On December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the United States of America. Within two months, six additional states seceded and the Confederate States of American had been established. North Carolina was not among the first to seceded. Like many states in the upper South, lower Midwest, and lower New England, North Carolina considered itself in a middle ground between the extreme positions in the North and South. However, this moderate position would be challenged in the spring of 1861.
Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor fell to Southern guns on April 12 as the first shots of the Civil War were fired. A week later President Lincoln declared a Federal blockade of Southern ports from South Carolina to Texas and issued a Proclamation calling for the dedication of troops to fight the insurrection. North Carolina Governor John W. Ellis immediately refused and the state shifted from its tenuous neutrality.