Wednesday January 9, 1861

Mississippi Secedes

On the same day as the Star of the West was repulsed by South Carolina's batteries at Charleston, Mississippi became the second state to secede when a state convention voted overwhelmingly, 84-15 to leave the Union. An ordinance of secession was signed by ninety-eight of the convention's one hundred members.

The Mississippi convention, like that of South Carolina, had been called by the governor and legislature shortly after Lincoln's election. The convention met in the state capital, Jackson.

Bibliography: Thomas, Confederate Nation, pp. 47-48; Randall and Donald, Civil War, 138-39.