Map of the Confederate States of America (1861)
(Image property of Hans K. Kirsch.)

     The table below lists the fifteen states and territories that became part of the Confederacy, along with their dates of secession ordinance passage and admission into the Confederate States of America. Each state name is hyperlinked to a transcription of their specific secession document. Many of these pages include corresponding lists of the convention delegates, vote counts, and images of period state flags and symbols.

"Stripped of all its covering, the naked question is, whether ours is a federal or a consolidated government; a constitutional or an absolute one; a government resting ultimately on the solid basis of the sovereignty of the States or on an unrestrained will of the majority; a form of government, as in all other unlimited ones, in which injustice, and violence and force must prevail."
- John Caldwell Calhoun, Fort Hill Address (26 July 1831)

Secession of the Confederate States and Territories
(State names listed in the first column below are hyperlinked to
secession document transcriptions and other related information.)

STATE

SECESSION ORDINANCE PASSAGE

ADMITTED TO THE CONFEDERACY

ALABAMA

State Convention in Montgomery
(11 January 1861)

Confederate States Convention in Montgomery
(04 February 1861)

ARIZONA TERRITORY

Mesilla Convention
(16 March 1861)

Ratified in Tucson
(23 March 1861)

Confederate Military Proclamation
(01 August 1861)

Congressional Bill Passed*
*(Pending Presidential signature and Proclamation.)
(13 January 1862)

President Davis signs bill
(18 January 1862)

Presidential Proclamation
(14 February 1862)

ARKANSAS

State Convention in Little Rock
(06 May 1861)

Provisional Confederate Congress
(Session II)
(18 May 1861)

FLORIDA

State Convention in Tallahassee
(10 January 1861)

Confederate States Convention in Montgomery
(04 February 1861)

GEORGIA

State Convention in Milledgeville
(19 January 1861)

Confederate States Convention in Montgomery
(04 February 1861)

INDIAN TERRITORY

Resolutions of the Choctaw Nation
(07 February 1861)

North Fork Articles of Confederation
(Between the Chickasaw, Choctaw,
Muscogee (Creek), & Seminole.)
(01 July 1861)

Declaration of Causes of the Cherokee Nation
(28 October 1861)

Bureau of Indian Affairs Established
(16 March 1861)

KENTUCKY

Convention of the People of Kentucky in Russellville
(20 November 1861)

Provisional Confederate Congress
(Session V)
(10 December 1862)

LOUISIANA

State Convention in Baton Rouge
(26 January 1861)

Confederate States Convention in Montgomery
(04 February 1861)

MISSISSIPPI

State Convention in Jackson
(09 January 1861)

Confederate States Convention in Montgomery
(04 February 1861)

MISSOURI

Pro-Southern Legislative Convention in Neosho
(31 October 1861)

Provisional Confederate Congress
(Session III)
(19 August 1861)

NORTH CAROLINA

State Convention in Raleigh
(20 May 1861)

Provisional Confederate Congress
(Session II)
(16 May 1861)*
*(Contingent on Secession Ordinance passage.)

SOUTH CAROLINA

State Convention in Charleston
(20 December 1860)

Confederate States Convention in Montgomery
(04 February 1861)

TENNESSEE

Legislative Convention in Nashville
(06 May 1861)

Voter Referendum
(08 June 1861)

Provisional Confederate Congress
(Session II)
(16 May 1861)*
*(Contingent on referendum vote.)

TEXAS

State Convention in Austin
(01 February 1861)

Voter Referendum
(23 February 1861)

Declared in effect
(02 March 1861)

Provisional Confederate Congress
(Session I)
(02 March 1861)

VIRGINIA

State Convention in Richmond
(17 April 1861)

Voter Referendum
(23 May 1861)

Provisional Confederate Congress
(Session II)
(07 May 1861)*
*(Contingent on referendum vote.)