| Battles of the American Civil War by Theater, | | | | government. On April 12, Confederate soldiers |
| YearLincoln's victory in the presidential | | | | fired upon the Federal troops stationed at |
| election of 1860 triggered South Carolina's | | | | Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, |
| secession from the Union. By February 1861, | | | | until the troops surrendered. Lincoln called |
| six more Southern states had seceded. On | | | | for all of the states in the Union to send |
| February 7, the seven states adopted a | | | | troops to recapture the forts and preserve |
| provisional constitution for the Confederate | | | | the Union. Most Northerners hoped that a |
| States of America and established their | | | | quick victory for the Union would crush the |
| capital at Montgomery, Alabama. The pre-war | | | | nascent rebellion, and so Lincoln only called |
| February peace conference of 1861 met in | | | | for volunteers for 90 days. Four states, |
| Washington, as one last attempt to avoid war; | | | | Tennessee, Arkansas, North Carolina, and-most |
| it failed. The remaining southern states as | | | | importantly, Virginia-which had repeatedly |
| yet remained in the Union. Confederate forces | | | | rejected Confederate overtures now decided |
| seized all but three federal forts within | | | | that they could not send forces against the |
| their boundaries (they did not take Fort | | | | seceding states. They seceded and to reward |
| Sumter); President Buchanan made no military | | | | Virginia the Confederate capital was moved to |
| response, but governors in Massachusetts, New | | | | Richmond, Virginia, a highly vulnerable |
| York and Pennsylvania began secretly buying | | | | location at the end of the supply line. Even |
| weapons and training militia units to ready | | | | though the Southern states had seceded, there |
| them for immediate action. On March 4, 1861, | | | | was considerable anti-secessionist sentiment |
| Abraham Lincoln was sworn in. In his | | | | in certain scattered localities in the |
| inaugural address, he argued that the | | | | seceding states. Eastern Tennessee, in |
| Constitution was a more perfect union than | | | | particular, was a hotbed for pro-Unionism. |
| the earlier Articles of Confederation and | | | | Winston County, Alabama issued a resolution |
| Perpetual Union, that it was a binding | | | | of secession from the state of Alabama. The |
| contract, and called the secession "legally | | | | Red Strings were a prominent Southern |
| void". He stated he had no intent to invade | | | | anti-secession group. Winfield Scott, the |
| southern states, but would use force to | | | | commanding general of the U.S. Army, devised |
| maintain possession of federal property. His | | | | the Anaconda Plan to win the war with as |
| speech closed with a plea for restoration of | | | | little bloodshed as possible. His idea was |
| the bonds of union. The South did send | | | | that a Union blockade of the seacoast would |
| delegations to Washington and offered to pay | | | | strangle the rebel economy, then capture of |
| for the federal properties, but they were | | | | the Mississippi would split the South. |
| turned down. Lincoln refused to negotiate | | | | Lincoln adopted the plan but overruled |
| with any Confederate agents because he | | | | Scott's warnings against an immediate attack |
| insisted the Confederacy was not a legitimate | | | | on Richmond. |