Confederate States of America

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BALTIMORE, MD - AUGUST 16: People gather at the site where a statue dedicated to Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson stood August 16, 2017 in Baltimore, Maryland. The City of Baltimore removed four statues celebrating confederate heroes from city

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Confederate States of America

historical nation, North America

Also known as: C.S.A., Confederacy

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Mar 9, 2024 • Article History

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Category: History & Society

Also called:: Confederacy

Date:: 1860 - 1865

Major Events:: American Civil War; Lost Cause; Battle of Gettysburg; Second Battle of Bull Run; Battle of Antietam

Key People:: Robert E. Lee; Jefferson Davis; Nathan Bedford Forrest; Stonewall Jackson; Albert Sidney Johnston

Related Topics:: slavery; Balloon Corps; Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park; secession; flag of the Confederate States of America

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Recent News

Mar. 6, 2024, 1:00 AM ET (Yahoo Movies UK)

Portraits of former Confederate leaders removed from Capitol

Mar. 5, 2024, 12:32 AM ET (Yahoo Movies Canada)

US court won't reopen lawsuit about Confederate-themed flag

Confederate States of America, in the American Civil War, the government of 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union in 1860–61, carrying on all the affairs of a separate government and conducting a major war until defeated in the spring of 1865. In the decades prior to 1860 there had been developing a steadily increasing bitterness between the Northern and Southern sections of the United States. These disputes gave rise to a fundamental disagreement about the rights of individual states and sparked diverging views about the meaning of important parts of the Constitution. While many economic, social, and political ...(100 of 6201 words)

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