Mississippi in the American Civil War
Mississippi was the second southern U.S. state to declare its secession from the Union on January 9, 1861. With its Secession Ordinance, Mississippi joined with six other southern slave-holding states to form the Confederacy a month later, on February 4, 1861. Mississippi's location along the lengthy Mississippi River made it strategically important to both the Union and the Confederacy; dozens of battles were fought in the state as armies repeatedly clashed near key towns and cities.Mississippian troops fought in every major theater of the American Civil War, although most were concentrated in the Western Theater. The only Confederate president, Jefferson Davis, though born in Kentucky, spent his formative years in Mississippi. Prominent Mississippian generals during the war included William Barksdale, Carnot Posey, Wirt Adams, Earl Van Dorn, Robert Lowry and Benjamin G. Humphreys.