, four more states declared their secession:[35]
Kentucky declared neutrality but after Confederate troops moved in, the state government asked for Union troops to drive them out. Confederate state government relocated to accompany western Confederate armies and never controlled state population.
In Missouri, on October 31, 1861, a pro-CSA remnant of the General Assembly met and passed an ordinance of secession.[36] The Confederate's state government was unable to control Missouri territory, and it was subsequently driven out of the state.
Neither Kentucky nor Missouri were declared in rebellion in the Emancipation Proclamation, as Lincoln saw no military necessity to free slaves there. The Confederacy recognized the pro-Confederate claimants in both Kentucky and Missouri and laid claim to those states, granting them Congressional representation and adding two stars to the Confederate flag.
The order of secession resolutions and dates follow.
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1. South Carolina (December 20, 1860)[37] |
5. Georgia (January 19, 1861)[41] |
8. Virginia (April 17; referendum May 23, 1861)[44] |
In Virginia the populous counties along the Ohio and Pennsylvania borders rejected the Confederacy. Unionists held a Convention in Wheeling in June of 1861, establishing a "restored government" with a rump legislature, but sentiment in the region remained deeply divided. In the 50 counties that would make up the state of West Virginia, voters from 24 counties had voted for disunion in Virginia's May 23 referendum on the ordinance of secession.[48] In the 1860 Presidential election "Constitutional Democrat" Breckenridge had outpolled "Constitutional Unionist" Bell in the 50 counties by 1,900 votes, 44% to 42%.[49] Regardless of scholarly disputes over election procedures and results county by county, altogether they simultaneously supplied over 20,000 soldiers to each side of the conflict.[50][51] Representatives for most of the counties were seated in both state legislatures at Wheeling and at Richmond for the duration of the war.[52]
Attempts to secede from the Confederacy by some counties in East Tennessee were checked by martial law.[53] Although slave-holding Delaware and Maryland did not secede, citizens from those states exhibited divided loyalties. Maryland regiments fought in Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.[54] Delaware never produced a full regiment for the Confederacy, but neither did it emancipate slaves as did Missouri and West Virginia. District of Columbia citizens made no attempts to secede and through the war years, Lincoln-sponsored referendums approved systems of compensated emancipation and slave confiscation from "disloyal" citizens.[55]
[edit] Territories
Citizens at Mesilla and Tucson in the southern part of New Mexico Territory formed a secession convention, which voted to join the Confederacy on March 16, 1861, and appointed Lewis Owings as the new territorial governor. They won the Battle of Mesilla and established a territorial government with Mesilla serving as its capital.[56] The Confederacy proclaimed the Confederate Arizona Territory on February 14, 1862 north to the 34th parallel. Marcus H. MacWillie served in both Confederate Congresses as Arizona’s delegate. In 1862 the Confederate New Mexico Campaign to take the northern half of the U.S. territory failed and the Confederate territorial government in exile located in San Antonio, Texas.[57]
Confederate supporters in the trans-Mississippi west also claimed portions of United States Indian Territory after it evacuated the federal forts and installations. Over half the Native-American troops participating in the Civil War from the Indian Territory supported the Confederacy, troops and one general were enlisted from each tribe. On July 12, 1861, the Confederate government signed a treaty with both the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indian nations. After several battles Northern armies moved back into the territory.
Indian Territory was never formally ceded into the Confederacy by Native-American councils, but like Missouri and Kentucky, the Five Civilized Nations received representation in the Confederate Congress and their citizens were integrated into regular Confederate Army units. After 1863 the tribal governments sent representatives to the Confederate Congress: Elias Cornelius Boudinot representing the Cherokee and Samuel Benton Callahan representing the Seminole and Creek people. The Cherokee Nation aligning with the Confederacy alleged northern violations of the Constitution, waging war against slavery commercial and political interests, abolishing slavery in the Indian Territory, and that the North intended to seize additional Indian lands.[58]
[edit] Capitals
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Montgomery, Alabama served as the capital of the Confederate States of America from February 4 until May 29, 1861. Six states created the Confederate States of America there on February 8, 1861. The Texas delegation was seated at the time, so it is counted in the "original seven" states of the Confederacy. But it had no roll call vote until after its referendum made secession "operative".[59] Two sessions of the Provisional Congress were held in Montgomery, adjourning May 21.[60]
The Permanent Constitution was adopted there on March 12, 1861.[61] The naming of Richmond, Virginia as the new capital took place on May 30, 1861, and the last two sessions of the Provisional Congress were held in the new capital. The Permanent Confederate Congress and President were elected in the states and army camps on November 6, 1861. The First Congress met in four sessions in Richmond February 18 1862 – February 17, 1864. The Second Congress met there in two sessions, May 2, 1864 – March 18, 1865.[62]
Shortly before the end of the war, the Confederate government evacuated Richmond, planning to relocate farther south. Little came of these plans before Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.
[edit] Diplomacy
[edit] United States, a foreign power
During the four years of its existence under trial by war, the Confederate States of America asserted its independence and appointed dozens of diplomatic agents abroad. The United States government regarded the southern states in rebellion and so refused any formal recognition of their status.
Even before Fort Sumter, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward issued formal instructions to the American minister to Great Britain: Make “no expressions of harshness or disrespect, or even impatience concerning the seceding States, their agents, or their people, [those States] must always continue to be, equal and honored members of this Federal Union, [their citizens] still are and always must be our kindred and countrymen.”[64]
If the British seemed inclined to recognize the Confederacy, or even waver in that regard, they were to receive a sharp warning, with a strong hint of war: “[if Britain is] tolerating the application of the so-called seceding States, or wavering about it, [they cannot] remain friends with the United States … if they determine to recognize [the Confederacy], [Britain] may at the same time prepare to enter into alliance with the enemies of this republic.”[64]
The United States government never declared war on those “kindred and countrymen”, but conducted its military efforts beginning with a presidential proclamation issued April 15, 1861 calling for troops to recapture forts and suppress a rebellion.[65][66] Mid-war parlays between the two sides occurred without formal political recognition, though the laws of war predominantly governed military relationships on both sides of uniformed conflict.[67]
On the part of the Confederacy, immediately following Fort Sumter the Confederate Congress proclaimed “... war exists between the Confederate States and the Government of the United States, and the States and Territories thereof …” A formal state of war did not exist between the Confederacy and those states and territories in the United States allowing slavery.[68]
Concerning the international status and nationhood of the Confederate States of America, in 1869 the United States Supreme Court in Texas v. White ruled Texas' declaration of secession was legally null and void.[69] Jefferson Davis, former President of the Confederacy, and Alexander Stephens, its former Vice-President, both wrote postwar arguments in favor of secession's legality and the international legitimacy of the Government of the Confederate States of America, most notably Davis' The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government.
[edit] International diplomacy
Once the war with the United States began, the Confederacy pinned its hopes for survival on military intervention by Britain and France. The United States realized this as well and made it clear that diplomatic recognition of the Confederacy meant war with the United States – and the cutting off of food shipments into Britain. The Confederates who had believed that "cotton is king" – that is, Britain had to support the Confederacy to obtain cotton – proved mistaken. The British had ample stocks to last over a year, and had been developing alternative sources of cotton (most notably India and Egypt) and were not about to go to war with the U.S. to try to get more cotton.[70][71]
The Confederate government sent repeated delegations to Europe; historians give them low marks for their poor diplomacy.[72] James M. Mason went to London and John Slidell traveled to Paris, they were unofficially interviewed, but neither secured official recognition for the Confederacy. Britain and the United States came dangerously close to war during repercussions from the Trent Affair at sea in late 1861. It seemed possible that the Confederacy would see its much desired recognition, but Lincoln released the two detained Confederate diplomats, tensions cooled, and the Confederacy gained no advantage.
Throughout the early years of the war, British foreign secretary Lord John Russell, Emperor Napoleon III of France, and, to a lesser extent, British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston, showed interest in recognition of the Confederacy or mediation of the war. Recognition meant certain war with the United States, loss of American grain, exports to the United States, substantial investments in American securities. War meant higher taxes and another invasion of Canada. Nevertheless, intervention for "King Cotton" was considered by the British government following the Second Battle of Bull Run, but the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam and Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation combined with internal opposition, and Britain backed away.
The British government did allow blockade runners to be built in Britain and operated by British seamen. And several nations maintained their consuls in the South whom they had appointed before the outbreak of war, but no country appointed any diplomat to the Confederacy.[73] However they applied principles of international law that recognized the Union and Confederate sides as belligerents. In 1863, the Confederacy expelled all foreign consuls (all of them European diplomats) for advising their subjects to refuse to serve in the Confederate army.[74]
Both Confederate and Union agents were allowed to work openly in British territories. For example, in Hamilton, Bermuda a Confederate agent openly worked to help blockade runners. Some state governments in northern Mexico negotiated local agreements to cover trade on the Texas border.[75] Pope Pius IX wrote a letter to Jefferson Davis in which he addressed Davis as the "Honorable President of the Confederate States of America." but The Holy See never released a formal statement supporting or recognizing the Confederacy.
The Confederacy was seen internationally as a serious attempt at nationhood, and European governments sent military observers to assess the ‘’de facto’’ establishment of independence, and these included official and unofficial Arthur Freemantle of the British Coldstream Guards, Fitzgerald Ross of the Austrian Hussars, and Justus Scheibert of the Prussian army.[76] European travelers visited and wrote accounts for publication. Importantly in 1862 the Frenchman Charles Girard's “Seven months in the rebel states during the North American War” testified “this government . . . is no longer a trial government . . . but really a normal government, the expression of popular will”.[77] In late spring of 1863, France was in need of Confederate cotton and commercial relations in the Caribbean to support its conquest of Mexico. News of Lee’s decisive victory at Chancellorsville had reached the Continent, and French Emperor Napoleon III assured Confederate diplomat John Slidell twice that he would make “direct proposition” to England for joint recognition.[78]
The Emperor made the same assurance to Members of Parliament John A. Roebuck and John A. Lindsay, and Roebuck in turn publically prepared a bill to submit June 30 supporting joint Anglo-French recognition of the Confederacy. Jefferson Davis and General Lee had planned to lure the Army of the Potomac away from Washington, effect another Chancellorsville defeat of maneuver, and stun the world with a diplomatic coup. Once in Pennsylvania, as the Federals began stripping Washington’s defenses to meet him, Lee urged Davis to place Beauregard in command of all forces in the Carolinas and march on Washington. Davis was content with waiting for the outcome of Lee's solo effort. Confederate independence and nationhood was at a turning point. “Southerners had a right to be optimistic, or at least hopeful, that their revolution would prevail, or at least endure”.[79]
[edit] Confederacy at war
[edit] Strategy
The assessment of Southern Civil War historian E. Merton Coulter was that “The Confederacy was unfortunate in its failure to work out a general strategy for the whole war.” Aggressive strategy called for offensive force concentration. Defensive strategy sought dispersal to meet demands of locally minded governors. The controlling philosophy evolved into a combination “dispersal with a defensive concentration around Richmond”. The Davis administration considered the war purely defensive, a “simple demand that the people of the United States would cease to war upon us … “[80] As the Confederate government lost control of territory in campaign after campaign, it was said that “the vast size of the Confederacy would make its conquest impossible”. The enemy could not hold territory, a hostile people would close in behind. The Confederacy still existed wherever there was an army under her unfurled banners.[81]
But in the early stages, there were offensive visions of seizing the Rocky Mountains to occupy the far west, and cutting the North in two by marching through Ohio to Lake Erie to absorb the upper Mississippi Valley. Early on, Stonewall Jackson made an infantry raid into Ohio. Then the Battle of First Manassas drove the Confederate people “insane with joy”, and the public demanded a forward movement to capture Washington DC, relocate the Capital there, and admit Maryland to the Confederacy.[82] A council of war by the victorious Confederate generals immediately after the battle decided not to advance against larger numbers of fresh Federal troops in defensive positions around Washington. Davis did not countermand it. Following the unsuccessful incursion halted at the Battle of Sharpsburg, in another war council of October 1862, generals present proposed concentrating forces from state commands to invade the north again. Nothing came of it.[83] Again in early 1863, with the plan to strike into Pennsylvania and draw the Federals out of their DC defenses, Lee requested of Davis that Beauregard simultaneously attack Washington with troops taken from the Carolinas, but the troops there remained in place during the Gettysburg campaign.
