Confederate States of America: Difference between revisions

Confederate States of America

(3rd Flag of the Confederacy) (Confederate Seal)
Motto: Deo Vindice (Latin: With God As Our Vindicator)
Anthem: God Save the South (unofficial) Dixie (popular) The Bonnie Blue Flag (popular)
Capital	Montgomery, Alabama (February 4, 1861–May 29, 1861) Richmond, Virginia (May 29, 1861–April 2, 1865) Danville, Virginia (April 3–April 10, 1865)
Largest city	New Orleans (February 4, 1861–May 1, 1862) (captured) Richmond (May 1, 1862–surrender)
Official language	English de facto nationwide French and Native American languages regionally
Government President Vice President	Federal republic Jefferson Davis (D) Alexander Stephens (D)
Area  - Total  - % water	(excl. MO & KY) 1,995,392 km² 5.7%
Population  - 1860 Census  - Density	(excl. MO & KY) 9,103,332 (including 3,521,110 slaves)
Independence   - Declared   - Recognized   - Dissolution	see Civil War none 1865
Currency	CSA dollar (only notes issued)

The Confederate States of America (also referred to as the Confederacy, Confederate States, and CSA) was the government formed by eleven southern states of the USA between 1861 and 1865. These eleven states seceded from the United States and formed thier own country.

The United States of America ("The Union") held that secession was illegal (although the Constitution of the United States clearly stated that any state had the right to withdraw from the Union if it felt its government had failed them), and refused to recognize the Confederacy or negotiate with it. The American Civil War broke out when Confederate batteries fired on the United States Army's Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, in April 1861. Few European powers officially recognized the CSA but British commercial interests sold it warships and operated blockade runners to help supply it. All but two major battles took place in Confederate territory, as the CSA military was slowly overwhelmed by the much larger Union forces and choked by a naval blockade. When Robert E. Lee and the other Confederate generals surrendered their armies in the spring of 1865, the CSA collapsed and a difficult process of Reconstruction re-united the nation.

Seven states seceded by March 1861:

• South Carolina (December 20 1860),
• Mississippi (January 9 1861),
• Florida (January 10 1861),
• Alabama (January 11 1861),
• Georgia (January 19 1861),
• Louisiana (January 26 1861),
• Texas (February 1 1861).

After Lincoln called for troops four more states seceded:

• Virginia (April 17 1861),^[1]
• Arkansas (May 6 1861),
• Tennessee (May 7 1861).^[2]
• North Carolina (May 20 1861)

Pro-Secession Factions in two states formed Confederate governments and seceded, though these states were also claimed by Union governments:

• Missouri (October 31 1861 by the Neosho Legislature)
• Kentucky (November 20, 1861 by the Russellville Convention)

Following Abraham Lincoln's election as President of the United States in 1860 on a platform that opposed the extension of slavery, seven slave southern states chose to secede from the United States and declared that the Confederate States of America was formed on February 4, 1861. Jefferson Davis was selected as its first President on February 9 and inaugurated on February 18.

In what later came to be known as the Cornerstone Speech C.S. Vice President Alexander Stephens, declared that the “cornerstone” of the new government "rest[ed] upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth."[1] By contrast, Confederate President Jefferson Davis made no explicit reference to slavery at all in his inaugural address[2]. However, in addition to the legal ordinances of secession adopted by each of the seceding states, the Deep South states of South Carolina[3], Mississippi[4], Georgia[5], and Texas[6] all issued declarations of causes, each of which identified the threat to slavery and slaveholders’ rights as a major cause of secession.

Texas joined the Confederate States of America on March 2 and then replaced its governor, Sam Houston, when he refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederate States of America. These seven states seceded¹ from the United States and took control of military/naval installations, ports, and custom houses within their boundaries, triggering the American Civil War.

A month after the Confederate States of America was formed, on March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President of the United States. In his inaugural address, he argued that the Constitution was a more perfect union than the earlier Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, that it was a binding contract, and called the secession "legally void". The legal issue of whether or not the Constitution was a binding contract has rarely been addressed by academics, and to this day is a hotly debated concept. He stated he had no intent to invade Southern states, but would use force to maintain possession of federal property and collection of various federal taxes, duties and imposts. His speech closed with a plea for restoration of the bonds of union.

