The Civil War, the greatest conflict to occur on American soil, took place from 1861 to 1865 because of the secession of the southern states of the Union. Though these southern states did form a confederacy that gave battle for four years, all of the states did not all choose to dissolve their bonds with the Union at the same time nor did they depart with the same fervor. In fact there are two collections of states that can be grouped together based upon both their zeal for leaving the Union and upon the point in time in which they departed. The first group is the Lower South states that were comprised of: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. They seceded directly after the South Carolina convention that followed Abraham Lincoln's election to the Presidency of the United States of America and their states voted tremendously for secession. These states felt as if the election of President Lincoln signaled the death knell of slavery, which was a cornerstone of their way of life. It took the other group of states until even after the first shots of the Civil War were fired to secede from the Union. These states: North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Arkansas seceded only after Lincoln's call for troops forced them to choose between secession and fighting against their sister states of the Lower South. These states did not feel that North was threatening their way of life as much as those of the Lower South did, and that the economic and political effect of a break with the Union would outweigh the benefits of secession. In light of the Upper South's attitude, it is plausible that Civil War might have been avoided with the Upper and Lower South had Lincoln not issued his call for 75,000 militiamen. .
As touched on above secession in the South came in two different waves, first the states of the Lower South and then those of the Upper South. Each wave was caused by different factors and because of different attitudes among each states" population.