The eleven states of the Confederacy without enslaved men were outnumbered by the North about four to one in military population. It was overmatched far more in military equipment, ability to produce and procure it, railroads to transport it, and wagons to supply the front. Big guns were out-ranged and small arms were less effective. Confederate military policy innovated to compensate. Land mines were first employed in numbers against McClelland’s Peninsular advance on Richmond. Harbors, inlets and inland waterways were repeatedly laced with numbers of sunken “torpedo” mines. Rangers in fifty-man units were awarded 50% valuation for property destroyed behind Union lines, regardless of location or loyalty. Always referred to as “guerrillas” by the North, the Confederate Congress abolished the service in February 1864 due to objections by loyal Confederate concerning their horse stealing and indiscriminate scorched earth tactics.[84] Cavalry produced great uplift the first two years. But civilians and infantry increasingly complained that the “dashing cavalry” neglected fighting for marauding. Two years into the fighting, Confederate cavalry was eclipsed by the Federal’s better horses and better equipment. Union tactics fighting as dismounted infantry with repeating rifles overmatched dashing saber charges as tactical assets on the battlefield.[85]
The Confederacy relied on external sources for war materials. The first came from trade with the enemy. “Vast amounts of war supplies” came through Kentucky, and thereafter, western armies were “to a very considerable extent” provisioned with illicit trade via Federal agents and northern private traders. After capture by Federals, Memphis TN became a major source of supply for Confederate armies, comparable to Nassau and its blockade runners.[86] But the Federal shipyards in Illinois soon built and manned gunboats under Admiral Porter in such numbers and of such strength, that they gained dominance wherever a navigable river flowed. Confederate units harassed them throughout the war years by laying torpedo mines and loosing barrages from shoreline batteries.[87] Overseas blockade running then came to be of “outstanding importance”.[88] On April 17, President Davis called on privateer raiders, the “militia of the sea”, to make war on U.S. seaborne commerce.[89] But in the long run, the Confederacy was deficient in seamanship, ships, materials and the skills of marine construction.[90] Despite a rage for Congressional appropriations and public “subscription ironclads”, armored platforms constructed in blockaded ports lacked the requisite marine engines to become ironclad warships. They were employed as floating batteries for port city defense.[91]
Overall, despite the shortages of artisans, materials, infrastructure, equipment and supply, perhaps the most implacable obstacle to success in the 19th Century warfare of mass armies was the Confederacy's lack of manpower, sufficient numbers of disciplined, equipped troops in the field at the point of contact with the enemy. During the wintering of 1862-3, Lee observed that none of his famous victories had resulted in the destruction of the opposing army. He lacked reserve troops to exploit an advantage on the battlefield as Napoleon had done. Lee explained, “More than once have most promising opportunities been lost for want of men to take advantage of them, and victory itself had been made to put on the appearance of defeat, because our diminished and exhausted troops have been unable to renew a successful struggle against fresh numbers of the enemy.”[92]
[edit] Armed forces
The military armed forces of the Confederacy comprised three branches: Army, Navy and Marine Corps.
The Confederate military leadership included many veterans from the United States Army and United States Navy who had resigned their Federal commissions and had won appointment to senior positions in the Confederate armed forces. Many had served in the Mexican-American War (including Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis), but some such as Leonidas Polk (who had attended West Point but did not graduate) had little or no experience.
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The Confederate officer corps consisted of men from both slave-owning and non-slave-owning families. The Confederacy appointed junior and field grade officers by election from the enlisted ranks. Although no Army service academy was established for the Confederacy, many colleges of the South (such as The Citadel and Virginia Military Institute) maintained cadet corps that were seen as a training ground for Confederate military leadership. A naval academy was established at Drewry’s Bluff, Virginia[93] in 1863, but no midshipmen graduated before the Confederacy's end.
The soldiers of the Confederate armed forces consisted mainly of white males aged between 16 and 28.[citation needed] The Confederacy adopted conscription in 1862. Many thousands of slaves served as laborers, cooks, and pioneers. Some freed blacks and men of color served in local state militia units of the Confederacy, primarily in Louisiana and South Carolina, but their officers deployed them for "local defense, not combat."[94] Depleted by casualties and desertions, the military suffered chronic manpower shortages. In the spring of 1865, the Confederate Congress, influenced by the public support by General Lee, approved the recruitment of black infantry units. Contrary to Lee’s and Davis’s recommendations, the Congress refused “to guarantee the freedom of black volunteers.” No more than two hundred black troops were ever raised.[95]
[edit] Victories: 1861
The American Civil War broke out in April 1861 with the Battle of Fort Sumter in Charleston SC. In December 1860, Federal troops had withdrawn to the island fort in Charleston Harbor soon after South Carolina’s declaration of secession to avoid street confrontations with passing U.S. soldiers.
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Charleston, South Carolina |
the North’s “Big Skedaddle”[96] |
In January, President James Buchanan had attempted to re-supply the garrison by sending the Star of the West, but Confederate artillery drove it away. In March, President Lincoln followed Buchanan's example, notifying South Carolina Governor Francis W. Pickens that without Confederate resistance to resupply or an attack on the fort, there would be no effort "to throw in men, arms, or ammunition" without further notice. Confederate President Davis with his cabinet decided to capture Fort Sumter before the relief fleet arrived. On April 12, 1861, General Beauregard fired upon the federal troops occupying Fort Sumter, forcing their surrender.[97]
Following the Battle of Fort Sumter, Lincoln directed states to provide troops to recapture Sumter and all other federal property that had been seized without Congressional authorization.[98] The proclamation of April 15 called for 75,000 volunteers for an initial recruitment of three-months. This sparked the four border states of Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina to initiate secession proceedings rather than provide troops to march into neighboring Southern states.
In May, Federal troops crossed into Confederate territory along the entire border from the Chesapeake Bay to New Mexico. The Confederate victory at Fort Sumter was followed by Confederate victories at the Battle of Big Bethel VA in June, Battle of First Manassas in July and in August, the Battle of Wilson's Creek in southwest Missouri. At all three, Confederate forces could not follow up their victory due to inadequate supply and shortages of fresh troops to exploit their successes. Following each battle, Federals maintained a military presence and their occupation of Washington DC, Fort Monroe VA and Springfield MO. Both North and South began training up armies for major fighting the next year.[99]
Confederate commerce-raiding just south of the Chesapeake Bay was ended in August at the loss of Hatteras NC. Early November a Union expedition at sea secured Port Royal and Beaufort SC just south of Charleston, seizing Confederate-burned cotton fields along with escaped and owner-abandoned "contraband" field hands. December saw the loss of Georgetown SC, just north of Charleston. Federals there began a war-long policy of burning grain supplies up rivers into the interior wherever they could not occupy.[100]
[edit] Incursions: 1862
The victories of 1861 were followed by a series of defeats east and west in early 1862. The Federal intent was to restore the Union by military force by three means: (1) secure the Mississippi River, (2) seize or close Confederate ports and (3) march on Richmond. The Confederate intent was to persuade northerners that the cost of war for union was too high, to relent in their attempts to force reconstruction, and so to gain independence. This was to be done militarily by (1) repelling the invader on all fronts at great cost to them, and (2) carrying the war into the north by two offensives in time to impact the mid-term elections. At the opening of campaigning season, Missouri was still contested, Kentucky had declared for the United States and much of northwest Virginia was controlled by the Federals.[101].
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Antietam, Maryland[102] |
In February and March, most of Missouri and Kentucky were Union “occupied, consolidated, and used as staging areas for advances further South”. Following the repulse of Confederate counter-attack at Pittsburg Landing TN, permanent Federal occupation expanded to include northwestern Arkansas, south down the Mississippi River and east up the Tennessee River.[103] Union forces then pushed south along the Mississippi River to Memphis, where at the Battle of Memphis the River Defense Fleet was sunk and Confederates withdrew from northern Mississippi and northern Alabama. New Orleans was captured April 29 by a combined Army-Navy force under Admiral Farragut, and the Confederacy lost control of the mouth of the Mississippi River, conceding large agricultural resources that supported the Union’s sea-supplied logistics base.[104]
Union occupation expanded into northern Virginia, and their control of the Mississippi extended south to Nashville TN, but as of April 21, the Confederacy still controlled 72% of its population.[103] Confederates had suffered major reverses everywhere but Virginia. Federal forces disrupted Missouri and Arkansas; they had broken through in western Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Louisiana. Along the Confederacy’s shores it had closed ports and made garrisoned lodgments on every coastal Confederate state but Alabama and Texas.[105] Although scholars sometimes assess the Union blockade as ineffectual until the last few months of the war in an “international law” sense, from the first months it disrupted Confederate privateers, making it “almost impossible to bring their prizes into Confederate ports”.[106] Nevertheless, British firms developed small fleets of blockade running companies and the Ordnance Department secured its own blockade runners for dedicated munition cargos.[107]
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nearby destroyed Union warship |
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The Civil War saw the advent of fleets of armored warships deployed in sustained blockades at sea. After some success against the Union blockade, in March the ironclad CSS Virginia was forced into port and burned by Confederates at their retreat. Despite several attempts mounted from their port cities, Confederates were unable to break out of the Union blockade including Commodore Josiah Tattnall’s ironclads from Savannah in 1862 and another in 1863, both as with the CSS Virginia, compromised in combat by mechanical failure.[108] Given material shortages in the Confederacy, Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory placed his hopes in a European-built ironclad fleet, but they were never realized. On the other hand, four new-built commerce raiders were procured in England and saw Confederate service. Some fast blockade runners were sold in Confederate ports and converted into cruisers.[109]
In the east, Union forces could not close on Richmond. General McClellan boarded ships to land his army on the Lower Peninsula of Virginia. Lee subsequently ended that threat from the east, then Union General John Pope attacked again overland from the north only to be repulsed at Second Manassas. Lee’s strike north was turned back at Antietam MD, then Burnside’s offensive was disastrously ended at Fredericksburg VA in December. Both armies then turned to winter quarters to recruit and train for the coming spring.[110]
In an attempt to seize the initiative, resupply, protect farms in mid-growing season and influence U.S. Congressional elections, two major Confederate incursions into Union territory had been launched in August and September 1862. Both Braxton Bragg's invasion of Kentucky and Lee's invasion of Maryland were decisively repulsed and both Confederate armies barely escaped capture. Kentucky and Maryland remained in Union control, and by October 13, 1862 the Confederacy controlled but 63% of its population.[103] Civil War scholar Alan Nevins argues that 1862 was the strategic high water mark of the Confederacy.[111] The failures of the two invasions were attributed to the same irrecoverable shortcomings: lack of manpower, lack of supplies including serviceable shoes, and exhaustion after long marches without adequate food.[112]
[edit] Anaconda: 1863–1864
The failed Middle Tennessee campaign was ended January 2, 1863. The South lost any hope for gain there in the inconclusive battle at Murfreesboro, both sides losing the largest percentage of casualties suffered during the war. It was followed by another strategic withdrawal by Confederate forces.[113]The Confederacy won a significant victory on April 26, 1863, repulsing the Federal advance on to Richmond at Chancellorsville VA, but the Union consolidated positions along the Virginia coast and the Chesapeake Bay. Federals maintained control of most of Tennessee, they advanced along the Mississippi River Valley to close on Vicksburg, and they seized permanent control of Baton Rouge.
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Federal gunboats controlled rivers |
Union blockade ended trade |
Without an effective answer to Federal gunboats, river transport and supply, the Confederacy lost the Mississippi River following the capture of Vicksburg and Port Hudson in July. This effectively lost Southern access to the trans-Mississippi West. Victories in September and November followed at Knoxville and Chattanooga TN. July brought Morgan's Raid into Ohio and the New York City draft riots. Robert E. Lee’s strike into Pennsylvania was repulsed at Gettysburg PA despite Pickett’s famous charge and other acts of valor. Southern newspapers assessed the campaign as “The Confederates did not gain a victory, neither did the enemy.”[114]
For the remainder of the war fighting was restricted inside the South, resulting in a slow but continuous loss of territory. In early 1864, the Confederacy still controlled 53% of its population, but facing Union campaigns for Atlanta and the Virginia Wilderness, it withdrew further to reestablish defensive positions. Union offensives continued when Sherman undertook his March to the Sea and Grant fought through the Wilderness Campaign to besiege Petersburg.[115]
In April 1863, the CS Congress authorized a Volunteer Navy, all officers and crew regularly enlisted and wearing uniforms. Many of the personnel were foreign, especially British.[116] Wilmington and Charleston had more shipping while “blockaded” than before the beginning of hostilities. Confederates estimated that the Union Blockade interdicted no more than 10% of the cotton exported, but the Lincoln administration claimed one of every three blockade runners were being captured.[117] The Confederacy had a total of eighteen commerce destroying cruisers altogether, which over the course of the war seriously disrupted Federal commerce at sea, and increased shipping insurance rates 900 percent.[118]
Commodore Tattnall attempted to break the Union blockade on the Savannah River GA again in 1863 with the ironclad CSS Savannah and the effort was again unsuccessful.[119] However Confederate victories followed the ironclad CSS Albemarle beginning April 1864 as it engaged Union gunboats and sank or cleared them in several engagements for six months on the Roanoke River NC. The most successful Confederate merchant raider 1863-1864, CSS Alabama had ranged the Atlantic for two years, sinking 58 vessels worth $6,54,000, but she was trapped and sunk in June by the chain-clad USS Kearsarge off Cherbourg, France.[120] When Mobile Bay was closed by sea-based amphibious assault in August, the loss sealed the Gulf coast east of the Mississippi River. Plans were then laid to open a new, more defensible blockade-running port on the Gulf. In the western theater, Nashville was a major defeat for the Confederacy in December, resulting in further withdrawal.