On April 12, Confederate troops, following orders from the Secretary of War, fired upon the federal troops occupying Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, forcing their surrender. Following the Battle of Fort Sumter, Lincoln called for all remaining states in the Union to send troops to recapture Sumter and other forts, defend the capital (Washington, D.C.), and preserve the Union. Most Northerners believed that a quick victory for the Union would crush the rebellion, and so Lincoln only called for volunteers for 90 days of duty. Lincoln's call for troops resulted in four more states voting to secede. Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina joined the Confederacy for a total of 11. Once Virginia joined the Confederate States, the Confederate capital was moved from Montgomery, Alabama to Richmond, Virginia.

Kentucky was a border state during the American Civil War and, for a time, had two state governments, one supporting the Confederacy and one supporting the Union. The original government of Kentucky remained in the Union after a short-lived attempt at neutrality, but a rival faction from that state was accepted as a member of the Confederate States of America. A more complex situation surrounds the Missouri Secession, but, in any event, Missouri was also considered a member of the Confederate States of America. With Kentucky and Missouri, the number of Confederate states is thus sometimes considered to be 13.

The five tribal governments of the Indian Territory—which became Oklahoma in 1907—also mainly supported the Confederacy.

Citizens at Mesilla and Tucson in the southern part of New Mexico Territory formed a secession convention and voted to join the Confederacy on March 16, 1861 and appointed Lewis Owings as the new territorial Governor. In July, Mesilla appealed to Confederate troops in El Paso, Texas under Lt. Col. John Baylor for help in removing the Union army under Maj. Isaac Lynde that was stationed nearby. The Confederates under Baylor defeated Lynde at the Battle of Mesilla on July 27th. After the battle Baylor established a territorial government for the Confederate Arizona Territory and named himself Governor. In 1862 a New Mexico Campaign was launched under General Sibley to take the northern half of New Mexico. Confederates briefly occupied the territorial capital of Santa Fe but, defeated at Glorietta Pass in March, the Confederates retreated and never returned.

The northernmost slave states (Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia) were contested territory but the Union won control by 1862. In 1861, martial law was declared in Maryland (the state which borders the U.S. capital, Washington, D.C., on three sides) to block attempts at secession. Delaware, also a slave state, never considered secession, nor did the capital of the U.S., Washington, D.C.. Interestingly, "At the start of the Civil War, New Jersey citizens owned 18 "apprentices for life" (the federal census listed them as "slaves") -- legal slaves by any name." [7]

In 1861, during the war, a unionist legislature in Wheeling, Virginia seceded from Virginia, claiming 48 counties, and joined the United States in 1863 as the state of West Virginia, with a constitution that would have gradually abolished slavery.

Attempts to secede from the Confederate States of America by some counties eastern Tennessee were held in check by Confederate declarations of martial law[8][9]. Another eastern Tennessee county, Franklin County, Tennessee, briefly seceded from Tennessee and aligned itself with Alabama on February 24, 1861 when it appeared that Tennessee would not be joining the Confederacy. The county rejoined Tennessee on June 24, 1861 when the rest of Tennessee seceded.[10]

The surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia by General Lee at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865 is generally taken as the end of the Confederate States. President Davis was captured at Irwinville, Georgia on May 10 and the remaining Confederate armies surrendered by June 1865. The last Confederate flag was hauled down, on CSS Shenandoah on November 6, 1865.

The Confederate States Constitution provides much insight into the motivations for secession from the Union. While much of it was a word-for-word duplicate of the United States Constitution, it reflected a stronger philosophy of states' rights, curtailing the power of the central authority, and also contained explicit protection of the institution of slavery, though international slave trading was prohibited. The Confederate government was prohibited from instituting protective tariffs. The Confederate government was also prohibited from using revenues collected in one state for funding internal improvements in another state. The Confederates asked God's blessing ("invoking the favor of Almighty God.")

