Day by Day Journal, Page 2, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi Secession

"Hear of the secession of Ala. Florida + Miss.—Disturbances at Charleston S.C."

Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi were three of seven states that seceded in late December 1860 and January of 1861. Since South Carolina’s secession on December 20, 1860, the United States had been attempting to bring supplies to Fort Sumter, a fort still manned by US troops within South Carolina’s borders. This fort would ultimately become the site of the first shots of the Civil War in April of 1861, but on January 9, a civilian, merchant ship Star of the West was fired upon by cadets of The Citadel, the military institute in Charleston, while trying to bring supplies to the fort.