Confederate States of America

Confederate States of America

The Confederacy was formed on February 8, 1861, by the seven secessionist slave states: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. Convinced that white supremacy and the institution of slavery were threatened, the Confederacy declared its secession in rebellion against the United States. In 1865, after four years of heavy fighting and 620,000–850,000 military deaths, all Confederate land and naval forces either surrendered or otherwise ceased hostilities.

About Confederate States of America in brief

Summary Confederate States of AmericaThe Confederacy was formed on February 8, 1861, by the seven secessionist slave states: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. Convinced that white supremacy and the institution of slavery were threatened, the Confederacy declared its secession in rebellion against the United States. After the war, Confederate states were readmitted to the Union during the Reconstruction era, after each ratified the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which outlawed slavery. In 1865, after four years of heavy fighting and 620,000–850,000 military deaths, all Confederate land and naval forces either surrendered or otherwise ceased hostilities. The most significant capitulation was Confederate general Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox on April 9, after which any lingering doubt regarding the war’s outcome andor the Confederacy’s prospect for survival was extinguished. The Confederacy’s civilian government disintegrated in a chaotic manner: the Confederate States Congress effectively ceased to exist as a legislative body following its final adjournment sine die on March 18. Confederate President Jefferson Davis’s administration declared the Confederacy dissolved on May 5, and Davis himself acknowledged in later writings that the Confederacy \”disappeared\” in 1865. The modern Lost Cause ideology—an idealized view of the Confederacy as valiantly fighting for a just cause—emerged in the decades after the war among former Confederate generals and politicians, as well as organizations such as the United Daughters of the Confederate and the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

The Lost Cause advocates sought to paint the Confederacy in a favorable light to ensure future generations would continue to support white supremacist policies such as Jim Crow laws and Confederate flags in the late 1940s and 1950s. The Confederate States Constitution of 1862 replaced the Provisional Constitution of 1861, with one stating its preamble for a “permanent federal government”. Four additional states – Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina – also joined the Confederacy, but neither officially declared secession nor were they ever largely controlled by Confederate forces, despite the efforts of Confederate shadow governments which were eventually expelled. In a speech known today as the Cornerstone Address, Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens described its ideology as being centrally based “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’”. The government of the United states rejected the claims of secession as illegitimate, and many Northerners thought of the Confederates as traitors. The Civil War began on April 12, 1861,. when the Confederating attacked Fort Sumter, a Union fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. Great Britain and France granted it belligerent status, which allowed Confederate agents to contract with private concerns for arms and other supplies. The Confederacy later accepted the slave states of Missouri and Kentucky as members, although neither officially declaring secession nor weren’t ever entirely controlled by Confederates.