At the drafting of the Constitution of the Confederate States of America, a few radical proposals such as allowing only slave states to join and the reinstatement of the Atlantic slave trade were turned down. The Constitution specifically did not include a provision allowing states to secede, since the southerners considered this to be a right intrinsic to a sovereign state which the United States Constitution had not required them to renounce, and thus including it as such would have weakened their original argument for secession.^{[citation needed]}

The President of the Confederate States of America was to be elected to a six-year term and could not be reelected. The only president was Jefferson Davis; the Confederate States of America was defeated by the federal government before he completed his term. One unique power granted to the Confederate president was the ability to subject a bill to a line item veto, a power held by some state governors. The Confederate Congress could overturn either the general or the line item vetoes with the same two thirds majorities that are required in the US Congress.

Printed currency in the forms of bills and stamps was authorized and put into circulation, although by the individual states in the Confederacy's name. The government considered issuing Confederate coinage. Plans, dies and 4 "proofs" were created, but a lack of bullion prevented any public coinage.

Although the preamble refers to "each State acting in its sovereign and independent character", it also refers to the formation of a "permanent federal government". Also, although slavery was protected in the constitution, it also prohibited the importation of new slaves from outside the Confederate States of America (except from slaveholding states or territories of the United States).

The Confederacy actively used the military to arrest people suspected of loyalty to the United States. They arrested at about the same rate as the U.S.A. did. Neely found 2,700 names of men arrested and estimated the full list was much longer. Neely concludes, "The Confederate citizen was not any freer than the Union citizen--and perhaps no less likely to be arrested by military authorities. In fact, the Confederate citizen may have been in some ways less free than his Northern counterpart. For example, freedom to travel within the Confederate states was severely limited by a domestic passport system." [Neely 11, 16]

The capital of the Confederate States of America was Montgomery, Alabama from February 4 1861 until May 29 1861. Richmond, Virginia was named the new capital on May 6 1861. Shortly before the end of the war, the Confederate government evacuated Richmond, planning to relocate further south. Little came of these plans before Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House. Danville, Virginia served as the last capital of the Confederate States of America, from April 3 to April 10 1865.

During its existence, the Confederate government conducted negotiations with several European powers. James M. Mason was sent to London as Confederate minister to Queen Victoria, and John Slidell to Paris as minister to Napoleon III, and although both were able to obtain private meetings with high British and French officials, they failed entirely to secure official recognition for the Confederacy, in large part because of the British and French desire to avoid war with the United States. Britain nearly went to war with the United States during the Trent Affair (which had seen Mason and Slidell seized from a British liner by an American warship on their way to London from the Bahamas), and began preparations to offer mediation along with France. Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert helped calm the situation and prevent a war.

One recorded diplomatic event involved Ernst Raven a citizen of Texas who was appointed before the war as a consul of Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in Texas. Confederate Secretary of State Judah Benjamin reported to the Confederate Congress that "Ernst Raven, esq.,...was appointed consul for the State of Texas by his highness the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and who applied to this government for an exequatur on the 30th of July 1861"[11] Historian Eugene Berwanger claims that the appointment did not convey diplomatic recognition to the Confederacy, though his only cited source is Benjamin's report, which makes no mention of the recognition issue.[12] It is believed by no historian but only by a couple amateurs that the appointment constituted de facto recognition. The Confederacy never claimed any recognition by any country.

Throughout the early years of the war, both British foreign secretary Lord Russell and Napoleon III, and, to a lesser extent, the British prime minister Lord Palmerston, were interested in the idea of recognition of the Confederacy, or at least of offering a mediation. Other figures in both governments, and particularly a strong anti-slavery faction in Palmerston's ministry, were much less sympathetic to the idea. Recognition was considered following the Second Battle of Manassas when the British government were preparing to mediate in the conflict, but the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam and Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, combined with internal opposition, caused the governments to back away.

