Virginia

​Content: With the election of Abraham Lincoln, it seemed that the die was cast. The South would leave the United States and seek a future in a southern Confederacy. Yet, breaking the bonds of Union proved strangely difficult for many, particularly in the upper South. In early February 1861, several states met in Montgomery, Alabama to craft a new nation, but only seven slave states showed up, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida and Texas. Over the next several weeks it seemed possible to develop a strategy to keep the remaining seven from joining their fellow slave states in disunion.