The Decision That Decided the Outcome of the Civil War:
Fort Sumter Falls, Mr. Lincoln Asks for a New Army, and Seven States Think About Leaving the Union
Tuesday, May 23
6:30PM
Without a doubt, the most consequential decision of the Civil War era occurred in the aftermath of President Lincoln’s April 1861 call for 75,000 volunteers, when seven states that until then had remained loyal (Ark, KY, MD, MO, NC, TN, and VA) decided anew whether to leave the Union. In the end, four states joined the Confederacy, but Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri remained with the Union. The tale of how things got to that state and how those individual states decided is a tale of larger than life characters, high stakes, drama, and political skullduggery. This talk will tell that tale and discuss the consequences if a few states had decided differently.

The presenter, Leon Reed is a retired Senate aide and US History teacher. He has written an overview of the start of the Civil War, “No Greater Calamity for the Country: North-South Conflict, Secession, and the Onset of Civil War,” and is working on a book about the immediate aftermath of the Fall of Fort Sumter.

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