In November 1863 Confederate diplomat A. Dudley Mann met Pope Pius IX and received a letter addressed "to the Illustrious and Honorable Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America.” Mann, in his dispatch to Richmond, interpreted the letter as "a positive recognition of our Government" and some have viewed it as a de facto recognition of the C.S.A. Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin, however, interpreted it as "a mere inferential recognition, unconnected with political action or the regular establishment of diplomatic relations" and thus did not assign it the weight of formal recognition.[13] For the remainder of the war confederate diplomats continued meeting with Cardinal Antonelli, the Vatican Secretary of State. In 1864 Catholic Bishop Patrick N. Lynch of Charleston travelled to the Vatican with an authorization from Jefferson Davis to represent the Confederacy before the Holy See.

Throughout the war, most European powers adopted a policy of neutrality, meeting informally with Confederate diplomats but withholding diplomatic recognition. In its place, they applied international law principles that recognized the Union and Confederate sides as belligerents. Canada allowed both Confederate and Union agents to work openly within its borders and some state governments in northern Mexico negotiated regional agreements to cover trade on the Texas border.

For the four years of its existence, the Confederate States of America asserted its independence and appointed dozens of diplomatic agents abroad. The United States government, by contrast, asserted that the southern states were provinces in rebellion and refused any formal recognition of their status. Thus the U.S. Secretary of State William Seward issued formal instructions to Charles Francis Adams, the new minister to Great Britain:

You will indulge in no expressions of harshness or disrespect, or even impatience concerning the seceding States, their agents, or their people. But you will, on the contrary, all the while remember that those States are now, as they always heretofore have been, and, notwithstanding their temporary self-delusion, they must always continue to be, equal and honored members of this Federal Union, and that their citizens throughout all political misunderstandings and alienations, still are and always must be our kindred and countrymen."^[3]

However, if the British seem inclined to recognize the Confederacy, or even waver in that regard, they were to be sharply warned --with a strong hint of war:

[if Britain is] tolerating the application of the so-called seceding States, or wavering about it, you will not leave them to suppose for a moment that they can grant that application and remain friends with the United States. You may even assure them promptly, in that case, that if they determine to recognize, they may at the same time prepare to enter into alliance with the enemies of this republic."^[4]

The Confederate Congress responded to the hostilities by formally declaring war on the United States in May 1861--calling it "The War between the Confederate States of America and the United States of America." The Union government never declared war but conducted its war efforts under a proclamation of blockade and rebellion by President Lincoln. Mid-war negotiations between the two sides occurred without formal political recognition, though the laws of war governed military relationships.

Four years after the war, in 1869, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Texas v. White that secession was unconstitutional and legally null. The court's opinion was authored by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, the former Treasury Secretary under Lincoln, and attacked by ex-Confederates. Jefferson Davis, former president of the Confederacy, and Alexander Stephens, its former vice-president, both penned arguments in favor of secession's legality, most notably Davis' The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government.

The official flag of the Confederate States of America, and the one actually called the "Stars and Bars", has seven stars, for the seven states that initially formed the Confederacy. This flag was sometimes hard to distinguish from the Union flag under battle conditions, so the Confederate battle flag, the "Southern Cross", became the one more commonly used in military operations. The Southern Cross has 13 stars, adding the four states that joined the Confederacy after Fort Sumter, and the two divided states of Kentucky and Missouri.

As a result of its depiction in 20th century popular media, the "Southern Cross" is a flag commonly associated with the Confederacy today. The actual "Southern Cross" is a square-shaped flag, but the more commonly seen rectangular flag is actually the flag of the First Tennessee Army, also known as the Naval Jack because it was first used by the Confederate Navy.

The legislative branch of the Confederate States of America was the Confederate Congress. Like the United States Congress, the Confederate Congress consisted of two houses: the Confederate Senate, whose membership included two senators from each state (and chosen by the state legislature), and the Confederate House of Representatives, with members popularly elected by residents of the individual states. Speakers of the Provisional Congress

• Robert Woodward Barnwell of South Carolina - February 4 1861
• Howell Cobb, Sr. of Georgia - February 4 1861-February 17 1862
• Thomas Stanhope Bocock of Virginia - February 18, 1862-March 18, 1865

