Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/211

 NLY a broad general view of military operations during the war between the Confederate States of America and the United States of America may be expected in this sketch. The object of the brief story of the great struggle herein told is to simply show the progress of the leading military events which at length determined the fate of the Southern Confederacy. The political aspects of the contention between the great belligerents will receive little notice, it being sufficient to observe that the Confederate States claimed the right to be one of the nations of the earth, and this claim was denied by the United States. Upon this issue war was joined between the two powers, and thereupon foreign nations accorded belligerent rights to both. The details of the struggle have been given by able writers in the various volumes of this general work.

The Confederate government was formed by seven organized States, which, having seceded from the United States by separate action, and thus become each an independent State, proceeded formally, in a congress of delegates, to adopt a constitution for their confederation, under which they proposed to govern themselves. But, previous to this action, each State assumed for itself the sovereign rights and obligations of independent government. All land within any State's boundaries became its own eminent domain; all the population became subject to its jurisdiction; its laws were supreme and its flag was the symbol of sovereignty. Each State thus became a government which must organize its armies and navies