The U.S.S. Michigan During the War Between the States 1861 - 1865

Abstract

On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln of Illinois was elected President of the United States after one of the most heated elections in our nation’s history. Relations between the northern and southern states had been at the flashpoint for some time and Lincoln’s election prompted South Carolina to call for a convention to discuss secession. The state seceded from the Union shortly after on December 20. By January of 1861, five more Southern states followed suit, and by mid February the seceded states established their own government and elected their first and only President, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi. With the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter that April in Charleston, South Carolina, the spark was struck that set off the powder keg of what would become one of the bloodiest wars in American history.