Download Secession and Fort Sumter

Secession
What
should we
do????
We
Out!!
• Once Lincoln won
the Presidency,
South Carolina
secedes from the
Union
• Mississippi’s
governor then
calls the
legislature into a
special session to
decide what to
do.
Special Session Ballot
Secede
Not secede
• Most of Mississippi’s
delegates now favored
secession
• *** In the early 1850s
they were totally for
staying in the Union but
now…… things are very
different
• 84 of the 99 delegates
voted for secession
• **** Secede= to leave
Union States
Buffer States
States that seceded after the fall of Fort Sumter
States that seceded before the fall of Fort
Sumter
• Mississippi was the second state to secede from the Union
• Followed by Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas
• Sent representatives to Montgomery Alabama and formed the
Confederate States of America
• The Confederacy
• Jefferson Davis (from Mississippi) was elected to be the president
• The Confederacy
vowed to protect their
way of life by
preserving slavery and
granting individual
states states’ rights.
• The first capital of the
Confederacy was in
Montgomery Alabama
Think about this
• Prior to 1860, we were one nation with one
military
• Now we are two nations with two militaries
• What about all those U.S. military posts?
What if they were in Confederate territory???
• Fort Sumter was in this predicament!!!!
Behind Enemy Lines!!!!
Fort Sumter
• Once South Carolina seceded from the Union
they told the U.S. troops to leave their state
– They didn’t:
• American troops are now surrounded by
Confederate militia
– They seek shelter inside Fort Sumter, which had
been abandoned… lack of supplies and food
– To get supplies to them American soldiers must
pass through Confederate lands!
• The first effort to get supplies to the troops was
the steamship the Star of the West,
Confederate forces fire upon the ship the ship is
forced to turn around
• South Carolina troops demands that the U.S.
troops surrender Fort Sumter
• They refuse!!
– More southern states are meeting to decide on
secession!
– Lincoln decides to send another relief effort to
Fort Sumter
• South Carolina forces demand an
evacuation of Fort Sumter or a forced
bombardment of the fort
–Evacuate on a certain day without the
use of guns
• General Anderson (US general in charge
of Fort Sumter) complies to an
evacuation but does not promise to use
guns!
• Relief efforts are starting to show up too!
After Fort Sumter
• Four more states seceded from the Union
– Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas
• They were working on secession conventions when Fort
Sumter crisis began
• The Civil War has now begun in 1861!!!!