A
Brief Overview
The
Conflict
The
conflict between the Northern states, known as the Union, and
the Southern states that seceded from the Union and formed the
Confederacy, is known most commonly as the Civil War. It is
generally known in the South as the War Between the States.
Other names commonly heard are the War of the Rebellion, the
War of Secession, War for Southern Independence, the War of
Brother against Brother and The Recent Unpleasantness. The name
Civil War, although much criticized as inaccurate, is the most
widely accepted.
The
name Civil War is misleading because the war was not a class
struggle, but a sectional combat having its roots in political,
economic, social, and psychological elements so complex that
historians still do not agree on its basic causes to this day.
What is fact is that in 1861 there existed a situation that
had come to be regarded as insoluble by peaceful means.
The
Confederate States of America, also referred to as the CSA or
the Confederacy, was the government which existed between 1861
and 1865 in North America, comprised of states that seceded
from the United States of America. The territory of the C.S.A.
consisted of most of the southeastern portion of today's United
States. Due to claim from the U.S., there was never a definitive
delineation of the Confederate States' northern boundary; its
southern land boundary was with Mexico. It was otherwise bounded
by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.
The
formation of the Confederacy precipitated the American Civil
War in 1861, with the vast majority of combat taking place in
Confederate territory. The Army of Northern Virginia, under
General Robert E. Lee, also made limited forays onto Union soil.
On
February 4, 1861, representatives from the 7 states that had
already seceded from the United States (Alabama, Florida, Georgia,
Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas), met in Montgomery,
Alabama, to form a new republic. On February 8, the convention
announced the establishment of the Confederate States of America
and declared itself the provisional Congress.
The
following day, Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens were unanimously
chosen provisional president and vice president, 2 men who were
moderate enough, it was hoped, to convince the 8 other reluctant
slave states to join the Confederacy. A committee spent the
next 5 weeks composing a national constitution, which was approved
on March 11. The document closely followed the U.S. Constitution,
including its Bill of Rights, with a few notable differences.
Language promoting "the general welfare" was omitted,
while the right to own slaves was explicitly guaranteed, although
foreign slave trade was forbidden.
Hopes
for a nonviolent settlement died after the April 12 attack on
Fort Sumter, and 4 more Southern states - Virginia, North Carolina,
Arkansas, and Tennessee - joined the Confederacy once the war
started. Richmond fell to Union forces on April 2, 1865 and
the Confederate government effectively collapsed. On April 9,1865,
Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General
Ulysses S. Grant, thereby effectively putting an end to the
Confederacy.
The
Confederate government in Richmond, Virginia, assumed control
over the economic, political, and military life of the South.
Eleven states came to constitute the Confederate States of America
as their state legislatures or populace voted to secede from
the United States of America. Two additional states, Kentucky
and Missouri, were admitted to the Confederacy but never formally
seceded from the Union. President Jefferson Davis also proclaimed
the Confederate Territory of Arizona, which included the southern
portions of what are today Arizona and New Mexico.
The
Confederate Post Office Department
The
Confederacy solved the problem of moving mail by creating its
own postal service. The C.S.A. Post Office Department was instituted
on February 21, 1861, and John Henninger Reagan of Texas was
appointed postmaster general two weeks later. On June 1, 1861,
postal service between the warring North and South was suspended.
Reagan
was a masterful executive. Under his supervision, the Department
actually made a profit. This was an incredible achievement,
especially in view of conditions in the wartime South. Even
Union officials were impressed. In 1865, after the war had ended,
Reagan was asked to assume responsibilities in the post-war
U.S. Post Office Department. He declined.
In
1861, the postage rate in the U.S. was three cents per piece.
When mail service between the North and the South ended, the
Confederacy instituted a higher rate, five cents per half ounce
on letters traveling a distance of under five hundred miles.
This five-cent rate was doubled for distances over five hundred
miles. After July 1, 1862, the postage rate was raised to ten
cents for all distances.
A
two-cent rate covered circulars and drop letters. Drop letters
were those which were posted, then placed in a post office or
"charge box"' for pickup. Few people enjoyed the privilege
of street delivery, and citizens almost always fetched their
mail from the post office themselves. Indeed, the vast majority
of Confederate covers are addressed to a person in a city with
no street address noted. Mail was often addressed 'in care of
a third party. If street delivery was available and desired,
an extra charge was added to the regular postage.
Three
printing processes were employed in stamp production during
the nineteenth century: lithography, typography, and engraving.
Among stamp-issuing governments, only the Confederate States
of America, in the four years of its short existence, employed
all three.
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