Presidents pro tempore

• Howell Cobb, Sr. of Georgia
• Robert Woodward Barnwell of South Carolina
• Josiah Abigail Patterson Campbell of Mississippi
• Thomas Stanhope Bocock of Virginia

Tribal Representatives to Confederate Congress

• Elias Cornelius Boudinot 1862-65 - Cherokee
• Burton Allen Holder 1864-1865 Chickasaw
• Robert McDonald Jones 1863-65 - Choctaw

• Provisional Confederate Congress
• First Confederate Congress
• Second Confederate Congress

A Judicial branch of the government was outlined in the C.S. Constitution but the would-be "Supreme Court of the Confederate States" was never created or seated because of the ongoing war.[14] Some Confederate district courts were, however, established within some of the individual states of the Confederate States of America; namely, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia (and possibly others). At the end of the war, U.S. district courts resumed jurisdiction.[15]

The state and local courts generally continued to operate as they had been, simply recognizing the CSA, rather than the USA, as the national government.[16]

Supreme Court - not established

District Court

• Asa Biggs 1861-1865
• John White Brockenbrough 1861
• Alexander Mosby Clayton 1861
• Jesse J. Finley 1861-1862

The Confederate States of America had a total of 2,919 miles (4,698 kilometers) of coastline. A large portion of its territory lay on the sea coast, and with level and sandy ground. The interior portions were hilly and mountainous and the far western territories were deserts. The lower reaches of the Mississippi River bisected the country, with the western half often referred to as the Trans-Mississippi. The highest point (excluding Arizona and New Mexico) was Guadalupe Peak in Texas at 8,750 feet (2,667 meters).

Most of the area of the Confederate States of America had a humid subtropical climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. The climate varied to semiarid steppe and arid desert west of longitude 96 degrees west. The subtropical climate made winters mild but allowed infectious diseases to flourish. They killed more soldiers than did combat.

In peacetime the vast system of navigable rivers was a major advantage, allowing for cheap and easy transportation of farm products. The railroad system was built as a supplement, tying plantation areas to the nearest river or seaport. The vast geography made for difficult Union logistics and large numbers of soldiers to garrison captured areas and protect rail lines. But the Union navy seized most of the navigable rivers by 1862, making its logistics easy and Confederate movements very difficult. After the fall of Vicksburg in July 1863, it became impossible for units to cross the Mississippi as Union gunboats constantly patrolled. The South thus lost use of its western regions.

The rail network was built for short hauls, not the long-distance movement of soldiers or goods, which was to be its role in the war. Some idea of the severe internal logistics problems the Confederacy faced can be seen by tracing Jefferson Davis's journey from Mississippi to neighboring Alabama when he was chosen president in early 1861. From his plantation on the river he took a steamboat down the Mississippi to Vicksburg, boarded a train to Jackson, where he took another train north to Grand Junction, Tennessee, then a third train east to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and a fourth train south to Atlanta, Georgia. Yet another train took Davis south to the Alabama border, where a final train took him west to Montgomery, his temporary national capital. As the war proceeded the Federals seized the Mississippi, burned trestles and railroad bridges, and tore up track; the frail Confederate railroad system faltered and virtually collapsed for want of repairs and replacement parts. In May 1861 the Confederate government abandoned Montgomery before the sickly season began, and relocated in Richmond, Virginia.

The Confederate States of America was overwhelmingly rural. Small towns of more than 1000 were few--the typical county seat had a population of less than 500 people. Cities were rare. Only New Orleans was in the list of top 10 largest U.S. cities in the 1860 census, and it was captured in 1862. Only 13 Confederate cities ranked among the top 100 US cities in 1860, most of them ports whose economic activities were shut down by the Union blockade. The population of Richmond swelled after it became the national capital, reaching an estimated 128,000 in 1864 (Dabney 1990:182). Other large southern cities (Baltimore, St. Louis, Louisville, as well as Wheeling, West Virginia and Alexandria, Virginia) were never under the control of the Confederate States.

