Timeline - 1861

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February 1861 - Six deep south states have joined South Carolina in secession







March 4, 1861 - Stars & Bars of the South's first flag wave over Montgomery, Alabama, on the same day as Abraham Lincoln's inaguration. The more familiar southern cross - the thirteen starred square confederate battle flag - formed the canton of the second national flag, against a field of white.





April 12, 1861 - Confederate forces seize Fort Sumter, South Carolina. The Civil War has begun.

April 19, 1861 - President Lincoln proclaims a blockade of Southern ports.

Virginia secedes from the Union.



May 1861 - Arkansas and North Carolina secede.








June 1, 1861 - Tennessee votes 104,913 to 47,238 for secession.

It is the last state to join the Confederacy.







July 1861 - The slaveholding Choctaw Indian nation signs a treaty with the Confederacy.

"There is Jackson, standing there like a brick wall! " General Barnard Bee's rallying cry stiffenes the wavering ranks of the Confederate army at the first battle of Bull Run and wins Thomas Jackson a lasting nickname.


August 30, 1861 - General John C. Fremont says his army will free slaves in Missouri who are owned by rebels.
Lincoln countermands the order.







September 1861 - A Confederate army is defeated near Cheat Mountain.

Western Virginia stays in the Union.















November 1861 - A 12,000 man Union amphibious force seizes forts at Port Royal Sound in South Carolina.

Neutral Kentucky, invaded by a Confederate army, proclaimes itself for the Union.