[edit] Collapse: 1865
The first three months of 1865 saw the Federal Carolina Campaign, devastating a wide swath of the Confederate heartland. The “breadbasket of the Confederacy” in the Great Valley of Virginia was occupied by Philip Sheridan. The Union Blockade captured Fort Fisher NC, and Sherman finally captured Charleston SC by land attack. In April 1865 the Confederacy controlled 34% of its population.[104]
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site of "the Surrender” |
Senior Confederate officials met with Lincoln and his aides in February, but rejected Lincoln's invitation to return to the Union with compensation for slaves lost by emancipation. The Confederacy controlled no ports, harbors or navigable rivers. Railroads were captured or had ceased operating. Its major food producing regions had been war ravaged or occupied. Its administration extended to three pockets of territory in southern Virginia-North Carolina, central Alabama-Florida, and Texas.[104] Its armies were defeated or disbanding.
In February, the port at Wilmington NC which had become the premier blockade running port of the Confederacy, fell. Plans to open a new port at the mouth of the Apalachicola River for blockade running collapsed.[121] The French-built ironclad CSS Stonewall was purchased from Denmark and set sail from Spain to break the Union blockade in March.
The Davis policy was independence or nothing, while Lee's army was wracked by disease and desertion, barely holding the trenches defending Jefferson Davis' capital. When the Union broke through Lee's lines at Petersburg, Richmond fell immediately. Lee raced west to escape, but his dwindling army was caught. His surrendering the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox VA on April 9, 1865 marked the end of the Confederacy. Some high officials escaped to Europe but President Davis was captured May 10; all remaining Confederate forces surrendered by June 1865. The U.S. Army took control of the Confederate areas without post-surrender insurgency or guerrilla warfare against the army, but disbanding the armies was subsequently marred by a great deal of local violence, feuding and revenge killings.[122]
Historian Gary Gallagher concluded that the Confederacy capitulated in the spring of 1865 because "northern armies had demonstrated their ability to crush organized southern military resistance." In the face of northern power, "sternly applied", the Confederacy's faithful civilians had suffered material hardship and social disruption. They had spent a profusion of blood and their all in treasure until collapse; "the end had come".[123]
[edit] "Died of states' rights"
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Historian Frank Lawrence Owsley argued that the Confederacy "died of states' rights."[4][124] The central government was denied requisitioned soldiers and money by governors and state legislatures because they feared that Richmond would encroach on the rights of the states. Georgia's governor Joseph Brown warned of a conspiracy by Jefferson Davis to destroy states' rights and individual liberty. Brown declaimed: "Almost every act of usurpation of power, or of bad faith, has been conceived, brought forth and nurtured in secret session." The first conscription act in North America authorizing Davis to draft soldiers was the "essence of military despotism."[125]
Vice President Alexander Stephens feared losing the very form of republican government. Allowing President Davis to threaten "arbitrary arrests" to draft state officials holding "bomb-proof" draft exemptions conferred "more power than the English Parliament had ever bestowed on the king. History proved the dangers of such unchecked authority." Newly abolished draft exemptions included newspaper editors, and Stephens took that to mean that the Confederate government intended to suppress the peace meetings in North Carolina, and to muzzle targeted presses such as the Raleigh Standard to control elections in that state. Southerners should never view liberty as "subordinate to independence" because the cry of "independence first and liberty second" was a "fatal delusion". As Rable concludes, "For Stephens, the essence of patriotism, the heart of the Confederate cause, rested on an unyielding commitment to traditional rights. In his idealist vision of politics, military necessity, pragmatism, and compromise meant nothing".[126]
In 1863 governor Pendleton Murrah of Texas determined that state troops were required for defense against Plains Indians and Union successes advancing from the free state of Kansas. He refused to send them East.[127] Zebulon Vance, the governor of North Carolina, had a reputation for hostility to Davis and to his demands. North Carolina showed intense opposition to conscription, resulting in very poor results for recruiting. Governor Vance's faith in states' rights drove him into a stubborn opposition.[128]
Despite political differences within the Confederacy, no political parties were formed. Confederates denounced the legitimacy of parties. "Anti-partyism became an article of political faith. Almost nobody, even Davis’s most fervent antagonists, advocated parties."[129] This lack of a functioning two party system, according to historian David M. Potter, caused "real and direct damage" to the Confederate war effort since it prevented the formulation of any effective alternatives to the Davis administration's policies in conducting the war.[130]
The survival of the Confederacy depended on a strong base of civilians and soldiers devoted to victory. The soldiers performed well, though increasing numbers deserted in the last year of fighting, and the Confederacy never succeeded in replacing casualties as the Union could. The civilians, although enthusiastic in 1861–62, seem to have lost faith in the future of the Confederacy by 1864, and instead looked to protect their homes and communities. As Rable explains, "As the Confederacy shrank, citizens' sense of the cause more than ever narrowed to their own states and communities. This contraction of civic vision was more than a crabbed libertarianism; it represented an increasingly widespread disillusionment with the Confederate experiment."[131]
[edit] Government and politics
[edit] Constitution
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The Southern leaders met in Montgomery, Alabama, to write their constitution. Much of the Confederate States Constitution replicated the United States Constitution verbatim, but it contained several explicit protections of the institution of slavery including provisions for the recognition and protection of negro slavery in any new state admitted to the Confederacy. It maintained the existing ban on international slave-trading while protecting the existing internal trade of slaves among slaveholding states.
In certain areas, the Confederate Constitution gave greater powers to the states (or curtailed the powers of the central government more) than the U.S. Constitution of the time did, but in other areas, the states actually lost rights they had under the U.S. Constitution. Although the Confederate Constitution, like the U.S. Constitution, contained a commerce clause, the Confederate version prohibited the central government from using revenues collected in one state for funding internal improvements in another state. The Confederate Constitution's equivalent to the U.S. Constitution's general welfare clause prohibited protective tariffs (but allowed tariffs for providing domestic revenue), and spoke of "carry[ing] on the Government of the Confederate States" rather than providing for the "general welfare". State legislatures had the power to impeach officials of the Confederate government in some cases. On the other hand, the Confederate Constitution contained a Necessary and Proper Clause and a Supremacy Clause that essentially duplicated the respective clauses of the U.S. Constitution. The Confederate Constitution also incorporated each of the 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution that had been ratified up to that point.
The Confederate Constitution did not specifically include a provision allowing states to secede; the Preamble spoke of each state "acting in its sovereign and independent character" but also of the formation of a "permanent federal government". During the debates on drafting the Confederate Constitution, one proposal would have allowed states to secede from the Confederacy. The proposal was tabled with only the South Carolina delegates voting in favor of considering the motion.[132] The Confederate Constitution also explicitly denied States the power to bar slaveholders from other parts of the Confederacy from bringing their slaves into any state of the Confederacy or to interfere with the property rights of slave owners traveling between different parts of the Confederacy. In contrast with the language of the United States Constitution, the Confederate Constitution overtly asked God's blessing ("...invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God...").
[edit] Executive
The Constitution provided for a President of the Confederate States of America, elected to serve a six-year term but without the possibility of re-election. Unlike the Union Constitution, the Confederate Constitution gave the president the ability to subject a bill to a line item veto, a power also held by some state governors.
| Office | Name | Term |
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| President | Jefferson Davis | 1861–1865 |
| Vice President | Alexander Stephens | 1861–1865 |
| Secretary of State | Robert Toombs | 1861 |
| Robert M.T. Hunter | 1861–1862 | |
| Judah P. Benjamin | 1862–1865 | |
| Secretary of the Treasury | Christopher Memminger | 1861–1864 |
| George Trenholm | 1864–1865 | |
| John H. Reagan | 1865 | |
| Secretary of War | Leroy Pope Walker | 1861 |
| Judah P. Benjamin | 1861–1862 | |
| George W. Randolph | 1862 | |
| James Seddon | 1862–1865 | |
| John C. Breckinridge | 1865 | |
| Secretary of the Navy | Stephen Mallory | 1861–1865 |
| Postmaster General | John H. Reagan | 1861–1865 |
| Attorney General | Judah P. Benjamin | 1861 |
| Thomas Bragg | 1861–1862 | |
| Thomas H. Watts | 1862–1863 | |
| George Davis | 1864–1865 |
The Confederate Congress could overturn either the general or the line item vetoes with the same two-thirds majorities that are required in the U.S. Congress. In addition, appropriations not specifically requested by the executive branch required passage by a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress. The only person to serve as president was Jefferson Davis, due to the Confederacy being defeated before the completion of his term.
[edit] Legislative
The only two “formal, national, functioning, civilian administrative bodies” in the Civil War South were the Jefferson Davis administration and the Confederate Congresses. The Confederacy was begun by the Provisional Congress in Convention at Montgomery, Alabama on February 28, 1861. It had one vote per state in a unicameral assembly.[133]
The Permanent Confederate Congress was elected and began its first session February 18, 1862. The Permanent Congress for the Confederacy followed the United States forms with a bicameral legislature. The Senate had two per state, twenty-six Senators. The House numbered 106 representatives apportioned by free and slave populations within each state. Two Congresses sat in six sessions until March 18, 1865.[134]
The political influences of the civilian, soldier vote and appointed representatives reflected divisions of political geography of a diverse South. These in turn changed over time relative to Union occupation and disruption, the war impact on local economy, and the course of the war. Without political parties, key candidate identification related to adopting secession before or after Lincoln's call for volunteers to retake Federal property. Previous party affiliation played a part in voter selection, predominantly secessionist Democrat or unionist Whig.[135]
The absence of political parties made individual roll call voting all the more important, as the Confederate “freedom of roll-call voting [was] unprecedented in American legislative history.[136] Key issues throughout the life of the Confederacy related to (1) suspension of habeas corpus, (2) military concerns such as control of state militia, conscription and exemption, (3) economic and fiscal policy including impressment of slaves, goods and scorched earth, and (4) support of the Jefferson Davis administration in its foreign affairs and negotiating peace.[137]
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Provisional Congress President of the Provisional Congress
Presidents pro tempore of the Provisional Congress
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Sessions of the Confederate Congress Tribal Representatives to Confederate Congress
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[edit] Judicial
The Confederate Constitution outlined a judicial branch of the government, but the ongoing war and resistance from states-rights advocates, particularly on the question of whether it would have appellate jurisdiction over the state courts, prevented the creation or seating of the "Supreme Court of the Confederate States;" the state courts generally continued to operate as they had done, simply recognizing the Confederate States as the national government.[138]
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Confederate district courts were authorized by Article III, Section 1, of the Confederate Constitution,[139] and President Davis appointed judges within the individual states of the Confederate States of America.[139] In many cases, the same US Federal District Judges were appointed as Confederate States District Judges. Confederate district courts began reopening in the spring of 1861 handling many of the same type cases as had been done before. Prize cases, in which Union ships were captured by the Confederate Navy or raiders and sold through court proceedings, were heard until the blockade of southern ports made this impossible. After a Sequestration Act was passed by the Confederate Congress, the Confederate district courts heard many cases in which enemy aliens (typically Northern absentee landlords owning property in the South) had their property sequestered (seized) by Confederate Receivers.
When the matter came before the Confederate court, the property owner could not appear because he was unable to travel across the front lines between Union and Confederate forces. Thus, the District Attorney won the case by default, the property was typically sold, and the money used to further the Southern war effort. Eventually, because there was no Confederate Supreme Court, sharp attorneys like South Carolina's Edward McCrady began filing appeals. This prevented their clients' property from being sold until a supreme court could be constituted to hear the appeal, which never occurred.[139] Where Federal troops gained control over parts of the Confederacy and re-established civilian government, US district courts sometimes resumed jurisdiction.[140]
Supreme Court – not established.
