August 1, 1861---Nickajack and the Reublic of Winston, the Kingdom of Jones, and Key West

AUGUST 1, 1861:        

The Confederacy formally claims the Arizona/New Mexico Territory in the face of not inconsiderable local Unionist resistance in the thinly-settled region. They establish a capital at Mesilla, and use the Territory as a base for raids into Colorado Territory and Southern California. Fears that Los Angeles may secede from the Union are rekindled.

In the confused days of 1861, western Virginia and eastern Tennessee were not the only areas of individual States to secede. Unionists in northern Alabama repudiated the secession of their State. Winston County, Alabama declared itself the Republic of Winston, allied with the United States. Jones County, Alabama was known as the “Kingdom of Jones,” and it was death for any Rebel to go there. Large swaths of western North Carolina provided troops for the Union. Later in the war, an alliance of western North Carolinians, eastern Tennesseans and northern Alabamians declared themselves a Union rump State, Nickajack. These rump States tended to fail, primarily due to their remoteness from the Union. Only western Virginia, bordering Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio managed to maintain itself.

Other areas of individual States passed secession ordinances and anti-secession ordinances. New York City, with major Southern business interests, almost went out of the Union as a “Free City.” New Orleans almost followed suit, and the Confederate government had to arrest the leaders of the Free City movement to keep their largest city in their country. The hamlet of Town Line, in western New York State seceded from the Union. To this day, no one knows why.

Key West, Florida, garrisoned by Union troops, was the southernmost city in the United States in 1861, requiring literally that a visitor had to “go north to go south.” Although the town had a significant number of Confederate sympathizers, the local Unionists kept the city in U.S. hands. In a quintessential Key West solution, the Confederates agreed not to fight the Unionists if the Unionists agreed to ignore the Confederates’ business interests---which included blockade-running, arms-dealing with the British in the Bahamas, smuggling of illicit items neither Abraham Lincoln nor Jefferson Davis would countenance, recruitment of Caribbean and Latino mercenaries mainly for the C.S.A. Navy, and espionage. Since everyone in town was making a handsome profit off these war-related activities, both sides agreed to live and let live.