The Confederacy had an agrarian-based economy that relied heavily on slave-run plantations with exports to a world market of cotton, and to a lesser extent tobacco and sugar cane. Local food production included grains, hogs, cattle, and gardens. The 11 states produced only $155 million in manufactured goods in 1860, chiefly from local grist mills, together with lumber, processed tobacco, cotton goods and naval stores such as turpentine. The CSA adopted a low tariff of 15%, but imposed them on all imports from the United States.[17] The tariff mattered little; the Confederacy's ports were shut to all commercial traffic by the Union blockade, and very few people paid taxes on goods smuggled from the U.S. The government collected only about $3.5 million in tariff revenue from the start to late 1864. The lack of adequate financial resources led the Confederacy to finance the war through printing money, which in turn led to high inflation.

The military armed forces of the Confederacy comprised the following three branches:

• Confederate States Army
• Confederate States Navy
• Confederate States Marine Corps

The Confederate military leadership included many veterans from the United States Army and U.S. Navy who had resigned their Federal commissions and had been appointed to senior positions in the Confederate armed forces. Many had served in the Mexican War (such as Jefferson Davis), but others had little or no military experience (such as Leonidas Polk, who attended West Point but did not graduate.) The Confederate officer corps was composed in part of young men from slave-owning families, but many came from non-owners. The Confederacy appointed junior and field grade officers by election from the enlisted ranks. Although no Army service academy was established for the Confederacy, many colleges of the south (such as the The Citadel and Virginia Military Institute) maintained cadet corps that were seen as a training ground for Confederate military leadership. A naval academy was established in 1863, but no midshipmen had graduated by the time the Confederacy collapsed.

The rank and file of the Confederate armed forces consisted of white males with an average age between 16 and 28. The Confederacy adopted conscription in 1862, but opposition was widespread. Depleted by casualties and desertions, the military suffered chronic manpower shortages. Towards the end of the Civil War, boys as young as 12 were fighting in combat roles and the Confederacy began an all-black regiment with measures underway to offer freedom to slaves who voluntarily served in the Confederate military.

Military leaders of the Confederacy (with their state of birth and highest rank^[5]) included:

• Robert E. Lee (Virginia) - General and General-in-Chief (1865)
• Albert Sidney Johnston (Kentucky) - General
• Joseph E. Johnston (Virginia) - General
• Braxton Bragg (North Carolina) - General
• P.G.T. Beauregard (Louisiana) - General
• Richard Stoddert Ewell (Virginia) - Lieutenant General
• Samuel Cooper (New Jersey) - General (Adjutant General and highest ranking general in the Army); not in combat
• James Longstreet (South Carolina) - Lieutenant General
• Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson (Virginia) - Lieutenant General
• John Hunt Morgan (Kentucky) - Brigadier General
• A.P. Hill (Virginia) - Lieutenant General
• John Bell Hood (Texas) - Lieutenant General
• Wade Hampton III (South Carolina) - Lieutenant General
• Nathan Bedford Forrest (Tennessee) - Lieutenant General
• J.E.B. Stuart (Virginia) - Major General
• Edward Porter Alexander (Georgia) - Brigadier General
• Franklin Buchanan (Maryland) - Admiral
• Raphael Semmes (Maryland) - Rear Admiral
• Josiah Tattnall (Georgia) - Commodore
• Stand Watie (Indian Territory, now Oklahoma) - Brigadier General (last to surrender)
• Leonidas Polk (North Carolina) - Lieutenant General
• Jubal Anderson Early (Virginia) - Lieutenant General
• Richard Taylor (Kentucky) - Lieutenant General (Son of US-President Zachary Taylor)

• Golden Circle (Slavery)
• Origins of the American Civil War
• Southern United States
• History of the Southern United States
• Flags of the Confederate States of America
• Seal of the Confederate States of America
• Confederate States of America dollar
• Military history of the Confederate States
• Stamps and postal history of the Confederate States

• Eicher, John H., & Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.