District Courts – judges
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[edit] Post Office
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When the Confederacy was formed and its seceding states broke from the Union, it was at once confronted with the arduous task of providing its citizens with a mail delivery system, and, in the midst of the American Civil War, the newly formed Confederacy created and established the Confederate Post Office. One of the first undertakings in establishing the Post Office was the appointment of John H. Reagan to the position of Postmaster General, by Jefferson Davis in 1861, making him the first Postmaster General of the Confederate Post Office as well as a member of Davis' presidential cabinet. Through Reagan's resourcefulness and remarkable industry, he had his department assembled, organized and in operation before the other Presidential cabinet members had their departments fully operational.[141][142]
When the war began, the US Post Office still delivered mail from the seceded states for a brief period of time. Mail that was postmarked after the date of a state's admission into the Confederacy through May 31, 1861 and bearing US postage was still delivered.[143] After this time, private express companies still managed to carry some of the mail across enemy lines. Later, mail that crossed lines had to be sent by 'Flag of Truce' and was allowed to pass at only two specific points. Mail sent from the South to the North states was received, opened and inspected at Fortress Monroe on the Virginia coast before being passed on into the U.S. mail stream. Mail sent from the North to the South passed at City Point, also in Virginia, where it was also inspected before being sent on.[144][145]
With the chaos of the war, a working postal system was more important than ever for the Confederacy. The Civil War had divided family members and friends and consequently letter writing naturally increased dramatically across the entire divided nation, especially to and from the men who were away serving in an army. Mail delivery was also important for the Confederacy for a myriad of business and military reasons. Because of the Union blockade, basic supplies were always in demand and so getting mailed correspondence out of the country to suppliers was imperative to the successful operation of the Confederacy. Volumes of material have been written about the Blockade runners who evaded Union ships on blockade patrol, usually at night, and who moved cargo and mail in and out of the Confederate States throughout the course of the war. Of particular interest to students and historians of the American Civil War is Prisoner of War mail and Blockade mail as these items were often involved with a variety of military and other war time activities. The postal history of the Confederacy along with surviving Confederate mail has helped historians document the various people, places and events that were involved in the American Civil War as it unfolded.[146]
[edit] Civil liberties
The Confederacy actively used the army to arrest people suspected of loyalty to the United States. Historian Mark Neely found 4,108 names of men arrested and estimated a much larger total.[147] The Confederacy arrested pro-Union civilians in the South at about the same rate as the Union arrested pro-Confederate civilians in the North.[148] Neely concludes:
The Confederate citizen was not any freer than the Union citizen – and perhaps no less likely to be arrested by military authorities. In fact, the Confederate citizen may have been in some ways less free than his Northern counterpart. For example, freedom to travel within the Confederate states was severely limited by a domestic passport system.[149]
[edit] Economy
[edit] Political Economy
The South as a region produced substantial wealth from cash crops. It supplied two-thirds of the world’s cotton, along with profit-making sugar, tobacco, and assorted grains. These were exported from the South as raw materials for the more diversified, industrialized regions in New England and Europe. Planters used credit in the money market, produced cash crops, took them to world markets, made profit, and reinvested in their ongoing enterprises. The end of the National Bank allowed each southern state legislature to control its own banking. Accumulated capital was invested abroad or it was invested predominantly in land and slaves, at home or in the expanding western frontier. Even with (a) the variables of agricultural production and market fluctuations, (b) the costs of credit and initial slave labor, and (c) the economic loss of runaways and the sunk cost to support the young, planters could make "substantially more money" planting than manufacturing.[150]
the only 1860 southern city over 100,000 population
The most distinctive feature of Southern economic life was racial slavery. Nearly four million black Southerners were the principle source of wealth, but they were also the source of general tension and white racial solidarity. William Freehling and Steven A. Channing have documented the race-based system of enslavement as “prone to insurrection and racial upheaval” inside the South, and by midcentury, its maintenance there was coming under increasing attacks from outside.[151] Racism was a national character flaw in nineteenth century America, differing in degree only from section to section. But slavery was abandoned in other regions, leaving it the South’s “peculiar institution”. It was a relationship of management and labor as elsewhere, but a master-slave interaction “sui generis’’, a human enterprise of mutual economic indifference, racial hate and personal affection unlike slavery as practiced anywhere in the Western world.[152]
Slave labor was applied in manufacturing in a limited way in the Upper South and in a few port cities. One reason for the regional lag in industrial development was “top-heavy income distribution”. Mass production requires mass markets, and slave-labor living in packed-earth cabins, using self-made tools and outfitted with one suit of work clothes each year of inferior fabric, did not generate consumer demand to sustain local manufactures of any description in the same way a mechanized family farm of free labor did in the North.[153] The Southern economy was "pre-capitalist" in that slaves were employed in the largest revenue producing enterprises, not free labor. That labor system as practiced in the American South encompassed paternalism, whether abusive or indulgent, and that meant labor management considerations apart from productivity.[154]
Approximately 85% of both North and South white populations lived on family farms, both regions were predominantly agricultural, and mid-century industry in both was mostly domestic. But the Southern economy was uniquely pre-capitalist in its overwhelming reliance on the agriculture of cash crops to produce wealth. Southern cities and industries grew faster than ever before, but the thrust of the rest of the country’s exponential growth elsewhere was towards urban industrial development along transportation systems of canals and railroads. The South was following the dominant currents of the American economic mainstream, but at a "great distance" as it lagged in the all-weather modes of transportation that brought cheaper, speedier freight shipment and forged new, expanding inter-regional markets.[155]
A third count of southern pre-capitalist economy relates to the cultural setting. The South and southerners did not adopt a frenzied work ethic, nor the habits of thrift that marked the rest of the country. It had access to the tools of capitalism, but it did not adopt its culture. The Southern Cause as a national economy in the Confederacy was grounded in “slavery and race, planters and patricians, plain folk and folk culture, cotton and plantations”.[156]
[edit] National production
The Confederacy started its existence as an agrarian economy with exports, to a world market, of cotton, and, to a lesser extent, tobacco and sugarcane. Local food production included grains, hogs, cattle, and gardens.
The 11 states produced $155 million in manufactured goods in 1860, chiefly from local grist-mills, and lumber, processed tobacco, cotton goods and naval stores such as turpentine. By the 1830s, the 11 states produced more cotton than all of the other countries in the world combined.
The Confederacy adopted a low tariff of 15 per cent, but imposed it on all imports from other countries, including the Union states.[157] The tariff mattered little; the Union blockade minimized commercial traffic through the Confederacy's ports, and very few people paid taxes on goods smuggled from the Union states. The government collected about $3.5 million in tariff revenue from the start of their war against the Union to late 1864. The lack of adequate financial resources led the Confederacy to finance the war through printing money, which led to high inflation.
The requirements of its military encouraged the Confederate government to take a dirigiste-style approach to industrialization.[158] But such efforts faced setbacks: Union raids and in particular Sherman's scorched-earth campaigning destroyed much economic infrastructure.[159]
[edit] Transportation systems
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Orange & Alexandria Railroad[160] |
1860 map with connections |
In peacetime, the vast system of navigable rivers allowed for cheap and easy transportation of farm products. The railroad system, built as a supplement, tied plantation areas to the nearest river or seaport. The vast geography of the Confederacy made logistics difficult for the Union, and the Union armies assigned many of their soldiers to garrison captured areas and to protect rail lines. Nevertheless, the Union Navy had seized most of the navigable rivers by 1862, making its own logistics easy and Confederate movements difficult. After the fall of Vicksburg in July 1863, it became impossible for Confederate units to cross the Mississippi: Union gunboats constantly patrolled the river. The South thus lost the use of its western regions.
At the end of 1860, the Southern rail network was disjointed and plagued by break of gauge as well as lack of interchange.[161] In addition, most rail lines led from coastal or river ports to inland cities, with few lateral railroads. Due to this design limitation, the relatively primitive railroads of the Confederacy were unable to overcome the Union Naval Blockade of the South's crucial intra-coastal and river routes.
The outbreak of war had a depressing effect on the economic fortunes of the railroad system in Confederate territory. The hoarding of the cotton crop in an attempt to entice European intervention left railroads bereft of their main source of income.[162] Many had to lay off employees, and in particular, let go skilled technicians and engineers.[163] For the early years of the war, the Confederate government had a hands-off approach to the railroads. Only in mid-1863 did the Confederate government initiate an overall policy, and it was confined solely to aiding the war effort.[164] With the legislation of impressment the same year, railroads and their rolling stock came under the de facto control of the military.
In the last year before the end of the war, the Confederate railroad system stood permanently on the verge of collapse. There was no new equipment and raids on both sides systematically destroyed key bridges, as well as locomotives and freight cars. Spare parts were cannibalized; feeder lines were torn up to get replacement rails for trunk lines, and the heavy use of rolling stock wore them out.[165]
[edit] Horses and mules
The Army was always short of horses and mules, and requisitioned them with dubious promissory notes from local farmers and breeders. Union forces paid in real money and found ready sellers in the South, Horses were needed for cavalry and artillery[166]. Mules pulled the wagons. The supply was undermined by an unprecedented epidemic of glanders, a fatal disease that baffled veterinarians.[167] After 1863 the policy of the Union army was to shoot all the horses and mules it did not need to keep them out of Confederate hands. The army and farmers experienced a growing shortage of horses and mules, which hurt the economy and the Confederate war effort. The South lost half its 2.5 million horses and mules; many farmers ended the war with none left. Army horses were used up by hard work, malnourishment, disease and battle wounds; their life expectancy was about seven months.[168]
[edit] Financial instruments
Both the individual Confederate states and later the Confederate government printed Confederate States of America dollars as paper currency in various denominations, much of it signed by the Treasurer Edward C. Elmore. During the course of the war these severely depreciated and eventually became worthless. Many bills still exist, although in recent years copies have proliferated.
The Confederate government initially financed the war effort mostly through tariffs on imports, export taxes, and voluntary donations of coins and bullion. However, after the imposition of a self-embargo on cotton sales to Europe in 1861, these sources of revenue dried up and the Confederacy increasingly turned to issuing debt and printing money to pay for war expanses. The Confederate States politicians were worried about angering the general population with hard taxes. A tax increase might disillusion many Southerners, so the Confederacy resorted to printing more money. As a result inflation increased and remained a problem for the southern states throughout the rest of the war.[169]
The Treasury also issued paper bonds in large numbers, and the Post Office produced a considerable number of postage stamps; both stamps and bonds (and especially bond coupons) remain readily available. The philatelic market regards as far more valuable the stamps placed on envelopes that were actually used during the war.
At the time of their secession, the states (and later the Confederate government) took over the national mints in their territories: the Charlotte Mint in North Carolina, the Dahlonega Mint in Georgia, and the New Orleans Mint in Louisiana. During 1861, the first two produced small amounts of gold coinage, the latter half dollars. Since the mints used the current dies on hand, these issues remain indistinguishable from those minted by the Union.
However the four half dollars with a Confederate (rather than U.S.) reverse, mentioned below, used an obverse die that had a small crack. Thus "regular" 1861-O halves with this crack probably were among the 962,633 pieces struck under Confederate authority.[170]
In 1861 plans also originated to produce Confederate coins. The New Orleans Mint produced dies and four specimen half dollars, but a lack of bullion prevented any further minting. A jeweler in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, manufactured a dozen pennies under an agreement, but did not deliver them for fear of arrest. Over the years copies of both denominations have appeared. More details and pictures of the original issues appear in A Guide Book of United States Coins.
[edit] Devastation by 1865
By the end of the war deterioration of the Southern infrastructure was widespread. The number of civilian deaths is unknown. Most of the war was fought in Virginia and Tennessee, but every Southern state was affected as well as Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, and Indian Territory. Texas and Florida saw the least military action. Much of the damage was caused by military action, but most was caused by lack of repairs and upkeep, and by deliberately using up resources. Historians have recently estimated how much of the devastation was caused by military action.[171] Of 645 counties in 9 Confederate states (excluding Texas and Florida), there was Union military action in 56% of them, containing 63% of the 1860 white population and 64% of the slaves in 1860; however by the time the action took place some people had fled to safer areas, so the exact population exposed to war is unknown.
