When did Confederate States of America exist?

Confederate States of America existed 1861–1865. On this map they are drawn 1861–1865.

How large were Confederate States of America?

At their greatest extent drawn on this map, Confederate States of America covered about 1.7 million km². That is the largest area the border data gives them across the years they are drawn, not necessarily their greatest extent in history.

North America · Breakaway states and civil war

Confederate States of America

1861–1865

See it on the map → Wikipedia ↗

Existed: 1861–1865
Shown on the map: 1861–1865
Peak area: 1.7M km²
Region: North America

Overview

The Confederate States of America (CSA) was the breakaway republic formed by eleven Southern slave states that seceded from the United States, precipitating the American Civil War — the deadliest conflict in U.S. history. Secession began after the 1860 election of the anti-slavery-expansion Republican Abraham Lincoln: South Carolina left first (December 1860), followed by six Deep South states that formed the Confederacy at Montgomery, Alabama, in February 1861; four more (including Virginia) joined after the war began. The capital was moved to Richmond, Virginia. Jefferson Davis was its only president, and Alexander Stephens its vice president, whose "Cornerstone Speech" candidly declared that the Confederacy rested on the principle of white supremacy and slavery — the conflict's fundamental cause.

History

The war began when Confederate forces fired on the federal Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor on 12 April 1861. The Confederacy fielded formidable armies — above all the Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee — and won early victories, but faced the Union's overwhelming advantages in population, industry, and naval power (which blockaded Southern ports). The turning points came in July 1863 with the near-simultaneous Union victories at Gettysburg (halting Lee's second invasion of the North) and Vicksburg (splitting the Confederacy along the Mississippi). Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation (1863) reframed the war as a struggle against slavery and enabled the enlistment of Black troops.

Decline and legacy

The Confederacy collapsed in 1865: Sherman's March devastated Georgia and the Carolinas, Richmond fell, and Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on 9 April 1865, effectively ending the war. Roughly 620,000–750,000 soldiers died. The Union victory preserved the nation and abolished slavery via the 13th Amendment; the CSA dissolved and the South entered the era of Reconstruction. The Confederacy's memory remains among the most contested in American history, tied to enduring debates over slavery, states' rights, memorialization, and racial injustice.

Common questions

What were Confederate States of America?: The Confederate States of America (CSA) was the breakaway republic formed by eleven Southern slave states that seceded from the United States, precipitating the American Civil War — the deadliest conflict in U.S. history.
When did Confederate States of America exist?: Confederate States of America existed 1861–1865. On this map they are drawn 1861–1865.
How large were Confederate States of America?: At their greatest extent drawn on this map, Confederate States of America covered about 1.7 million km². That is the largest area the border data gives them across the years they are drawn, not necessarily their greatest extent in history.
Who ruled Confederate States of America?: The war began when Confederate forces fired on the federal Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor on 12 April 1861. The Confederacy fielded formidable armies — above all the Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee — and won early victories, but faced the Union's overwhelming advantages in population, industry, and naval power (which blockaded Southern ports).
How did Confederate States of America end?: The Confederacy collapsed in 1865: Sherman's March devastated Georgia and the Carolinas, Richmond fell, and Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on 9 April 1865, effectively ending the war. Roughly 620,000–750,000 soldiers died.

Sources

This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory, and states that it was written from established reference works with targeted checks on current facts, rather than from a fresh multi-source research pass. It names the English Wikipedia article for each polity and its key figures as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, the US National Park Service and the World History Encyclopedia. The article this entry is anchored on:

Wikipedia — Confederate States of America en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_States_of_America

This entry was last updated 12 September 2026.

This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made

Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.

Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).

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