• Current, Richard N., ed. Encyclopedia of the Confederacy (4 vol), 1993. 1900 pages, articles by scholars.
• Faust, Patricia L. ed, Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War, 1986.
• Heidler, David S., et al. Encyclopedia of the American Civil War : A Political, Social, and Military History, 2002. 2400 pages (ISBN 0-393-04758-X)
• Steven E. Woodworth, ed. The American Civil War: A Handbook of Literature and Research, 1996. 750 pages of historiography and bibliography

• Ball, Douglas B. Financial Failure and Confederate Defeat, 1991.
• Black, Robert C., III. The Railroads of the Confederacy, 1988.
• Clinton, Catherine, and Silber, Nina, eds. Divided Houses: Gender and the Civil War, 1992.
• Dabney, Virginius. Richmond: The Story of a City. Charlottsville: The University of Virginia Press, 1990. ISBN 0-8139-1274-1.
• Faust, Drew Gilpin. Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War, 1996.
• Faust, Drew Gilpin. The Creation of Confederate Nationalism: Ideology and Identity in the Civil War South, 1988.
• Grimsley, Mark. The Hard Hand of War: Union Military Policy toward Southern Civilians, 1861-1865, 1995.
• Lentz, Perry Carlton. Our Missing Epic: A Study in the Novels about the American Civil War, 1970.
• Massey, Mary Elizabeth. Bonnet Brigades: American Women and the Civil War, 1966.
• Massey, Mary Elizabeth. Ersatz in the Confederacy, 1952.
• Massey, Mary Elizabeth. Refugee Life in the Confederacy, 1964.
• Rable, George C. Civil Wars: Women and the Crisis of Southern Nationalism, 1989.
• Ramsdell, Charles. Behind the Lines in the Southern Confederacy, 1994.
• Roark, James L. Masters without Slaves: Southern Planters in the Civil War and Reconstruction, 1977.
• Rubin, Anne Sarah. A Shattered Nation: The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy, 1861-1868, 2005. A cultural study of Confederates' self images.
• Sellers, James L. "The Economic Incidence of the Civil War in the South." Mississippi Valley Historical Review 14 (1927):179-191. in JSTOR
• Thomas, Emory M. The Confederacy as a Revolutionary Experience, 1992.
• Wallenstein, Peter. "Rich Man's War, Rich Man's Fight: Civil War and the Transformation of Public Finance in Georgia." Journal of Southern History 50 (1984):15-43. in JSTOR
• Wiley, Bell Irwin. Confederate Women, 1975.
• Wiley, Bell Irwin. The Plain People of the Confederacy, 1944.
• Woodwar, C. Vann, ed. Mary Chesnut's Civil War, 1981.

• Alexander, Thomas B., and Beringer, Richard E. The Anatomy of the Confederate Congress: A Study of the Influences of Member Characteristics on Legislative Voting Behavior, 1861-1865, 1972.
• Boritt, Gabor S., et al, Why the Confederacy Lost, 1992.
• Cooper, William J, Jefferson Davis, American, 2000. Standard biography.
• Coulter, E. Merton. The Confederate States of America, 1861-1865, 1950.
• William C. Davis (2003). Look Away! A History of the Confederate States of America. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0-684-86585-8.
• Eaton, Clement. A History of the Southern Confederacy, 1954.
• Eckenrode, H. J., Jefferson Davis: President of the South, 1923.
• Gallgher, Gary W., The Confederate War, 1999.
• Neely, Mark E., Jr., Confederate Bastille: Jefferson Davis and Civil Liberties, 1993.
• Rembert, W. Patrick. Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet, 1944.
• Rable, George C., The Confederate Republic: A Revolution against Politics, 1994.
• Roland, Charles P. The Confederacy, 1960. brief
• Thomas, Emory M. Confederate Nation: 1861-1865, 1979. Standard political-economic-social history
• Wakelyn, Jon L. Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy Greenwood Press ISBN 0-8371-6124-X
• Williams, William M. Justice in Grey: A History of the Judicial System of the Confederate States of America, 1941.
• Yearns, Wilfred Buck. The Confederate Congress, 1960.