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The 11 Confederate states in the 1860 census had 297 towns and cities with 835,000 people; of these 162 with 681,000 people were at one point occupied by Union forces. Eleven were destroyed or severely damaged by war action, including Atlanta (with an 1860 population of 9,600), Charleston, Columbia, and Richmond (with prewar populations of 40,500, 8,100, and 37,900, respectively); the eleven contained 115,900 people in the 1860 census, or 14% of the urban South. Historians have not estimated what their actual population was when Union forces arrived. The number of people (as of 1860) who lived in the destroyed towns represented just over 1% of the Confederacy's 1860 population. In addition, 45 court houses were burned (out of 830). The South's agriculture was not highly mechanized. The value of farm implements and machinery in the 1860 Census was $81 million; by 1870, there was 40% less, worth just $48 million. Many old tools had broken through heavy use; new tools were rarely available; even repairs were difficult.[172]
The economic losses affected everyone. Banks and insurance companies were mostly bankrupt. Confederate currency and bonds were worthless. The billions of dollars invested in slaves vanished. However, most debts were left behind. Most farms were intact but most had lost their horses, mules and cattle; fences and barns were in disrepair. Prices for cotton had plunged. The rebuilding would take years and require outside investment because the devastation was so thorough. One historian has summarized the collapse of the transportation infrastructure needed for economic recovery:[173]
- "One of the greatest calamities which confronted Southerners was the havoc wrought on the transportation system. Roads were impassable or nonexistent, and bridges were destroyed or washed away. The important river traffic was at a standstill: levees were broken, channels were blocked, the few steamboats which had not been captured or destroyed were in a state of disrepair, wharves had decayed or were missing, and trained personnel were dead or dispersed. Horses, mules, oxen, carriages, wagons, and carts had nearly all fallen prey at one time or another to the contending armies. The railroads were paralyzed, with most of the companies bankrupt. These lines had been the special target of the enemy. On one stretch of 114 miles in Alabama, every bridge and trestle was destroyed, cross-ties rotten, buildings burned, water-tanks gone, ditches filled up, and tracks grown up in weeds and bushes. . . . Communication centers like Columbia and Atlanta were in ruins; shops and foundries were wrecked or in disrepair. Even those areas bypassed by battle had been pirated for equipment needed on the battlefront, and the wear and tear of wartime usage without adequate repairs or replacements reduced all to a state of disintegration."
[edit] Flags
[edit] National flags
-
1st National Flag
"Stars and Bars" -
2nd National Flag
"Stainless Banner" -
3rd National Flag
"Blood Stained Banner" -
CSA Naval Jack
1861–1863 -
CSA Naval Jack
1863–1865 -
Battle Flag
"Southern Cross" -
Bonnie Blue Flag
Unofficial Southern Flag -
Confederate Flag
in some army units
.svg)
The first official flag of the Confederate States of America—called the "Stars and Bars" – originally had seven stars, representing the first seven states that initially formed the Confederacy. As more states seceded, more stars were added, until the total was 13 (two stars were added for the divided states of Kentucky and Missouri). However, during the Battle of Bull Run (or First Manassas) it sometimes proved difficult to distinguish the Stars and Bars from the Union flag. To rectify the situation, a separate "Battle Flag" was designed for use by troops in the field. Also known as the "Southern Cross", many variations sprang from the original square configuration. Although it was never officially adopted by the Confederate government, the popularity of the Southern Cross among both soldiers and the civilian population was a primary reason why it was made the main color feature when a new national flag was adopted in 1863. This new standard—known as the "Stainless Banner" – consisted of a lengthened white field area with a Battle Flag canton. This flag too had its problems when used in military operations as, on a windless day, it could easily be mistaken for a flag of truce or surrender. Thus, in 1865, a modified version of the Stainless Banner was adopted. This final national flag of the Confederacy kept the Battle Flag canton, but shortened the white field and added a vertical red bar to the fly end.
Because of its depiction in the 20th-century[citation needed] and popular media, many people consider the rectangular battle flag with the dark blue bars as being synonymous with "the Confederate Flag". This flag, however, was never adopted as a Confederate national flag, although it was adopted by the Army of Tennessee and other units. The "Confederate Flag" has a color scheme similar to the official Battle Flag, but is rectangular, not square. (Its design and shape matches the Naval Jack, but the blue bars are darker.) The "Confederate Flag" is the most recognized symbol of the South in the United States today, and continues to be a controversial icon.
[edit] States and flags
| Member State | Flag | Ordinance of Secession | Date of Admission | Under predominant Union control |
Readmitted to representation in Congress |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Carolina |
  |
Dec. 20, 1860 | Feb. 8, 1861 | 1865 | July 9, 1868 |
| Mississippi |
 |
Jan. 9, 1861 | Feb. 8, 1861 | 1863 | Feb. 23, 1870 |
| Florida |
  |
Jan. 10, 1861 | Feb. 8, 1861 | 1865 | June 25, 1868 |
| Alabama |
  |
Jan. 11, 1861 | Feb. 8, 1861 | 1865 | July 13, 1868 |
| Georgia |
  |
Jan. 19, 1861 | Feb. 8, 1861 | 1865 | 1st Date July 21, 1868; 2nd Date July 15, 1870 |
| Louisiana |
 |
Jan. 26, 1861 | Feb. 8, 1861 | 1863 | July 9, 1868 |
| Texas |
 |
Feb. 1, 1861 | March 2, 1861 | 1865 | March 30, 1870 |
| Virginia |
 |
April 17, 1861 | May 7, 1861 | 1865; (1862/63 for West Virginia) |
Jan. 26, 1870 |
| Arkansas |
.svg){kind=small} |
May 6, 1861 | May 18, 1861 | 1864 | June 22, 1868 |
| North Carolina |
 |
May 20, 1861 | May 21, 1861 | 1865 | July 4, 1868 |
| Tennessee |
 |
June 8, 1861 | July 2, 1861 | 1863 | July 24, 1866 |
| Missouri (exiled government) |
 |
Oct. 31, 1861 | Nov. 28, 1861 | 1861 | Unionist govt. appointed by Missouri Constitutional Convention 1861 |
| Kentucky (Russellville Convention) |
 |
Nov. 20, 1861 | Dec. 10, 1861 | 1861 | Elected Union and unelected rump Confederate governments from 1861 |
[edit] Geography
The Confederate States of America claimed a total of 2,919 miles (4,698 km) of coastline, thus a large part of its territory lay on the seacoast with level and often sandy or marshy ground. Most of the interior portion consisted of arable farmland, though much was also hilly and mountainous, and the far western territories were deserts. The lower reaches of the Mississippi River bisected the country, with the western half often referred to as the Trans-Mississippi. The highest point (excluding Arizona and New Mexico) was Guadalupe Peak in Texas at 8,750 feet (2,667 m).
[edit] Climate
Much of the area claimed by the Confederate States of America had a humid subtropical climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. The climate and terrain varied from vast swamps (such as those in Florida and Louisiana) to semi-arid steppes and arid deserts west of longitude 100 degrees west. The subtropical climate made winters mild but allowed infectious diseases to flourish. Consequently, on both sides more soldiers died from disease than were killed in combat,[174] a fact hardly atypical of pre–World War I conflicts.
[edit] Rural/urban configuration
The area claimed by the Confederate States of America consisted overwhelmingly of rural land. Few urban areas had populations of more than 1,000 – the typical county seat had a population of fewer than 500 people. Cities were rare. Of the twenty largest U.S. cities in the 1860 census, only New Orleans lay in Confederate territory[175] – and the Union captured New Orleans in 1862. Only 13 Confederate-controlled cities ranked among the top 100 U.S. cities in 1860, most of them ports whose economic activities vanished or suffered severely in the Union blockade. The population of Richmond swelled after it became the Confederate capital, reaching an estimated 128,000 in 1864.[176] Other Southern cities in the Border slave-holding states such as Baltimore MD, Washington DC, Wheeling VA/WV and Alexandria VA, Louisville KY, and St. Louis MO, never came under the control of the Confederate government.
The cities of the Confederacy included most prominently in order of size of population:
| # | City | 1860 population | 1860 U.S. rank | Return to U.S. control |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | New Orleans, Louisiana | 168,675 | 6 | 1862 |
| 2. | Charleston, South Carolina | 40,522 | 22 | 1865 |
| 3. | Richmond, Virginia | 37,910 | 25 | 1865 |
| 4. | Mobile, Alabama | 29,258 | 27 | 1865 |
| 5. | Memphis, Tennessee | 22,623 | 38 | 1862 |
| 6. | Savannah, Georgia | 22,619 | 41 | 1864 |
| 7. | Petersburg, Virginia | 18,266 | 50 | 1865 |
| 8. | Nashville, Tennessee | 16,988 | 54 | 1862 |
| 9. | Norfolk, Virginia | 14,620 | 61 | 1862 |
| 10. | Augusta, Georgia | 12,493 | 77 | 1865 |
| 11. | Columbus, Georgia | 9,621 | 97 | 1865 |
| 12. | Atlanta, Georgia | 9,554 | 99 | 1864 |
| 13. | Wilmington, North Carolina | 9,553 | 100 | 1865 |
(See also Atlanta in the Civil War, Charleston, South Carolina, in the Civil War, Nashville in the Civil War, New Orleans in the Civil War, Wilmington, North Carolina, in the American Civil War, and Richmond in the Civil War).
[edit] Demographics
The United States Census of 1860[177] gives a picture of the overall 1860 population of the areas that joined the Confederacy. Note that population-numbers exclude non-assimilated Indian tribes.
| State | Total Population |
Total # of Slaves |
Total # of Households |
Total Free Population |
Total #[178] Slaveholders |
% of Free Population Owning Slaves[179] |
Slaves as % of Population |
Total free colored |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 964,201 | 435,080 | 96,603 | 529,121 | 33,730 | 6% | 45% | 2,690 |
| Arkansas | 435,450 | 111,115 | 57,244 | 324,335 | 11,481 | 4% | 26% | 144 |
| Florida | 140,424 | 61,745 | 15,090 | 78,679 | 5,152 | 7% | 44% | 932 |
| Georgia | 1,057,286 | 462,198 | 109,919 | 595,088 | 41,084 | 7% | 44% | 3,500 |
| Louisiana | 708,002 | 331,726 | 74,725 | 376,276 | 22,033 | 6% | 47% | 18,647 |
| Mississippi | 791,305 | 436,631 | 63,015 | 354,674 | 30,943 | 9% | 55% | 773 |
| North Carolina | 992,622 | 331,059 | 125,090 | 661,563 | 34,658 | 5% | 33% | 30,463 |
| South Carolina | 703,708 | 402,406 | 58,642 | 301,302 | 26,701 | 9% | 57% | 9,914 |
| Tennessee | 1,109,801 | 275,719 | 149,335 | 834,082 | 36,844 | 4% | 25% | 7,300 |
| Texas | 604,215 | 182,566 | 76,781 | 421,649 | 21,878 | 5% | 30% | 355 |
| Virginia | 1,596,318 | 490,865 | 201,523 | 1,105,453 | 52,128 | 5% | 31% | 58,042 |
| Total | 9,103,332 | 3,521,110 | 1,027,967 | 5,582,222 | 316,632 | 6% | 39% | 132,760 |
(Figures for Virginia include the future West Virginia.)
| Age structure | 0–14 years | 15–59 years | 60 years and over |
|---|---|---|---|
| White males | 43% | 52% | 4% |
| White females | 44% | 52% | 4% |
| Male slaves | 44% | 51% | 4% |
| Female slaves | 45% | 51% | 3% |
| Free black males | 45% | 50% | 5% |
| Free black females | 40% | 54% | 6% |
| Total population | 44% | 52% | 4% |
(Rows may not total to 100% due to rounding)
In 1860 the areas that later formed the 11 Confederate States (and including the future West Virginia) had 132,760 (1.46%) free blacks. Males made up 49.2% of the total population and females 50.8% (whites: 48.60% male, 51.40% female; slaves: 50.15% male, 49.85% female; free blacks: 47.43% male, 52.57% female).[180]
[edit] Military leaders
Military leaders of the Confederacy (with their state or country of birth and highest rank)[181] included:
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[edit] See also
- Confederate colonies
- Confederate Patent Office
- Confederate Post Office
- Confederate Seal
- Confederate war finance
- Golden Circle (proposed country)
- History of the Southern United States
- Prisoner of war prisons and camps
- Postage stamps and postal history of the Confederate States
- For the 2004 film: C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America
States below the Mason-Dixon Line - articles “in the American Civil War”
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[edit] Notes
- ^ a b "Preventing Diplomatic Recognition of the Confederacy, 1861–1865". U.S. Department of State. http://history.state.gov/milestones/1861-1865/Confederacy.
- ^ McPherson, James M. (2007). This mighty scourge: perspectives on the Civil War. Oxford University Press US. p. 65. ISBN 9780195313666. http://books.google.com/?id=bJEINL6bakYC&pg=PA65&lpg=PA65&dq=confederacy+recognition.
