The 296 delegates to Georgia's secession convention assembled in the state capital of Milledgeville, with former governor George W. Crawford in the chair.  By January 19, 1861, a ordinance of secession had been written and voted on in a final vote of  208 to 89. An attempt from A.H. Stephens, Hershel V. Johnson, and others to postpone action failed and Georgia was proclaimed officially to have left the Union.  (By John Osborne)

The one hundred delegates elected to Alabama's secession convention assembled in Montgomery, the state capital. They received the same day advice the entire congressional delegation telegraphed from Washington, to secede immediately.  An ordinance of secession was ready on January 10, 1861, and the following day passed sixty-one to thirty-nine.  Alabama added itself to the list of newly independent states. (By John Osborne) 

The newly elected governor of South Carolina had returned the previous year from a term as President Buchanan's ambassador to Russia.  Pickens calculated that the U.S. Treasury owed him a balance of $3000 on his federal service.  Washington paid up but someone in the department astutely drafted the payment on the Charleston Sub-Treasury which the newly independent South Carolina had seized, along with its cash, a few weeks before.  (By John Osborne)  

The the sixty-nine delegates elected to the Florida state convention to consider secession had assembled in the capital city of Tallahassee a week earlier. The gathering produced an ordinance of secession and passed it by a vote of sixty-two to seven the previous day.  The formal Ordinance of Secession was signed on this day on the east steps of the capitol and Florida became the third state to declare its independence. (By John Osborne)

The the sixty-nine delegates elected to the Florida state convention to consider secession had assembled in the capital city of Tallahassee a week earlier.  The gathering produced an ordinance of secession and passed it by a vote of sixty-two to seven on this day.  The ordinance was signed the following day, January 11, 1861, and Florida became the third state to declare its independence from the United States. (By John Osborne)

The the sixty-nine delegates elected to the Florida state convention to consider secession assembled in the capital city of Tallahassee.  A week later the gathering had produced an ordinance of secession and passed it by a vote of sixty-two to seven.  The ordinance was signed the next day, January 11, 1861, and Florida became the third state to declare its independence from the United States. (By John Osborne)