The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States (C.S.), the Confederacy, or the South, was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confederacy comprised eleven U.S. states that declared secession and warred against the United States during the American Civil War. The states were South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.
William L. Yancey, Alabama Fire-Eater, "The Orator of Secession"
William Henry Gist, Governor of South Carolina, called the Secessionist Convention
The inauguration of Jefferson Davis in Montgomery, Alabama
Mississippi was the second southern state to declare its secession from the United States, doing so on January 9, 1861. It joined with six other southern states to form the Confederacy on February 4, 1861. Mississippi's location along the lengthy Mississippi River made it strategically important to both the Union and the Confederacy; dozens of battles were fought in the state as armies repeatedly clashed near key towns and transportation nodes.
Memorial "commemorating the service of the 1st and 3rd Mississippi infantry regiments, and all Mississippians of African Descent who participated in the Vicksburg Campaign"