- ^ Sedore, Timothy (2011). An Illustrated Guide to Virginia's Confederate Monuments. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. p. 289. ISBN 9780809330324.
- ^ a b Frank L. Owsley, State Rights in the Confederacy (Chicago, 1925), and (Thomas, “The Confederate Nation”, pp.155.
- ^ Cooper, William J.; Terrill, Tom E. (2009). The American South: a history. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. xix. ISBN 0-7425-6095-3.
- ^ Thomas “The Confederate Nation” pp.3-4
- ^ Thomas “The Confederate Nation” pp.4-5 and notes.
- ^ The first six signatory states establishing the Confederacy counted about one-fourth its population. They voted 43% for pro-Union candidates. The four states which entered after Fort Sumter held almost half its population. They voted 53% for pro-Union candidates. The three big turnout states voted extremes. Texas at 5% population voted only 20% pro-Union candidates. Kentucky and Missouri with one-fourth the Confederate population as claimed, voted a combined 68% for the pro-Union Lincoln, Douglas and Bell. See Table of election returns at United States presidential election, 1860.
- ^ Coulter, E. Merton, "The Confederate States of America 1861-1865" (1950) p.61. See also Avery O. Craven in "The Growth of Southern Nationalism 1848-1861" (1953) p.390.
- ^ Thomas “The Confederate Nation” pp.7-8
- ^ Thomas “The Confederate Nation” pp.7, 9
- ^ Craven, Avery O., "The Growth of Southern Nationalism. 1848-1861" (1953) LSU Press ISBN 978-08-0-710006-6, p.350
- ^ a b Freehling, William W. (1990). The Road to Disunion: Volume II, Secessionists Triumphant. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-505815-4. p. 398
- ^ Craven, "The Growth of Southern Nationalism", p. 366
- ^ Emory M. Thomas, The Confederate Nation: 1861–1865 (1979), pp. 83–84
- ^ Faust, Drew Gilpin (1988). The creation of Confederate nationalism : ideology and identity in the Civil War South. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. p. 59. ISBN 0807115096.
- ^ Murrin, John (2001). Liberty, Equality, Power. p. 1000. ISBN 0-495-09176-6.
- ^ McPherson pp. 232–233.
- ^ McPherson pg. 244. The text of Alexander Stephens' "Cornerstone Speech".
- ^ Davis, William C. (1994). A government of our own : the making of the Confederacy. New York: Free Press. pp. 294–295. ISBN 978-0-02-907735-1.
- ^ "What I Really Said in the Cornerstone Speech".Stephens, Alexander Hamilton; Avary, Myrta Lockett. (1998). Recollections of Alexander H. Stephens : his diary kept when a prisoner at Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, 1865, giving incidents and reflections of his prison life and some letters and reminiscence. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-2268-6.
- ^ The text of the Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union.
- ^ The text of A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union.
- ^ The text of Georgia's secession declaration.
- ^ a b The text of A Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union.
- ^ Freehling, pp. 448+
- ^ Freehling, p. 445
- ^ Freehling, pp. 391–394
- ^ Freehling, p.416
- ^ Freehling, pp. 418+
- ^ a b c d Freehling, p.503
- ^ Holzer, Harold (2008). Lincoln president-elect : Abraham Lincoln and the great secession winter 1860–1861. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-8948-1. p.429
- ^ February 28, 1861, Congress authorized Davis to accept state militias into national service. Confederate Act of Congress for “provisionals” on March 6, 1861, authorized 100,000 militia and volunteers under Davis' command. May 6, Congress empowered Davis to accept volunteers directly without state intermediaries. Keegan, John. The American Civil War: a military history 2009. ISBN 978-0-307-26343-8, p. 49
- ^ Thomas, Emory T., "The Confederate Nation: 1861-1865" 1979. ISBN 0-06-090703-7 Chapter 3. "Foundations of the Southern Nation".
- ^ Some southern unionists blamed Lincoln's call for troops as the precipitating event for the second wave of secessions. Historian James McPherson argues that such claims have "a self-serving quality" and regards them as misleading. He wrote:
As the telegraph chattered reports of the attack on Sumter April 12 and its surrender next day, huge crowds poured into the streets of Richmond, Raleigh, Nashville, and other upper South cities to celebrate this victory over the Yankees. These crowds waved Confederate flags and cheered the glorious cause of southern independence. They demanded that their own states join the cause. Scores of demonstrations took place from April 12 to 14, before Lincoln issued his call for troops. Many conditional unionists were swept along by this powerful tide of southern nationalism; others were cowed into silence.— McPherson p. 278
Historian Daniel W. Crofts disagrees with McPherson. Crofts wrote:
Crofts further noted that,The bombardment of Fort Sumter, by itself, did not destroy Unionist majorities in the upper South. Because only three days elapsed before Lincoln issued the proclamation, the two events viewed retrospectively, appear almost simultaneous. Nevertheless, close examination of contemporary evidence ... shows that the proclamation had a far more decisive impact.—Crofts p. 336Many concluded ... that Lincoln had deliberately chosen 'to drive off all the Slave states, in order to make war on them and annihilate slavery.'— Crofts pp. 337–338, quoting the North Carolina politician Jonathan Worth (1802–1869). - ^ Weigley (2000) p. 43 See also, Missouri's Ordinance of Secession.
- ^ The text of South Carolina's Ordinance of Secession. Also, "South Carolina documents including signatories". Docsouth.unc.edu. http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/southcar/south.html. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
- ^ The text of Mississippi's Ordinance of Secession.
- ^ The text of Florida's Ordinance of Secession.
- ^ The text of Alabama's Ordinance of Secession.
- ^ The text of Georgia's Ordinance of Secession.
- ^ The text of Louisiana's Ordinance of Secession.
- ^ The text of Texas' Ordinance of Secession.
- ^ The text of Virginia's Ordinance of Secession. Virginia seceded in two steps, first by secession convention vote on April 17, 1861, and then by ratification of this by a popular vote conducted on May 23, 1861. A Unionist Restored government of Virginia also operated. Virginia did not turn over its military to the Confederate States until June 8, 1861. The Commonwealth of Virginia ratified the Constitution of the Confederate States on June 19, 1861.
- ^ The text of Arkansas' Ordinance of Secession.
- ^ The text of Tennessee's Ordinance of Secession. The Tennessee legislature ratified an agreement to enter a military league with the Confederate States on May 7, 1861. Tennessee voters approved the agreement on June 8, 1861.
- ^ The text of North Carolina's Ordinance of Secession.
- ^ Curry, Richard Orr, A House Divided, A Study of Statehood Politics and the Copperhead Movement in West Virginia, Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, 1964, pg. 49
- ^ Rice, Otis K. and Stephen W. Brown, West Virginia, A History, Univ. of Kentucky Press, 1993, 2nd edition, pg. 112. Another way of looking at the results would note the pro-union candidates winning 56% with Bell 20,997, Douglas 5,742, and Lincoln 1,929 versus Breckinridge 21,908. But the "deeply divided sentiment" point remains.
- ^ The Civil War in West Virginia "No other state serves as a better example of this than West Virginia, where there was relatively equal support for the northern and southern causes."
- ^ Snell, Mark A., West Virginia and the Civil War, Mountaineers Are Always Free, History Press, Charleston, SC, 2011, pg. 28
- ^ Leonard, Cynthia Miller, The General Assembly of Virginia, July 30, 1619-January 11, 1978: A Bicentennial Register of Memebers, Virginia State Library, Richmond, VA, 1978, pgs. 478-493
- ^ ""Marx and Engels on the American Civil War", Army of the Cumberland and George H. Thomas source page and "Background of the Confederate States Constitution", The American Civil War Home Page.
- ^ Glatthaar, Joseph T., "General Lee's Army: from victory to collapse" 2008 ISBN 978-0-684-82787-2
- ^ Freedmen & Southern Society Project, Chronology of Emancipation during the Civil War, University of Maryland. Viewed January 4, 2012.
- ^ Bowman, p. 48.
- ^ History of Arizona vol. 2 by Thomas Edwin Farish (1915) [1].
- ^ Declaration by the People of the Cherokee Nation of the Causes Which Have Impelled Them to Unite Their Fortunes With Those of the Confederate States of America.
- ^ The Texas delegation was seated with full voting rights after its statewide referendum of secession on March 2, 1861. It is generally counted as an "original state" of the Confederacy. Four upper south states seceded following Lincoln's call for volunteers: Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina. "The founders of the Confederacy desired and ideally envisioned a peaceful creation of a new union of all slave-holding states, including the border states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri." Kentucky and Missouri were seated in December 1861. Kenneth C. Martis, The Historical Atlas of the Congresses of the Confederate States of America 1861-1865 (1994) p 8
- ^ The sessions of the Provisional Congress were in Montgomery, Alabama, (1) First Session February 4- March 10, and (2) Second Session April 29-May 21, 1861. The Capital was moved to Richmond May 30. The (3) Third Session was held July 20- August 31. The (4) Fourth Session called for September 3 was never held. The (5) Fifth Session was held November 18, 1861 – February 17,1862.
- ^ Martis, Historical Atlas, pp. 7-8.
- ^ Martis, Historical Atlas, pp.2.
- ^ "The San Jacinto, having overhauled the British mail packet Trent, forces her to heave to. Confederate commissioners Mason and Slidell were taken off shortly afterward". Loc.gov. http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3c08243/. Retrieved 2011-05-17.
- ^ a b William Seward to Charles Francis Adams, April 10, 1861 in Marion Mills Miller, (ed.) Life And Works Of Abraham Lincoln (1907) Vol 6.
- ^ "President Abraham Lincoln's Declaration of War". Sonofthesouth.net. 2007-01-26. http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1861/april/abraham-lincoln-declaration-war.htm. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
- ^ "Lincoln Proclamation". NY Times. April 15, 1861. http://www.nytimes.com/1861/04/15/news/proclamation-president-seventy-five-thousand-volunteers-extra-session-congress.html.
- ^ Violations of the rules of law were precipitated on both sides and can be found in historical accounts of guerilla war, units in cross-racial combat and captives held in prisoner of war camps, brutal, tragic accounts against both soldiers and civilian populations.
- ^ Moore, Frank (1861). The Rebellion Record. I. G.P. Putnam. pp. 195–197. ISBN 040510877X. http://books.google.com/?id=RKB2AAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Moore,%20Frank,%20#v=onepage&q=war%20exists%20between. Doc. 140. The places excepted in the Confederate States proclamation that “a war exists” were the places where slavery was allowed: States of Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, and Delaware, and the Territories of Arizona, and New Mexico, and the Indian Territory south of Kansas.
- ^ Texas v. White, 74 U.S. 700 (1868) at Cornell University Law School Supreme Court collection.
- ^ Blumenthal (1966)
- ^ Stanley Lebergott Why the South Lost: Commercial Purpose in the Confederacy, 1861–1865 The Journal of American History, Vol. 70, No. 1. (June, 1983), p. 61.
- ^ Blumenthal (1966); Jones (2009); Owsley (1959)
- ^ In November 1863, Confederate diplomat A. Dudley Mann met Pope Pius IX in Rome and received a letter addressed "to the Illustrious and Honorable Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America". Mann, in his dispatch to Richmond, interpreted the letter as "a positive recognition of our Government". Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin, however, interpreted it as "a mere inferential recognition, unconnected with political action or the regular establishment of diplomatic relations" and thus did not assign it the weight of formal recognition. See Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, p. 1015.
- ^ Alexander DeConde, ed. Encyclopedia of American foreign policy (2001) vol 1 p 202 and Wise, Stephen R., Lifeline of the Confederacy: Blockade Running During the Civil War, University of South Carolina Press, 1991, ISBN 0872497992, 9780872497993, p. 86.
- ^ Wise, Stephen R., Lifeline of the Confederacy: Blockade Running During the Civil War, University of South Carolina Press, 1991, ISBN 0872497992, 9780872497993, p. 86.
- ^ Thomas, “The Confederate Nation” pp.219-220
- ^ Scholars such as Emory M. Thomas have characterized Girard’s book as “more propaganda than anything else, but Girard caught one essential truth”, the quote referenced. (Thomas, “The Confederate Nation”, pp.220).
- ^ Thomas, “The Confederate Nation” pp.220
- ^ Thomas, “The Confederate Nation” pp.220, 219, 221.
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.342-343
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.348
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.343
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.346
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.333-338
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.338. The Confederacy suffered a horse epidemic and widespread breakdown of draft animals for artillery and wagons from lack of proper feed. The Union put in place systematic horse-breeding for Army use.
