The call for and elections to Secessionist conventions grew among the Deep South states as the time neared for Lincoln’s inaugural, March 4, 1861.  Following South Carolina, Mississippi (January 9, 1861), Florida (January 10, 1861), Alabama (January 11, 1861), Louisiana (January 26, 1861), and Texas (February 1, 1861) seceded. Earlier, in December 1860, a U. S. House of Representatives Committee of Thirty-Three (one member from each state in the Union) was created to try and find areas on which a compromise could be built to save the Union.   John Crittenden of Kentucky advanced a compromise of six proposed constitutional amendments…

Our Winter Meeting will kickoff our Civil War Sesquicentennial observation activities.  We begin with an excellent speaker, Dr. Bill Mulligan, Professor of History at Murray State University (MSU) and 2009 Fulbright Scholar in History at University College Cork, Ireland.  His topic will be “The Civil War in Western Kentucky and West Tennessee, 1860-1863″. Attendees will be allowed to ask questions of Dr. Mulligan at the conclusion of his presentation. Dr. Mulligan has been teaching at MSU since 1993 and has performed extensive research on the Civil War in western Kentucky.  He has written several works about the Civil War period. …