Government of the 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union in 1860 - 61 until its defeat in the http://www.answers.com/topic/american-civil-war in 1865. In the months following http://www.answers.com/topic/abraham-lincoln\'s election as president in 1860, seven states of the Deep South (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas) seceded. After the attack on http://www.answers.com/topic/fort-sumter-national-monument-geognam-in-encyclopedia in April 1861, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia joined them. The government was directed by http://www.answers.com/topic/jefferson-davis as president, with http://www.answers.com/topic/alexander-stephens as vice president. Its principal goals were the preservation of http://www.answers.com/topic/states-rights and the institution of http://www.answers.com/topic/slavery. The government's main concern was raising and maintaining an army. It counted on the influence of http://www.answers.com/topic/king-cotton to exert financial and diplomatic pressure on the Union from sympathetic European governments. Battlefield victories for the South in 1861 - 62 gave the Confederacy the moral strength to continue fighting, but from 1863 dwindling finances and battlefield reverses increasingly led to demoralization. The surrender at http://www.answers.com/topic/appomattox-court-house-north-america by Gen. http://www.answers.com/topic/robert-e-lee precipitated its dissolution.
For more information on Confederate States of America, visit Britannica.com.