Confederate States of America

The  was a short-lived nation on the North American continent of the planet Earth. It was made up of states, beginning with South Carolina, that had declared themselves separate, or seceded, from the United States of America.

It existed from 1861 to 1865, during which time it was wholly concerned with establishing its legitimacy through a war with the United States. Its capital was Richmond, Virginia and its president was Jefferson Davis. Since it lost the war, it did not persist past April 1865, when its leading general, R. E. Lee, signed a document of surrender at the command of the Union general, U. S. Grant.

Known states of the Confederacy included Virginia, South Carolina and Alabama — although there were likely more.

Following the war, the former states of the Confederacy were re-absorbed into the United States of America — although Abraham Lincoln's government, judging from his final public speech, did not consider that they had ever, technically, seceded:

"We all agree that the seceded States, so called, are out of their proper relation with the Union . . . Let us all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper practical relations between these States and the Union; and each forever after, innocently indulge his opinion whether, in doing the acts, he brought the States from without, into the Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never having been out of it."

- Lincoln, 11th April 1865 (TN: Blood and Hope)