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.286
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.306
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.287-8. The principal ports on the Atlantic were Wilmington NC, Charleston SC, and Savannah GA for supplies from Europe via Bermuda and Nassau. On the Gulf were Galveston TX and New Orleans LA for those from Havana, Cuba and Mexican ports of Tampico and Vera Cruz.
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.296, 304. Two days later Lincoln proclaimed a blockade, declaring them pirates. Davis responded with letters of marque to protect privateers from outlaw status. Some of the early raiders were converted merchantmen seized in Southern ports at the outbreak of the war
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.299-300
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.299, 302. The Torpedo Bureau seeded defensive water-borne mines in principal harbors and rivers to compromise the Union naval superiority. These "torpedoes" were said to have caused more loss in U.S. naval ships and transports than by any other cause.
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.321
- ^ 1862blackCSN.
- ^ Rubin p. 104.
- ^ Levine pp. 146–147.
- ^ Following a near victory at Manassas, the Federal rout was epically described and often paraphrased from two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Margaret Leech’s “Reveille in Washington” (1942) ISBN 978-1-93-131323-0
- ^ Stephens, Alexander H. (1870) (PDF) A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States 2 p. 36 http://ia300043.us.archive.org/1/items/constitutionalview02steprich/constitutionalview02steprich.pdf "I maintain that it was inaugurated and begun, though no blow had been struck, when the hostile fleet, styled the 'Relief Squadron,' with eleven ships, carrying two hundred and eighty-five guns and two thousand four hundred men, was sent out from New York and Norfolk, with orders from the authorities at Washington, to reinforce Fort Sumter peaceably, if permitted 'but forcibly if they must'..." After the war, Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens maintained that Lincoln's attempt to resupply Sumter was a disguised reinforcement and had provoked the war.
- ^ Lincoln's proclamation calling for troops from the remaining states (bottom of page); Department of War details to States (top).
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.352-353.
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.353.
- ^ Ambler, Charles, Francis H. Pierpont: Union War Governor of Virginia and father of West Virginia, Univ. of North Carolina, 1937, pg. 419, note 36. Letter of Adjutant General Henry L. Samuels, August 22, 1862, to Gov. Francis Pierpont listing 22 of 48 counties under sufficient control for soldier recruitment.
Congressional Globe, 37th Congress, 3rd Session, Senate Bill S.531, Feb. 14, 1863 "A bill supplemental to the act entitled 'An act for the Admission of the State of 'West Virginia' into the Union, and for other purposes' which would include the counties of "Boone, Logan, Wyoming, Mercer, McDowell, Pocahontas, Raleigh, Greenbrier, Monroe, Pendleton, Fayette, Nicholas, and Clay, now in the possession of the so-called confederate government." - ^ Glatthaar, Joseph T., “General Lee’s Army: from victory to collapse”, Free Press 2008. ISBN 978-0-684-82787-2, p. xiv. Inflicting intolerable casualties on invading Federal armies was a Confederate strategy to make the northern Unionists relent in their pursuit of restoring the Union.
- ^ a b c Martis, Historical Atlas, pp. 27. In the Mississippi River Valley, over the first half of February, central Tennessee’s Fort Henry was lost and Fort Donelson fell with a small army. By the end of the month, Nashville TN was the first conquered Confederate state capital. On April 6-7 Federals turned back the Confederate offensive at the Pittsburg Landing TN, and three days later Island Number 10 controlling the upper Mississippi River fell to a combined Army and Naval gunboat siege of three weeks. Confederate River Defense fleet sank two Union ships at Plum Point Bend, but they withdrew and Fort Pillow was captured downriver.
- ^ a b c Martis, Historical Atlas, pp. 28.
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.354. Federal sea-based amphibious forces captured Roanoke Island NC along with a large garrison in February. In March, Confederates abandoned forts at Fernandia and St. Augustine FL, and lost New Berne NC. In April, New Orleans fell and Savannah GA was closed by the Battle of Fort Pulaski. May saw retreating Confederates burn their two pre-war Navy yards at Norfolk and Pensacola. See Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p. 287, 306, 302
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.294, 296-7. Europeans refused to allow captured U.S. shipping to be sold for the privateers 95% share, so through1862, Confederate privateering disappeared; the CS Congress then authorized a Volunteer Navy to man cruisers the following year.
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.288-291. As many as half the Confederate blockade runners were officered and manned by British nationals. Confederate regulations required one-third, then one-half cargos to be munitions, food and medicine.
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p. 287, 306, 302, 306 and CSS Atlanta, USS Atlanta. Navy Heritage. The joint combined Army-Navy defense by General Robert E. Lee and his successor and Commodore Josiah Tattnall's repelled amphibious assault of Savannah for the duration of the war. General Techumseh Sherman captured Savannah from behind in December 1864. The British blockade runner HMS Fingal was purchased and converted to the ironclad CSS Atlanta. It made two sorties, was captured, repaired, and returned to service as the ironclad USS Atlanta supporting Grant's Siege of Petersburg.
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.303. French shipyards built four corvettes, and two ironclad rams for the Confederacy, but the American minister prevented their delivery. British firms contracted to build two additional ironclad rams, but under threat from the U.S., the British government bought them for their own navy. Two of the converted blockade runners effectively raided up and down the Atlantic coast until the end of the war.
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p. 354-356. McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign caused the surprised Confederates to destroy their winter camp to mobilize against the threat to their Capital. They burned “a vast amount of supplies” to keep them from falling into enemy hands.
- ^ Nevin's analysis of the strategic highpoint of Confederate military scope and effectiveness is in contra-distinction to the conventional "last chance" battlefield imagery of the High-water mark of the Confederacy found at "The Angle" of the Battle of Gettysburg.
- ^ Allan Nevins, War for the Union (1960) pp 289–90. Weak national leadership led to disorganized overall direction in contrast to improved organization in Washington. With another 10,000 men Lee and Bragg might have prevailed in the border states, but the local populations did not respond to their pleas to recruit additional soldiers.
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.357
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.356
- ^ Martis (1994) pp. 28.
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.297-8. They were required to supply their own ships and equipment, but they received 90% of their captures at auction, 25% of any U.S. warships or transports captured or destroyed. Confederate cruisers raided merchant ship commerce but for one exception in 1864.
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.294
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.306
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, CSS Atlanta, USS Atlanta. Navy Heritage
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.305
- ^ Coulter, “The Confederate States of America”, p.287
- ^ The crew of the CSS Shenandoah hauled down the last Confederate flag at Liverpool in the UK on November 5, 1865. John Baldwin (Author), Ron Powers (Author). Last Flag Down: The Epic Journey of the Last Confederate Warship (May 6, 2008 ed.). Three Rivers Press. p. 368. ISBN 0307236560.
- ^ Gallagher p. 157
- ^ Owsley, "Local Defense and the Overthrow of the Confederacy", Mississippi Valley Historical Review 11 (Mar. 1925): 492–525, in JSTOR
- ^ Rable (1994) 257. For a detailed criticism of Owsley's argument see Richard E. Beringer, William N. Still. Jr., Archer Jones and Herman Hattaway, Why the South Lost the Civil War (1986) pp 443-57
- ^ Rable (1994) p. 258, 259
- ^ John Moretta; "Pendleton Murrah and States Rights in Civil War Texas," Civil War History, Vol. 45, 1999.
- ^ Albert Burton Moore, Conscription and Conflict in the Confederacy. (1924) p. 295.
- ^ Cooper (2000) p. 462. Rable (1994) pp. 2–3. Rable wrote, "But despite heated arguments and no little friction between the competing political cultures of unity and liberty, antiparty and broader fears about politics in general shaped civic life. These beliefs could obviously not eliminate partisanship or prevent Confederates from holding on to and exploiting old political prejudices. Indeed, some states, notably Georgia and North Carolina, remained political tinderboxes throughout the war. Even the most bitter foes of the Confederate government, however, refused to form an opposition party, and the Georgia dissidents, to cite the most prominent example, avoided many traditional political activities. Only in North Carolina did there develop anything resembling a party system, and there the central values of the Confederacy's two political cultures had a far more powerful influence on political debate than did organizational maneuvering."
- ^ David Herbert Donald, ed. Why the North Won the Civil War. (1996) p.112–113. Potter wrote in his contribution to this book, "Where parties do not exist, criticism of the administration is likely to remain purely an individual matter; therefore the tone of the criticism is likely to be negative, carping, and petty, as it certainly was in the Confederacy. But where there are parties, the opposition group is strongly impelled to formulate real alternative policies and to press for the adoption of these policies on a constructive basis. ... But the absence of a two-party system meant the absence of any available alternative leadership, and the protest votes which were cast in the [1863 Confederate mid-term] election became more expressions of futile and frustrated dissatisfaction rather than implements of a decision to adopt new and different policies for the Confederacy."
- ^ Rable (1994) p. 265.
- ^ Davis p. 248.
- ^ Martis, Kenneth C., “The Historical Atlas of the Congresses of the Confederate States of America: 1861-1865” Simon & Schuster (1994) IBSN 0-13-389115-1 pp.1
- ^ Martis, Historical Atlas, pp.1
- ^ Martis, Historical Atlas, pp.72-73
- ^ Martis, Historical Atlas, pp.3
- ^ Martis, Historical Atlas, pp.90-91
- ^ ""Legal Materials on the Confederate States of America in the Schaffer Law Library", Albany Law School". Albanylaw.edu. http://www.albanylaw.edu/sub.php?navigation_id=821. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
- ^ a b c [Moise, E. Warren, Rebellion in the Temple of Justice (iUniverse 2003)]
- ^ "Records of District Courts of the United States, National Archives". Archives.gov. http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/021.html. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
- ^ "JOHN H. REAGAN – The Old Roman". John H. Reagan Camp #2156; Sons of Confederate Veterans
. http://www.reaganscvcamp.org/. Retrieved 2010-11-17. - ^ "REAGAN, John Henninger, (1818–1905)".
Biographical Directory of the United States. http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=r000098. Retrieved 2011-02-19. - ^ "U.S. Postal Issue Used in the Confederacy (1893)". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. http://arago.si.edu/index.asp?con=1&cmd=1&mode=&tid=2040514. Retrieved 2011-01-29.
- ^ Walter Flavius McCaleb, "The Organization of the Post-Office Department of the Confederacy," American Historical Review Vol. 12, No. 1 (Oct., 1906), pp. 66–74 in JSTOR
- ^ L. R. Garrison, "Administrative Problems of the Confederate Post Office Department I," Southwestern Historical Quarterly Vol. 19, No. 2 (Oct., 1915), pp. 111–141 and Vol. 19, No. 3 (Jan., 1916), pp. 232–250 in JSTOR and in JSTOR
- ^ "Confederate States Post Office". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. http://arago.si.edu/index.asp?con=1&cmd=1&tid=2027888. Retrieved 2010-11-17.
- ^ Neely (1999) p.1
- ^ Neely (1999) p. 172. Neely notes that. "Most surprising of all, the Confederacy at a greater rate than the North arrested persons who held opposition political views at least in part because they held them, despite the Confederacy's vaunted lack of political parties. Such arrests were more common before 1863 while memories of the votes on secession remained fresh."
- ^ Neely (1993) pp. 11, 16.
- ^ Thomas “The Confederate Nation” pp.13-14
- ^ Thomas “The Confederate Nation” p.10
- ^ Thomas “The Confederate Nation” pp.11-12
- ^ Thomas “The Confederate Nation” p.12
- ^ Thomas “The Confederate Nation” pp.14-15
- ^ Thomas “The Confederate Nation” pp.15-16
- ^ Thomas “The Confederate Nation” p.16
- ^ Tariff of the Confederate States of America, May 21, 1861.
- ^ Ian Drury, ed. (2003) [2000]. "American Civil War: Naval & Economic Warfare". History of war. London: Times Books. p. 138. ISBN 0007164580. "The Confederacy underwent a government-led industrial revolution during the war, but its economy was slowly strangled."
- ^ Ian Drury, ed. (2003) [2000] "American Civil War: Naval & Economic Warfare" History of war London: Times Books p. 138 ISBN 0007164580 "Like other belligerents unable to occupy enemy territory effectively, the US army resorted to raids. The most spectacular was Sherman's march through Georgia to the sea. This not only inflicted economic damage on the areas traversed, but disrupted the railways that supplied Confederate armies."
- ^ Pictured here, the now Union locomotive after it escaped from Confederates on August 1, 1863 near Union Mills. Holes in the smokestack are from Confederate shot are visible.
- ^ Hankey, John P. (2011). "The Railroad War". Trains (Kalmbach Publishing Company) 71 (3): 24–35.
