Confederate
The Confederate States of America (CSA, also known as the Confederacy) was the government formed by the southern states that seceded from the United States during the period of the American Civil War.
The Confederacy was formed on February 4, 1861 and Jefferson Davis was selected as its first president the next day.
For most of its duration, the Confederacy was engaged in the American Civil War against the remainder of the Union.
Its constitution was very similar to that of the United States (or the "Union"), although it reflected a stronger philosophy of states' rights, and it also contained an explicit protection of the institution of slavery.
For instance, the federal government was prohibited from issuing protective tariffs or funding internal improvements, but mandated to protect the institution of slavery in the territories.
At the drafting of the Constitution of the Confederacy, many radical proposals such as allowing only slave states to join and to reinstate the Atlantic slave trade were turned down, resulting a relatively moderate founding document.
The Constitution specifically did not include a provision allowing states to secede, since the southerners had believed this to be a right inherent in the U.S. Constitution, and thus including it as such would have weakened their original argument for secession.
Unlike the U.S. president, the president of the Confederacy was to be elected to a six-year term and could not be reelected. The only president was Jefferson Davis; the Confederacy was defeated by Union forces before he could finish out his term.
Although the preamble refers to "each State acting in its sovereign and independent character", it also refers to the formation of a "permanent federal government," thus seeming to deny to the Southern states the very right to secession that they claimed for themselves when they left the United States.
Also, although slavery was enshrined in the constitution, it also prohibited the importation of new slaves from outside the Confederacy.
Although negotiations took place between the Confederacy and several European powers (including France and England), it was never granted formal recognition by any foreign state.
The capital of the Confederacy was Montgomery, Alabama, from February 4 1861 until May 29 1861, when it was moved to Richmond, Virginia (Richmond was named the new capital on May 6). Shortly before the end of the war the Confederate government evacuated Richmond with plans to relocate further south, but little came of this before Lee's surrender.
The official flag of the Confederacy, and the one actually called the "Stars and Bars," was sometimes hard to distinguish from the Union flag under battle conditions, so the Confederate battle flag, the "Southern Cross," became the one more commonly used and, therefore, the one most people associate with the Confederacy today. (It is often called the "Stars and Bars," too, but should not be.) The Stars and Bars had seven stars, for the seven states that had seceded from the Union by the time it was adopted; the Southern Cross had thirteen stars, for the eleven states that did secede and for the two that were admitted to the Confederacy but that had either declared neutrality or been prevented from seceding by Union occupation, so they had representatives in both governments: Kentucky and Missouri.
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| Stars and Bars | Southern Cross |
See also: Flags of the Confederate States of America
Timeline
- December 20, 1860 - South Carolina secedes from the Union.
- February, 1861 - A constitutional convention prepares a provisional constitution and chooses members of a provisional government.
- March 11, 1861 - A permanent constitution is ratified.
- February 14, 1862 - Confederate Arizona Territory is organized.
- February 18, 1862 - A permanent legislature is established.
- January 5, 1863 - Jefferson Davis reacts to Emancipation Proclamation with speech calling for free blacks to be reenslaved
- March 13, 1865 - Faced with severe manpower shortages the CSA reluctantly agreed to use African American troops.
- March 18, 1865 - The Congress of the CSA adjourned for the last time.
- April 2, 1865 - Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet flee the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.
- April 3, 1865 - Union forces capture the capital Richmond, Virginia.
- April 9, 1865 - Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, thereby effectively putting an end to the Confederacy.
States that seceded
- South Carolina (December 20, 1860)
- Mississippi (January 9, 1861)
- Florida (January 10,1861)
- Alabama (January 11, 1861)
- Georgia (January 19, 1861)
- Louisiana (January 26, 1861)
- Texas (February 1, 1861)
- Virginia (April 17, 1861)
- Arkansas (May 6, 1861)
- Tennessee (May 7, 1861)
- North Carolina (May 21, 1861)
Political leaders of the Confederacy
Military leaders of the Confederacy
External links
Referenced By
1825 | 1865 | 6 December | 6th December | 9 November | 9th November | American Civil War spies | Arkansas Democrat | Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | Arkansas Gazette | Army of the Potomac (Confederate) | Augustus H. Garland | Augustus Hill Garland | Battle of Chickamauga | Battle of Elkhorn Tavern | Battle of Five Forks | Battle of Helena | Battle of Palmito Ranch | Battle of Pea Ridge | Battle of Piedmont | Battle of Prairie Grove | Battle of Rio Hill | Battle of Shiloh | Beauvoir | Beverly Robertson | Blue Mountain College | Bowie knife | Braxton Bragg | CSS Arkansas | CSS McRae | Camp Nelson Confederate Cemetery | Charles Read | Charles Wilkes | Cleburne County, Arkansas | Confederados | Cross County, Arkansas | Cynthia Ann Parker | December 6 | December 6th | Edmund Pettus | Edmund Winston Pettus | Ex Parte Garland | Forrest County, Mississippi | Fort Henry, Tennessee | General George Patton | General Patton | George G. Meade | George Gordon Meade | George Meade | George Patton | George S. Patton | George W. Randolph | Gettysburg Confederate Order of Battle | Historical anniversaries/November 9 | Infantry Regiment | Isaac Murphy | Jacksonport, Arkansas | James Reavis | Jefferson Davis County, Mississippi | Jesse James | John E. Wool | John F. Reynolds | John Hunt Morgan | John Mosby | John S. Mosby | John Selden Roane | John Singleton Mosby | Joseph E. Johnston | Joseph Hooker | Joseph Johnston | Jubal A. Early | Jubal Early | Klu Klux Klan | Ku Klux Klan | Lee County, Arkansas | Lincoln, Nebraska | List of people by name: Ea | List of people by name: Hi | List of people by name: Hi-Hm | List of people by name: Hj | List of people by name: Hk | List of people by name: Hl | List of people by name: Hm | Lloyd Tilghman | Lucy Parsons | Lynchburg, Virginia | Marmaduke, Arkansas | Martin Van Buren Bates | National Cemetery | Newburgh, Indiana | November 9 | November 9th | Old Washington Historic State Park | Old Washington State Park | Patrick Cleburne | Pickett's Charge | Posse Comitatus Act | Prairie Grove, Arkansas | Quantrill's Raiders | Regiment ...
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