CONTENTS
I. THE SECESSION MOVEMENT
II. THE DAVIS GOVERNMENT
III. THE FALL OF KING COTTON
IV. THE REACTION AGAINST RICHMOND
V. THE CRITICAL YEAR
VI. LIFE IN THE CONFEDERACY
VII. THE TURNING OF THE TIDE
VIII. A GAME OF CHANCE
IX. DESPERATE REMEDIES
X. DISINTEGRATION
XI. AN ATTEMPTED REVOLUTION
XII. THE LAST WORD
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
THE DAY OF THE CONFEDERACY
Chapter I. The Secession Movement
The secession movement had three distinct stages. The first, beginning
with the news that Lincoln was elected, closed with the news, sent
broadcast over the South from Charleston, that Federal troops had taken
possession of Fort Sumter on the night of the 28th of December. During
this period the likelihood of secession was the topic of discussion
in the lower South. What to do in case the lower South seceded was the
question which perplexed the upper South. In this period no State
north of South Carolina contemplated taking the initiative. In the
Southeastern and Gulf States immediate action of some sort was expected.
Whether it would be secession or some other new course was not certain
on the day of Lincoln's election. Various States earlier in the year had
provided for conventions of their people in the event of a Republican
victory. The first to assemble was the convention of South Carolina,
which organized at Columbia, on December 17, 1860. Two weeks earlier
Congress had met. Northerners and Southerners had at once joined issue
on their relation in the Union. The House had appointed its committee
of thirty-three to consider the condition of the country. So unpromising
indeed from the Southern point of view had been the early discussions
of this committee that a conference of Southern members of Congress
had sent out their famous address To Our Constituents: "The argument is
exhausted. All hope of relief in the Union... is extinguished, and we
trust the South will not be deceived by appearances or the pretense
of new guarantees. In our judgment the Republicans are resolute in the
purpose to grant nothing that will or ought to satisfy the South. We
are satisfied the honor, safety, and independence of the Southern people
require the organization of a Southern Confederacy--a result to be
obtained only by separate state secession." Among the signers of this
address were the two statesmen who had in native talent no superiors
at Washington--Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana and Jefferson Davis of
Mississippi.
