Author:   Frederic Pearce Date:1861 Annotation: Many Northerners felt confident of a quick victory. In 1861, the Union states had 22.5 million people, compared to just 9 million in the Confederate states (including 3.7 million slaves). Not only did the Union have more manpower, it also had a larger navy, a more developed railroad system,…

Author:   Robert E. Lee Date:1861 Annotation: Lincoln was convinced that the Confederate states had seceded from the Union for the sole purpose of maintaining slavery. Like President Jackson before him, he considered the Union to be permanent, an agreement by the people and not just of the states. Further, he strongly agreed with the…

Date:1861 Annotation: Upon learning of Lincoln’s plan, Jefferson Davis ordered General Pierre G.T. Beauregard (1818-1893) to force Fort Sumter’s surrender before the supply mission could arrive. At 4:30 a.m. April 12, Confederate guns began firing on Fort Sumter. Thirty-three hours later, the installation surrendered. Incredibly, there were no fatalities on their side. Ironically, the only…

Date:1861 Annotation: The Secession Convention spelled out the reasons why Texas should leave the Union. Beginning with South Carolina in December 1860, a month after Abraham Lincoln’s election, six states in the deep South seceded from the Union. Even before South Carolina left the Union, prominent Texans called for a convention to consider secession. But…

Author:   Julia Ward Howe Date:1861 Annotation: This is the text of The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Julia Ward Howe wrote this original version of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” in 1861. This well-known Civil War song has become an American patriotic anthem. Some of the words in later versions were rewritten: The…

Date:1861 Document: Georgia The people of Georgia having dissolved their political connection with the Government of the United States of America, present to their confederates and the world the causes which have led to the separation. For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States…

Date:1861 Document: Mississippi A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union. In the momentous step which our State has taken of dissolving its connection with the government of which we so long formed a part, it is but just that we should…

Date:1861 Annotation: The seceded states drafted the following ordinances of secession that severed their connection with the Federal Union in an attempt to preserve state rights and their different cultures. Document: The Secession Acts of the 13 Confederate States. South Carolina An Ordinance to dissolve the union between the State of South Carolina and other…

Date:1860 Document: South Carolina Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union The people of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, on the 26th day of April, A.D., 1852, declared that the frequent violations of the Constitution of the United States, by the…

Author:   John Crittenden Date:1860 Annotation: The Crittenden Compromise, written by Kentucky Senator John Crittenden, was seen as a desperate attempt to resolve the secession crisis of 1860-61 by political negotiation. The Compromise addressed the concerns that led the states of the Lower South to contemplate secession. The Compromise contained a preamble, six (proposed) constitutional…