• Davis, Jefferson, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (2 vols), 1881.
• Harwell, Richard B., The Confederate Reader (1957)
• Jones, John B. A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, edited by Howard Swiggert, [1935] 1993. 2 vols.
• Richardson, James D., ed. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Confederacy, Including the Diplomatic Correspondence 1861-1865, 2 volumes, 1906.
• Yearns, W. Buck and Barret, John G.,eds. North Carolina Civil War Documentary, 1980.
• Confederate official government documents major online collection of complete texts in HTML format, from U. of North Carolina

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Confederate States of America.

• Confederate offices Index of Politicians by Office Held or Sought
• Civil War Research & Discussion Group - Fields Of Conflict - Containing 1000+ Links And 350+ Articles.
• An Act to Prohibit the Importation of Luxuries, or of Articles not Necessary or of Common Use, 1864, a Confederate Congress document
• Confederate States of Am. Army and Navy Uniforms, 1861
• The Countryman, 1862-1866, published weekly by Turnwold, Ga., edited by J.A. Turner
• The Federal and the Confederate Constitution Compared
• The Making of the Confederate Constitution, by A. L. Hull, 1905.
• Photographic History of the Civil War, 10 vols., 1912.
• Preventing Diplomatic Recognition of the Confederacy
• DocSouth: Documenting the American South - numerous online text, image, and audio collections.
• Confederate States of America: Heads of State: 1861-1865
• The Geographical Reader for the Dixie Children - a Confederacy textbook written in 1863.

all data sets are in Historical Statistics of the United States: Millennial Edition Online (2006) available in academic libraries.

• Chapter Eh - Confederate States of America
• Population of the slave states, by state, race, and slave status: 1860-1870 [PDF 52Kb] Series Eh1-7
• Farms, farm implements, livestock, and home manufactures in the slave states, by state: 1860-1870 [PDF 53Kb] Series Eh8-23
• Selected crop outputs of the slave states, by state: 1860-1870 [PDF 52Kb] Series Eh24-39
• Manufacturing in the slave states-establishments, capital invested, product value, and employment, by state: 1860-1870 [PDF 51Kb] Series Eh40-49
• Taxable property in the Confederacy, by state: 1861 [PDF 49Kb] Series Eh50-58
• Confederate blockade running-ships engaged, ships lost, and successful runs, by vessel type and port: 1861-1865 [PDF 56Kb] Series Eh59-94
• Quantity and price of cotton imported into the United Kingdom: 1855-1875 [PDF 53Kb] Series Eh95-102
• European cotton imports, by country of origin: 1860-1875 [PDF 47Kb] Series Eh103-110
• Money and Prices, Series Eh111-193 doi:10.1017/ISBN-9780511132971.Eh111-193
• Confederate money stock: 1860-1862 [Godfrey, nine states] [PDF 53Kb] Series Eh111-117
• Confederate money stock: 1860-1865 [Godfrey, seven states] [PDF 62Kb] Series Eh118-124
• Confederate money stock: 1861-1864 [Lerner] [PDF 50Kb] Series Eh125-127
• Prices and wage indexes for the eastern Confederacy: 1861-1865 [PDF 71Kb] Series Eh128-130
• Monthly index of Richmond wholesale commodity prices: 1861-1865 [PDF 56Kb] Series Eh131
• Wholesale commodity price indexes in Richmond, the eastern Confederacy, New York, and San Francisco: 1861-1865 [PDF 50Kb] Series Eh132-135
• Monthly wholesale price quotations for selected commodities in Richmond: 1856-1865 [PDF 54Kb] Series Eh136-165
• Monthly commodity price indexes for the Confederate states: 1861-1865 [PDF 66Kb] Series Eh166-193
• Government Finances, Series Eh194-228 doi:10.1017/ISBN-9780511132971.Eh194-228
• Confederate government revenues and expenditures: 1861-1864 [PDF 61Kb] Series Eh194-215
• Bond yields on domestic loans in the Confederacy: 1862-1864 [PDF 51Kb] Series Eh216-220
• Weekly prices of Confederate cotton bonds and sterling bonds in Amsterdam: 1863-1865 [PDF 58Kb] Series Eh221-222
• Gold prices in the Confederacy: 1861-1865 [PDF 69Kb] Series Eh223-228