On Election Day, Republican Abraham Lincoln won the presidency without carrying most Southern states. Many slaveholding leaders viewed his victory as a threat to the future expansion and security of slavery, and they began pushing for immediate withdrawal from the United States. This election result set the secession crisis into motion.
A South Carolina convention voted unanimously to leave the Union and issued an ordinance declaring that the existing union with the United States was dissolved. South Carolina’s action provided a model that other Deep South states soon followed. It also raised immediate questions about federal property—especially forts—in Charleston Harbor.
U.S. Army Major Robert Anderson moved his troops from Fort Moultrie to the more defensible Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. The move was meant to reduce the risk of being overrun on land, but it increased tensions with South Carolina authorities who claimed the fort. Fort Sumter then became a central flashpoint of the crisis.
Mississippi’s secession convention voted to withdraw from the Union, becoming the second state to do so. In its public justification, Mississippi leaders tied secession closely to protecting slavery. The decision added momentum to a widening break between sections.
The unarmed federal supply ship Star of the West was fired upon while attempting to enter Charleston Harbor to resupply Fort Sumter. The ship turned back, and Fort Sumter was not reinforced. The incident showed how quickly the political crisis could turn into armed conflict.
Delegates meeting in Tallahassee voted for secession and adopted Florida’s Ordinance of Secession. Florida’s withdrawal strengthened the bloc of Deep South states moving toward a separate government. It also increased the stakes for federal forts and coastal defenses in the region.
Alabama’s convention adopted an ordinance of secession, continuing the rapid sequence of Deep South departures. As more states left, the crisis shifted from whether secession would spread to how the United States government would respond. Montgomery, Alabama soon became the meeting place for organizing a new confederation.
Georgia’s convention adopted an ordinance of secession, formally taking the state out of the Union. Georgia was large and influential in the South, and its decision further consolidated the secession movement. This made the creation of a multi-state breakaway government more practical.
Louisiana’s secession convention voted to leave the Union. Control of the lower Mississippi River and the port of New Orleans made Louisiana strategically important, so secession also had major economic and military implications. Together with other Deep South states, Louisiana moved quickly toward forming a new national government.
Texas’s secession convention adopted an Ordinance of Secession and paired it with a Declaration of Causes. Texas planned a statewide popular vote to approve the ordinance, and it soon aligned with the emerging Confederate government. With Texas, the first wave of seven seceded states was complete.
Delegates from seceded Deep South states met in Montgomery, Alabama to create a unified political structure. Their goal was to coordinate secession into an organized nation with shared laws and institutions. This convention was the key step from separate state actions to a single confederation.
The Montgomery delegates adopted a provisional constitution to serve as the new government’s basic legal framework. This document created national institutions quickly so the breakaway states could act together in diplomacy, finance, and defense. It marked the formal organization of the Confederate States of America’s initial government.
The Montgomery convention elected Jefferson Davis as the provisional president of the Confederacy. Choosing a well-known national politician and former U.S. senator helped the new government claim legitimacy and coordinate the seceded states. Davis’s election also signaled that compromise was becoming less likely.
Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as provisional president in Montgomery, putting the new government into operation. With a president, constitution, and capital, the Confederacy presented itself as a functioning nation rather than a temporary coalition. This closing step of the crisis period set the stage for the later showdown over federal forts and the start of war.
Secession Crisis and Formation of the Confederacy (November 1860–February 1861)