- ^ Charles W. Ramsdell, "The Confederate Government and the Railroads, American Historical Review, Vol. 22, No. 4 (July, 1917), p. 795.
- ^ Charles W. Ramsdell The Confederate Government and the Railroads The American Historical Review, Vol. 22, No. 4 (July, 1917), p. 795.
- ^ Mary Elizabeth Massey. Ersatz in the Confederacy (1952) p. 128.
- ^ Ramsdell, "The Confederate Government and the Railroads," pp. 809–810.
- ^ Spencer Jones, "The Influence of Horse Supply Upon Field Artillery in the American Civil War," Journal of Military History, (Apr 2010), 74#2 pp 357-377,
- ^ G. Terry Sharrer, "The great glanders epizootic, 1861-1866," Agricultural History, (Win 1995) 69#1 pp 79-97 in JSTOR
- ^ Keith Miller, "Southern Horse," Civil War Times, (Feb 2006) 45#1 pp 30-36 online
- ^ Richard Burdekin and Farrokh Langdana, "War Finance in the Southern Confederacy, 1861–1865", Explorations in Economic History, Vol 30, No 3, July 1993
- ^ "The SS ''Republic'' Shipwreck Project: the Coin Collection, p.23" (PDF). http://www.shipwreck.net/pdf/OMEPaper7_000.pdf. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
- ^ Paul F. Paskoff, "Measures of War: A Quantitative Examination of the Civil War's Destructiveness in the Confederacy," Civil War History, March 2008, Vol. 54 Issue 1, pp 35–62
- ^ Paskoff, "Measures of War"
- ^ John Samuel Ezell, The South since 1865 1963 pp 27–28
- ^ Two-thirds of soldiers' deaths occurred due to disease. Nofi, Al (2001-06-13). "Statistics on the War's Costs". Louisiana State University. Archived from the original on 2007-07-11. http://web.archive.org/web/20070711050249/http://www.cwc.lsu.edu/other/stats/warcost.htm. Retrieved 2008-09-08.
- ^ "U.S. Bureau of the Census, Population of the 100 Largest Urban Places: 1860, Internet Release date: June 15, 1998". http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027/tab09.txt. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
- ^ Dabney 1990 p. 182
- ^ "1860 Census of Population and Housing". Census.gov. 2009-01-07. http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/decennial/1860.htm. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
- ^ Form available for viewing at http://c.ancestry.com/pdf/trees/charts/1860Slave.pdf shows how data on slave ownership was collected.
- ^ Calculated by dividing the number of owners (obtained via the census) by the number of free persons.
- ^ All data for this section taken from the University of Virginia Library, Historical Census Browser, Census Data for Year 1860.
- ^ Eicher, Civil War High Commands.
[edit] References
- Bowman, John S. (ed), The Civil War Almanac, New York: Bison Books, 1983
- Eicher, John H., & Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3
- Martis, Kenneth C. The Historical Atlas of the Congresses of the Confederate States of America 1861-1865 (1994) ISBN: 0133891151
- Wilentz, Sean, The Rise of American Democracy, W.W. Norton & Co., ISBN 0-393-32921-6
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Overviews
- Coulter, E. Merton The Confederate States of America, 1861–1865, 1950
- Beringer, Richard E., William N. Still. Jr., Archer Jones and Herman Hattaway, Why the South Lost the Civil War (1986)
- Current, Richard N., ed. Encyclopedia of the Confederacy (4 vol), 1993. 1900 pages, articles by scholars.
- William C. Davis (2003). Look Away! A History of the Confederate States of America. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0-684-86585-8.
- Eaton, Clement A History of the Southern Confederacy, 1954
- Boritt, Gabor S., and others., Why the Confederacy Lost, (1992)
- Gallgher, Gary W., The Confederate War, 1999
- Faust, Patricia L. ed, Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War, 1986
- Gallagher, Gary W. The Confederate War (1997) ISBN 0-674-16055-X
- Heidler, David S., and others. Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, 2002 2400 pages (ISBN 0-393-04758-X)
- McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom. (1988), standard military history of the war; Pulitzer Prize
- Nevins, Allan. War for the Union (4 vol 1960–1971), the most detailed history of the war.
- Roland, Charles P. The Confederacy, (1960) brief survey
- Rubin, Sarah Anne A Shattered Nation: The Rise & Fall of the Confederacy 1861–1868 (2005)
- Thomas, Emory M. Confederate Nation: 1861–1865, 1979 Standard political-economic-social history
- Wakelyn, Jon L. Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy Greenwood Press ISBN 0-8371-6124-X
- Weigley, Russell F. A Great Civil War: A Military and Political History, 1861–1865. (2000) ISBN 0-253-33738-0
[edit] Historiography
- Gallagher, Gary W., “Disaffection, Persistence, and Nation: Some Directions in Recent Scholarship on the Confederacy,” Civil War History, 55 (Sept. 2009), 329–53. Historiography
- Woodworth, Steven E. ed. The American Civil War: A Handbook of Literature and Research, 1996 750 pages of historiography and bibliography
[edit] State studies
- Ayers, Edward L. and others. Crucible of the Civil War: Virginia from Secession to Commemoration (2008)
- Crofts, Daniel W. Reluctant Confederates: Upper South Unionists in the Secession Crisis. (1989) ISBN 0-8078-1809-7.
- Dollar, Kent, and others. Sister States, Enemy States: The Civil War in Kentucky and Tennessee (2009) excerpt and text search
- Fleming, Walter Lynwood. Civil war and reconstruction in Alabama (1905); 815 pages online edition
- Inscoe, John C. The Heart of Confederate Appalachia: Western North Carolina in the Civil War (2003) excerpt and text search
- Lee, Edward J. and Ron Chepesiuk, eds. South Carolina in the Civil War: The Confederate Experience in Letters and Diaries (2004), primary sources
- Smith, Timothy B. Mississippi in the Civil War: The Home Front (University Press of Mississippi, 2010) 265 pages; Examines the declining morale of Mississippians as they witnessed extensive destruction and came to see victory as increasingly improbable
- Snell, Mark A. West Virginia and the Civil War, Mountaineers Are Always Free, (2011) ISBN 978-1-59629-888-0.
- Wallenstein, Peter, and Bertram Wyatt-Brown, eds. Virginia's Civil War (2008) excerpt and text search
- Woods, James M. Rebellion and Realignment: Arkansas's Road to Secession. (1987)
[edit] Economic and social history
- Bernath, Michael T. Confederate Minds: The Struggle for Intellectual Independence in the Civil War South (University of North Carolina Press; 2010) 412 pages. Examines the efforts of writers, editors, and other "cultural nationalists" to free the South from the dependence on Northern print culture and educational systems.
- Black, Robert C., III. The Railroads of the Confederacy, 1988.
- Bonner, Michael Brem. "Expedient Corporatism and Confederate Political Economy," Civil War History, 56 (March 2010), 33–65.
- Clinton, Catherine, and Silber, Nina, eds. Divided Houses: Gender and the Civil War, 1992
- Dabney, Virginius Richmond: The Story of a City. Charlottesville: The University of Virginia Press, 1990 ISBN 0-8139-1274-1
- Faust, Drew Gilpin Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War, 1996
- Grimsley, Mark The Hard Hand of War: Union Military Policy toward Southern Civilians, 1861–1865, 1995
- Lentz, Perry Carlton Our Missing Epic: A Study in the Novels about the American Civil War, 1970
- Massey, Mary Elizabeth Bonnet Brigades: American Women and the Civil War, 1966
- Massey, Mary Elizabeth Refugee Life in the Confederacy, 1964
- Rable, George C. Civil Wars: Women and the Crisis of Southern Nationalism, 1989
- Ramsdell, Charles. Behind the Lines in the Southern Confederacy, 1994.
- Roark, James L. Masters without Slaves: Southern Planters in the Civil War and Reconstruction, 1977.
- Wiley, Bell Irwin Confederate Women, 1975
- Wiley, Bell Irwin The Plain People of the Confederacy, 1944
- Woodward, C. Vann, ed. Mary Chesnut's Civil War, 1981
[edit] Politics
- Alexander, Thomas B., and Beringer, Richard E. The Anatomy of the Confederate Congress: A Study of the Influences of Member Characteristics on Legislative Voting Behavior, 1861–1865, (1972)
- Cooper, William J, Jefferson Davis, American (2000), standard biography
- Davis, William C. A Government of Our Own. (1994) ISBN 0-8071-2177-0
- Eckenrode, H. J., Jefferson Davis: President of the South, 1923
- Martis, Kenneth C., “The Historical Atlas of the Congresses of the Confederate States of America 1861-1865” (1994) ISBN 0-13-389115-1
- Neely, Mark E., Jr., Confederate Bastille: Jefferson Davis and Civil Liberties (1993)
- Neely, Mark E. Jr. Southern Rights: Political Prisoners and the Myth of Confederate Constitutionalism. (1999) ISBN 0-8139-1894-4
- Rable, George C., The Confederate Republic: A Revolution against Politics, 1994
- Rembert, W. Patrick Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet (1944).
- Williams, William M. Justice in Grey: A History of the Judicial System of the Confederate States of America (1941)
- Yearns, Wilfred Buck The Confederate Congress (1960)
[edit] Race and ideology
- Bonner, Robert E., “Proslavery Extremism Goes to War: The Counterrevolutionary Confederacy and Reactionary Militarism,” Modern Intellectual History, 6 (Aug. 2009), 261–85.
- Downing, David C. A South Divided: Portraits of Dissent in the Confederacy. (2007). ISBN 978-1-58182-587-9
- Faust, Drew Gilpin. The Creation of Confederate Nationalism: Ideology and Identity in the Civil War South. (1988)
- Levine, Bruce Confederate Emancipation. (2006)
- Rubin, Anne Sarah. A Shattered Nation: The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy, 1861–1868, 2005 A cultural study of Confederates' self images
- Thomas, Emory M. The Confederacy as a Revolutionary Experience, 1992
[edit] Foreign affairs
- Blumenthal, Henry. "Confederate Diplomacy: Popular Notions and International Realities," Journal of Southern History, Vol. 32, No. 2 (May, 1966), pp. 151–171 in JSTOR
- Daddysman, James W. The Matamoros Trade: Confederate Commerce, Diplomacy, and Intrigue. (1984)
- Foreman, Amanda. A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War (2011) especially on Brits inside the Confederacy; excerpt and text search
- Hubbard, Charles M. The Burden of Confederate Diplomacy (1998)
- Jones, Howard. Blue and Gray Diplomacy: A History of Union and Confederate Foreign Relations (2009) excerpt and text search
- Merli, Frank J. The Alabama, British Neutrality, and the American Civil War (2004). 225 pp.
- Owsley, Frank. King Cotton Diplomacy: Foreign Relations of the Confederate States of America (2nd ed. 1959)
[edit] Primary sources
- Carter, Susan B., ed. The Historical Statistics of the United States: Millennial Edition (5 vols), 2006
- Commager, Henry Steele, ed. The Blue and the Gray, the Story of the Civil War as Told By Participants (2 vol.; 1950 and many reprints)
- Davis, Jefferson, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (2 vols), 1881.
- Harwell, Richard B., The Confederate Reader (1957)
- Jones, John B. A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, edited by Howard Swiggert, [1935] 1993. 2 vols.
- Richardson, James D., ed. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Confederacy, Including the Diplomatic Correspondence 1861–1865, 2 volumes, 1906.
- Yearns, W. Buck and Barret, John G.,eds. North Carolina Civil War Documentary, 1980.
- Confederate official government documents major online collection of complete texts in HTML format, from University of North Carolina
- Journal of the Congress of the Confederate States of America, 1861–1865 (7 vols), 1904. Available online at the Library of Congress
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Confederate States of America |
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Wikisource has the text of the 1879 American Cyclopædia article Confederate States of America. |
- Confederate offices Index of Politicians by Office Held or Sought
- Civil War Research & Discussion Group -*Confederate States of Am. Army and Navy Uniforms, 1861
- The Countryman, 1862–1866, published weekly by Turnwold, Ga., edited by J.A. Turner
- The Federal and the Confederate Constitution Compared
- Confederate Currency
- Confederate Postage Stamps
- Photographs of the original Confederate Constitution and other Civil War documents owned by the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Georgia Libraries.
- Photographic History of the Civil War, 10 vols., 1912.
- DocSouth: Documenting the American South – numerous online text, image, and audio collections.
- Civil War records at the National Archives at Atlanta- includes Confederate records, such as Confederate court documents, Confederate records collected by the U.S. War Department during the Civil War and Confederate records collected by the Treasury Department during Civil War
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